Vice Presidents "On Their Own" in American History: the "accidental" VP's

 

Modern presidential elections carefully vet men and women fortunate enough to be on a candidate’s “short list” to avoid surprises and embarrassments. One question journalists ask potential vice presidential candidates is, “will you faithfully follow the president’s policies and the party platform if chosen?” While all will say yes without batting an eye, American history is full of vice presidents who changed course – and perhaps history, after following a president who died or faced removal from office.

 

Tyler and Fillmore

 

The first Whig candidate to win national election was William Henry Harrison in 1840. Harrison died, however, after a month in office, elevating his vice president, John Tyler to the office. Tyler, however, was not a Whig, although he hated Andrew Jackson. Tyler’s agenda included the immediate annexation of Texas and settlement of a border dispute between Main and Canada. The Whig cabinet promptly resigned. Needless to say, Tyler was not reelected and remains an anomaly in American history books as the only President to serve in the Confederate Congress.

 

In 1848 General Zach Taylor, a southerner with large slave holdings, became the president. Taylor had distinguished himself in the Mexican-American War, notably at Buena Vista. Taylor was fully expected to support efforts to allow the extension of slavery into the new acquired territories, but he did not. Taylor’s first act was to recommend admittance of California as a free-soil state. Once Kentucky Senator Henry Clay presented his famous Compromise of 1850, Taylor opposed it.

 

Taylor died suddenly following the July 4, 1849 parade and was succeeded by Millard Fillmore of New York, by all accounts a drab Congressman. But Fillmore signed Clay’s compromise. He was also bypassed for reelection by the Whigs in 1852 when the party turned yet again to a war hero, Winfield Scott.

 

Andrew Johnson and Chester Arthur

 

The venerable Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865 and replaced a a Southern Democrat, Andrew Johnson. Johnson’s reconstruction plans were very different from Lincoln and he lacked the diplomacy to deal with the Radicals in Congress. He became the only president before Bill Clinton to undergo the Constitutional process of impeachment. Not reelectable on a major platform, Johnson was returned to Washington as a Senator but died before assuming his seat.

 

Chester A Arthur was never vetted as Garfield’s vice president. Rather, he was a compromise candidate elevated to assuage the egos of Republican Party stalwarts like Roscoe Conkling of New York. But Arthur got the job done, instigating civil service reform and leaving positive marks on his tenure as president.

 

The Twentieth Century was little different. In 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became President for two terms upon the assassination of William McKinley of Ohio. McKinley presided over the Spanish War and subsequent annexations, but it was Roosevelt who gave meaning to the new American possessions. It was Roosevelt who forged the building of the Panama Canal and setting the long-range presence of the United States in the Pacific.

 

Twentieth Century Vice Presidents

 

Following the short presidency of scandal-ridden Warren Harding in 1920, Calvin Coolidge, a cold and bland man, presided over an economic contradiction that led disastrously to the Crash of 1929. It can be argued, however, that both Roosevelt and Coolidge improved on the times, setting aside obvious scandal and foreign policy indolence.

 

Harry Truman was FDR’s fourth Vice President at the most crucial period of World War II. The Allies were victorious on all fronts, the U.S. was ready to use a bomb like no other, and worldwide peace would have to be made with America as the leading power. How prepared was Truman? Was he privy to any sensitive information? As history discloses, Truman was, for all purposes, out of the loop.

 

After the Dallas assassination of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson became President. Johnson coveted the Presidency and with his long leadership history in the Congress engineering the passing of many progressive, New Deal-type measures with a greater ease than Kennedy could have accomplished. There was no need to vet Johnson: the powerful Texan could easily have won the Democratic nomination in 1960.

 

Gerald Ford, like Johnson, came from the Congress and was well known and respected. Unlike Johnson, Ford was a caretaker president. There was no need to go through a long vetting process. Ford would end the Nixon years and attempt to keep the White House in Republican hands.

 

Vetting potential vice presidents is an integral part of the election process. Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned for allegations of corruption while governor of Maryland. North Carolina’s John Edwards would have faced resignation had he successfully won either the vice presidency or the presidency. In 2008, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin appeared to be a good choice until journalists and debates determined that her base of knowledge was shallow.

 

Vice Presidential choices, historically made for many reasons designed to balance the ticket and win votes, do not guarantee an easy transition or follow-through if they are ever called upon to replace the President. The vetting process is highly important, but can never assure the absence of potential future surprises.

 

Reference:

 

William A. DeGregorio, The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents (Gramercy Books, 2001)

Page Smith, A People’s History of the United States, volumes 4-7 (McGraw-Hill Book Company)