The list of vice presidents has included some
remarkable individuals. Fifteen of the former vice
presidents became president of the United States—more than
half of them after a president had died. One defeated the
sitting president with whom he served. One killed a man
and became a fugitive. One joined the Confederate army and
led an invasion of Washington, D.C. One was the wealthiest
banker of his era. Three received the Nobel Peace Prize and
one composed a popular melody. One served as a corporal in
the Coast Guard while vice president. One had cities in
Oregon and Texas named after him. Two resigned from the
office. Two were never elected by the people. One was the
target of a failed assassination plot. Another was mobbed in
his car while on a goodwill mission. Seven died in office—one
in his room in the U.S. Capitol and two fatally stricken
while on their way to preside over the Senate.
As is apparent from such examples, the individuals who have served
as vice president of the United States have varied greatly in
their talents and aptitude for the post. What they generally
have in common is political ambition and experience in
public office. Most hoped the position would prove a
stepping stone to the presidency, but some—older and near the
close of their careers—simply hoped that it would offer a
quiet refuge from the pressures and turmoil of political
life.
The stories of these diverse individuals illustrate
the development of the office of the vice presidency.
Constitutional Origins & Structural Changes
Electoral System
Our Constitution's framers created the vice
presidency almost as an afterthought. In setting up a system
for electing presidents, they devised an electoral college
and provided that each of its members was to vote for two
persons, "of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of
the same State with themselves." In those days when loyalty
to one's state was stronger than to the new nation, the
framers recognized that individual electors might be
inclined to choose a leader from their own immediate
political circle, creating the danger of a crippling
deadlock, as no one candidate would win a plurality of all
votes cast. By being required to select one candidate from
outside their own states, electors would be compelled to
look for individuals of national stature. Under the system
the framers created, the candidate receiving the most
electoral votes would be president. The one coming in second
would be vice president.
In the election of 1800, however, the constitutional
system for electing presidents broke down, as both Thomas Jefferson
and Aaron Burr received the same number of electoral votes.
This impasse threw the contest into the House of
Representatives, where for 35 separate ballots, neither
candidate was able to gain a majority. When the stalemate
was finally broken, the House elected Jefferson president,
thus making Burr our third vice president. Within four
years of this deadlocked election, Congress had passed, and
the necessary number of states had ratified, the Twelfth
Amendment to the Constitution, instituting the present
system wherein electors cast separate ballots for president
and for vice president.
Presidential Succession
Although the office of vice president did not exist under
the Continental Congresses or the Articles of Confederation,
the concept of a concurrently elected successor to the
executive was not without precedent for the framers of the
Constitution in 1787. Prior to the Revolution, lieutenant
governors presided over the governors' councils of the royal
colonies—which, in their legislative capacities, functioned
as upper houses. The first vice president, John Adams, was certainly familiar with this
arrangement, since the lieutenant governor presided over the
upper house in his own state of Massachusetts. After the
states declared their independence, they adopted new
constitutions, retaining, in some instances, earlier forms
recast to meet current needs. As Alexander Hamilton noted in
The Federalist
No. 68, New York's 1777 constitution provided for "a
Lieutenant Governor chosen by the people at large, who
presides in the senate, and is the constitutional substitute
for the Governor in casualties similar to those, which would
authorise the vice president to exercise the authorities and
discharge the duties of the president." The U.S.
Constitution established the office of vice president
primarily to provide a successor in the event of the
president's death, disability, or resignation.
The document, however, was vague about the way that
presidential succession would work, stating only that, in
cases of presidential death or disability, the "Powers and
Duties of the said Office…shall devolve on the Vice
President" (Article II, section 1). What did "devolve" mean?
Would the vice president become acting president until
another was chosen, or would he or she become president in his or her own
right? A half century would pass before the nation would
have to address that murky constitutional language. Although
the Constitution's framers left their intentions about
presidential succession shrouded in ambiguity, they left no
doubt about vice-presidential succession. There was to be
none. "[I]n the absence of the Vice President, or when he
shall exercise the Office of the President of the United
States" the Senate would simply choose a president pro
tempore.
The framers' failure to provide a method for filling
a vice-presidential vacancy continued to plague the nation.
In 1792 Congress made a first stab at addressing the problem
by adopting the Presidential Succession Act, providing that,
if a president should die when there was no vice president,
the Senate president pro tempore and the Speaker of the
House of Representatives, in that order, would succeed to
the office. In 1886, responding to a concern that few
presidents pro tempore had executive branch experience,
Congress altered the line of succession to substitute for
the congressional officials cabinet officers in order of
rank, starting with the secretary of state. In 1947, after
the vice presidency had been vacant for most of a
presidential term, Congress again changed the line of
succession. Concerned that cabinet officers had not been
elected, it named the House Speaker as the first official to
succeed if a president died during a vacancy in the vice
presidency, followed by the president pro tempore.
Finally, after the death of President John F. Kennedy
in 1963 and the resulting vice-presidential vacancy,
Congress debated a constitutional amendment related to the
structure of the vice presidency. In 1967 the Twenty-fifth
Amendment, addressing presidential vacancy and disability,
became part of our Constitution. The absence of any
provision for filling a vice-presidential vacancy had become
intolerable in the modern era. Added impetus for the change
came from a growing public concern at the time about the
advanced ages of President pro tempore Carl Hayden, who was
80, and House Speaker John W. McCormack, who was 76. The
amendment states that the president may appoint a vice
president to fill a vacancy in that office, subject to
approval by both houses of Congress. Before a decade had
passed, the provision was used twice, first in 1973 when
President Richard M. Nixon appointed Gerald R. Ford to
replace Spiro Agnew, who had resigned, and again in 1974,
with the appointment of Nelson Rockefeller after Nixon
himself resigned and Ford became president. The amendment
also sets forth very specifically the steps that would
permit the vice president to serve as acting president if a
president becomes "unable to discharge the powers and duties
of his office." Each of these changes further reflected the
increased importance of the office.
Vice-Presidential Duties
The framers also devoted scant attention to vice-presidential duties,
providing only that the vice president "shall be
President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they
be evenly divided" (Article I, section 3). In practice, the
number of times vice presidents have exercised this right
has varied greatly. John C. Calhoun holds the record at 31
votes, followed closely by John Adams with 29. While vice presidents have cast their
votes chiefly on legislative issues, they have also broken
ties on the election of Senate officers, as well as on the
appointment of committees in 1881 when the parties were
evenly represented in the Senate.
The vice president's other constitutionally mandated
duty is to receive from the states the tally of electoral
ballots cast for president and vice president and to open
the certificates "in the Presence of the Senate and House of
Representatives," so that the total votes can be counted
(Article II, section 1). Only a few happy vice
presidents—John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Van Buren,
and George H. W. Bush—had the pleasure of announcing their
own election as president. Many more were chagrined to
announce the choice of a rival candidate for the office.
Several framers ultimately refused to sign the
Constitution, in part because they viewed the vice
president's legislative role as a violation of the
separation of powers doctrine. Elbridge Gerry, who would
later serve as vice president, declared that the framers
"might as well put the President himself as head of the
legislature." Others thought the office unnecessary but
agreed with Connecticut delegate Roger Sherman that "if the
vice-President were not to be President of the Senate, he
would be without employment, and some member [of the Senate,
acting as presiding officer] must be deprived of his vote."
The first two vice presidents, John Adams and Thomas
Jefferson, did much to shape the nature of the office and
set many precedents. During most of the 19th century, the
degree of influence and the role played within the Senate
depended chiefly on the personality and inclinations of the
individual involved. Some had great parliamentary skill and
presided well, while others found the task boring, were
incapable of maintaining order, or chose to spend most of
their time away from Washington, leaving the duty to a
president pro tempore. Some made an effort to preside
fairly, while others used their position to promote the
political agenda of the administration.
During the 20th century, the role of the vice
president has evolved into more of an executive branch
position. Now, the vice president is usually seen as an
integral part of a president's administration and presides
over the Senate only on ceremonial occasions or when a
tie-breaking vote may be needed. Yet, even though the nature
of the job has changed, it is still greatly affected by the
personality and skills of the individual incumbent.
The Individuals
Political Experience
Most of our former vice presidents have brought to
that office significant public service experience, including
as members of Congress or state governors. Some came to
their role as president of the Senate already familiar with
the body, having served as U.S. senators. Several vice
presidents later returned to serve again in the Senate,
among them former president Andrew Johnson. Two vice
presidents, George Clinton and John C. Calhoun, held the
office under two different presidents.
Of the 14 vice presidents who fulfilled their
ambition by achieving the presidency, eight succeeded to the
office on the death of a president, and four of these were
later elected president. Two vice presidents, Hannibal
Hamlin and Henry Wallace, were dropped from the ticket after
their first term, only to see their successors become
president months after taking office, when the assassination
of Abraham Lincoln made Andrew Johnson president and the
death of Franklin D. Roosevelt raised Harry Truman to the
presidency. Similarly, when Spiro Agnew resigned, he was
replaced under the Twenty-fifth Amendment by Gerald R. Ford,
who became president when Richard M. Nixon resigned less
than a year later.
The vice presidency was generally held by men of
mature years, with most of them in their 50s or 60s when
they took office. The youngest, John C. Breckinridge of
Kentucky, was 36 at the beginning of his term. At 72, Alben
Barkley, another Kentuckian, was the oldest when his term
began. Kamala Harris became the first woman elected as vice president in 2020.
The First Two Vice Presidents: Adams and Jefferson
The nation's first vice presidents were men of
extraordinary ability. Both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
gained the office as runners-up in presidential contests,
with the support of those who believed they were amply
qualified to hold the top office. Each recognized, in
assuming this new and as yet loosely defined position, that
his actions would set precedents for future vice presidents.
But one precedent established by Adams and Jefferson would
not be repeated for over three decades; although both men
won election as president immediately following their terms
as vice president, no sitting vice president would repeat
this pattern until 1836, when Martin Van Buren succeeded
Andrew Jackson. The gap thereafter was even longer. More
than 150 years elapsed before George H. W. Bush won the
presidency in 1988 at the conclusion of his eight years as
Ronald Reagan's vice president.
During his two vice-presidential terms, Adams
maintained a cordial relationship with the president, who
sought his advice only occasionally. In the Senate, Adams
played a more active role, particularly during his first
term. On at least one occasion, he persuaded senators to
vote against legislation he opposed, and he frequently
lectured the body on procedural and policy matters. He
supported Washington's policies by casting 29 tie-breaking
votes, a number surpassed by only one other vice president.
Thomas Jefferson, learning in 1797 that he had been elected
vice president, expressed his pleasure at remaining close to
his beloved Monticello. "A more tranquil and unoffending
station could not have been found for me. It will give me
philosophical evenings in the winter [while at the Senate]
and rural days in the summer [at Monticello]." Unlike Adams,
who shared the political beliefs of the president with whom
he served, Jefferson and President Adams belonged to
different political parties. Although two later vice
presidents, George Clinton and John C. Calhoun, joined with
anti-administration forces in their efforts to prevent the
reelection of the presidents with whom they served,
Jefferson's situation would prove to be unique in the
nation's history. No one expected Jefferson to be Adams's
principal assistant. Instead, he devoted his four-year term
to preparing himself for the 1800 presidential election and
to drafting a guidebook on legislative procedure. Jefferson
hoped that his Manual of Parliamentary Practice
would allow him and his successors to preside over the
Senate with fairness, intelligence, and consistency. That
classic guide has retained its usefulness to both the Senate
and the House of Representatives through the intervening two
centuries.
19th-Century Vice Presidents
Adoption of the Twelfth Amendment, together with the
strategy employed by the Republicans in their successful
effort to capture the presidency in 1800—and to retain it for
the next quarter century—proved to have a serious impact on
the overall quality of individuals drawn to the vice
presidency.
Aaron Burr, whose refusal to defer to Jefferson had
precipitated the electoral crisis of 1800, became one of the
most maligned and mistrusted figures of his era and, without
question, the most controversial vice president of the early
republic. He was also a man of extraordinary ability and a
key player in New York politics—a consideration of overriding
importance for Republicans, given the fact that New York's
electoral votes accounted for over 15 percent of the total
needed to achieve an electoral majority.
Burr was the first of a series of vice presidents who
hailed from the northern states, chosen more for their
ability to bring geographical balance to presidential
tickets headed by Virginia Republicans than for their
capacity to serve as president. During the quarter century
that the "Virginia dynasty" presidents (Jefferson, James
Madison, and James Monroe) held sway, the vice presidency
was the province of men widely regarded as party hacks or
men in the twilight of illustrious careers. Much of the
scholarship on the vice presidency makes but passing mention
of these individuals, or focuses on their obvious
shortcomings. But these vice presidents (Burr, George
Clinton, Elbridge Gerry, and Daniel D. Tompkins)—all of them
New Yorkers, with the single exception of Elbridge Gerry, a
Massachusetts man—helped cement the "Virginia-New York"
alliance that enabled the Jeffersonian Republicans to
control the presidency for six consecutive terms. Their ties
to local and state party organizations, which they
maintained during their vice-presidential terms, helped
ensure the continued allegiance of northern Republicans. For
the most part, these vice presidents presided over the
Senate with an easy or indifferent hand, while a series of
presidents pro tempore attended to administrative matters at
the beginning and end of each legislative session.
John C. Calhoun's vice presidency stands in vivid
contrast to the experience of his immediate predecessors. He
accepted the second office, under President John Quincy
Adams, after his 1824 presidential bid failed. A man of
formidable intellect and energy, Calhoun approached his
legislative duties with a gravity, dedication, and concern
for maintaining order not seen since the time of Adams and
Jefferson. A scrupulous guardian of the Senate's written
rules, he disdained its unwritten customs and practices.
After a quarter century of ineffective or incapacitated vice
presidents, the Senate chafed under Calhoun's tutelage and
began a lengthy examination of the role of its presiding
officer. Calhoun also served as President Andrew Jackson’s
first vice president, from 1829 to 1833, but his endorsement
of “nullification” effectively killed his chances of becoming
president. In 1836 his successor and rival, Martin Van
Buren, became the first vice president since Jefferson to
win the presidency.
Richard Mentor Johnson, Martin Van Buren's vice
president, came to the office along a unique path not yet
followed by any subsequent vice president. The Twelfth
Amendment provides that if no vice-presidential candidate
receives a majority, the Senate shall decide between the two
highest vote getters. A controversial figure who had openly
acknowledged his slave mistress and biracial daughters and
devoted himself more to the customers of his tavern than to
his Senate duties, Johnson received one electoral vote less
than the majority needed to win election. The Senate therefore met
on February 8, 1837, and elected Johnson by a vote of 33 to
16.
Johnson's successor, John Tyler, wrote an important
chapter in American presidential and vice-presidential
history in 1841 when William Henry Harrison became the first
president to die in office. Interpreting the Constitution in
a way that might have surprised its framers, Vice President
Tyler refused to consider himself as acting president. What
"devolved" on him at Harrison's death were not the "powers
and duties" of the presidential office, he contended, but
the office itself. Tyler boldly claimed the presidency, its
full $25,000 salary (vice presidents were paid only $5,000),
and all its prerogatives. Congressional leaders and members
of Harrison's cabinet who were inclined to challenge Tyler
eventually set aside their concerns in the face of the
accomplished fact. Nine years later, when Vice President
Millard Fillmore succeeded to the presidency after Zachary
Taylor's death, no serious question was raised about the
propriety of such a move.
During the 19th century, the vice presidency remained
essentially a legislative position. Those who held it rarely
attended cabinet meetings or otherwise involved themselves
in executive branch business. Their usefulness to the
president generally ended with the election. While those who
had served in Congress might offer helpful political
information and connections to a presidential candidate, or
might attract electoral votes in marginal states, their
status and value evaporated after Inauguration Day. In fact,
as political circumstances altered during their first term,
some presidents began considering a new running mate for the
reelection campaign. Abraham Lincoln, for example, had no
need of Vice President Hannibal Hamlin of Maine for a second
term, since his state was certain to vote to reelect Lincoln
in 1864. Success being less assured in the border state of
Tennessee, party leaders chose Senator Andrew Johnson to
replace Hamlin in the second position.
Relegated to presiding over the Senate, a few
19th-century vice presidents took that task seriously. George Dallas, Levi Morton, and Garret Hobart, for example,
studied the Senate's rules and precedents and presided most
effectively. Others, such as Henry Wilson—Ulysses Grant's
second vice president—spent their time as they pleased. As
vice president, Wilson wrote a three-volume history of
slavery before dying in his Capitol office.
The vice presidency in the 19th century seldom led to
the White House, because vice presidents of the era were
rarely men of presidential stature. Of the 21 individuals
who held that office from 1805 to 1899, only Martin Van
Buren managed to be elected president. Four others achieved
the presidency only because the incumbent died, and none of
those four “accidental presidents” subsequently won election
in his own right.
20th-Century Vice Presidents
The 20th century began without a vice president. Vice
President Garret Hobart had died in November 1899, leaving
the office vacant, as it had been on 10 previous occasions
for periods ranging from a few months to nearly four years.
The nation had gotten along just fine. No one much noticed
Hobart’s absence.
People noticed the next vice president. Cowboy,
scholar, naturalist, and impetuous enthusiast for numerous
ideas and causes, Theodore Roosevelt owed his nomination to
the desire of New York state political bosses to get him out
of the state's politics. The former Rough Rider held
presidential ambitions and worried that the job could be "a
steppingstone to…oblivion." He also felt that he lacked the
financial resources needed to entertain on the grand scale
expected of his immediate predecessors. Roosevelt argued in
vain that the party should find someone else, but Republican
leaders wanted him, believing he would bring a new kind of
glamour and excitement to President William McKinley's
candidacy for reelection. When Roosevelt’s magnetic presence
at the national convention fired the enthusiasm of his
partisans, the nomination was his. Roosevelt then defied
conventional practice by waging an active national campaign
for the ticket, publicizing the Republican cause in a way
that President McKinley could not. Had not an assassin's
bullet in September 1901, which killed President McKinley,
propelled Roosevelt to the White House, his impact on the
vice presidency during a four-year term would most likely
have been profound. In 1904 Theodore Roosevelt became the
first vice president who succeeded to the presidency to be
elected president in his own right.
For the next 40 years, the role of the office grew
slowly but perceptibly. Party leaders rather than
presidential candidates continued to make vice-presidential
selections to balance the ticket, often choosing someone
from a different party faction who was not personally close
to the presidential nominee. In fact, Presidents Theodore
Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Herbert Hoover protested
the individuals selected to be their running mates. The
feeling was often mutual. When Charles Curtis gave the
customary vice-presidential inaugural address in the Senate
Chamber, he omitted any reference to his running mate,
Herbert Hoover. A few minutes later, President Hoover
returned the favor by neglecting to mention Curtis in his
official inaugural remarks on the Capitol's east portico.
The principal 20th-century growth in the vice
president's role occurred when the national government
assumed a greater presence in American life, beginning with
the New Deal era and extending through the Cold War years.
That era brought to the vice presidency such major political
leaders as House Speaker John "Cactus Jack" Garner and
Senate Majority Leaders Alben Barkley and Lyndon Johnson.
This distinguished cast of elected vice presidents also
included Senators Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Hubert
Humphrey, Walter Mondale, and Al Gore. The group also
includes George Bush, whose previous experience ranged
from the House of Representatives to the Central
Intelligence Agency. With the exception of Garner and
possibly Truman, these men were selected not by party
leaders but by the presidential candidates themselves.
Competence and compatibility became the most sought-after
qualities in a running mate. These characteristics were
especially evident in the Harry Truman-Alben Barkley and
William Clinton-Al Gore tickets, both of which set aside the
traditional selection considerations of geographical and
ideological balance.
During the 20th century, the focus of the vice
presidency shifted dramatically from being mainly a
legislative position to a predominately executive post. As
modern-era presidents began playing an increasing role as
legislative agenda setters, their vice presidents regularly
attended cabinet meetings and received executive
assignments. Vice presidents represented their presidents'
administrations on Capitol Hill, served on the National
Security Council, chaired special commissions, acted as
high-level representatives of the government to foreign
heads of state, and assumed countless other chores—great and
trivial—at the president's direction. Beginning with Lyndon
Johnson, they have occupied spacious quarters in the
Executive Office Building and assembled staffs of
specialists to extend their reach and influence. Walter
Mondale expanded the vice president's role as presidential
adviser, establishing the tradition of weekly lunches with
the president, and subsequent vice presidents have continued
to be active participants in their administrations.
Expansion of the office did not come without a cost,
however. In assuming substantive policy responsibilities,
vice presidents often ran afoul of cabinet secretaries whose
territories they invaded. As administration lobbyists, they
also irritated members of Congress. In 1969 President Nixon
pledged to give his vice president a significant
policy-making role and—for the first time—an office in the
White House itself. Spiro Agnew was determined to make the
most of that role and to expand his legislative functions as
well. Since he lacked previous legislative experience, he
had the Senate parliamentarian tutor him on the intricacies
of Senate floor procedure. Soon he began to inject himself
into the course of Senate proceedings, contrary to the
well-worn practice that constrained his predecessors. During
the debate over the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, Agnew
approached Idaho Republican senator Len Jordan and asked how
he was going to vote. "You can't tell me how to vote!" said
the shocked senator. "You can't twist my arm!" At the next
regular luncheon of Republican senators, Jordan accused
Agnew of violating the separation of powers by lobbying on
the Senate floor and announced the "Jordan Rule." Under his
rule, if the vice president tried to lobby him on anything,
the senator would automatically vote the other way. Agnew
concluded from this experience, "After trying for a while to
get along with the Senate, I decided I would go down to the
other end of Pennsylvania Avenue and try playing the
executive game."
The Vice Presidency Today
In the modern era, vice presidents have
shaped the office to meet their interests and the needs of the
president. Increasingly, the office has become more
associated with the duties and responsibilities of the
executive branch, while maintaining its ties to the
legislature through the vice president’s constitutional role
as “president of the Senate.”