Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-75dct Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-28T11:32:35.928Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Vice-presidential behavior in a disability crisis: The case of Thomas R. Marshall

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2016

Joel K. Goldstein
Joel K. Goldstein*
Affiliation:
Saint Louis University School of Law 100 N. Tucker Blvd. St. Louis, Mo. 63101-1930 goldstjk@slu.edu
Get access

Abstract

Vice President Thomas R. Marshall has been criticized for not acting more aggressively to exercise presidential powers and duties after President Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke in October 1919 which compromised his ability to discharge his office for much of the remainder of his term. Yet Marshall faced formidable constraints in the constitutional, political, institutional, and factual context in which he operated. This paper examines these constraints on Marshall's political behavior. His conduct becomes understandable when viewed in the context of those inhibiting factors. The paper also considers the impact of the presidential inability provisions of the subsequently ratified Twenty-Fifth Amendment which renowned Wilson scholar Arthur Link suggested would have made no difference. While questioning the practicality of that counter-factual, the paper argues that the Amendment would have been helpful but suggests that a Wilson-like situation, if one could be imagined in modern times, could present a relatively taxing challenge to our constitutional system.

Keywords

Thomas R. MarshallWoodrow WilsonEdith Bolling WilsonCary Graysonpresidential inabilitydecision makingdisability crisisleadership
Type
Research Articles
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , Fall 2014 , pp. 37 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. McDermott, Rose, Presidential Leadership, Illness, and Decision Making (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 46.Google Scholar
2. Ferrell, Robert H., Woodrow Wilson and World War I, 1917–1921 (New York: Harper & Row 1985), p. 156. Silva, Ruth C., Presidential Succession (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press 1951), pp. 52, 57.Google Scholar
3. Link, Arthur S., “Woodrow Wilson: A cautionary tale,” Wake Forest Law Review, 1995: 585–592.Google Scholar
4. Link, Arthur S., “Dr. Grayson's predicament,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 1994, 138(4): 487–494.Google ScholarPubMed
5. U.S. Constitution, art. II, §1, cl. 6.Google Scholar
6. Gilbert, Robert E., The Mortal Presidency: Illness and Anguish in the White House (New York: Fordham University Press, 1998), p. 272.Google Scholar
7. Stoddard, Henry L., As I Knew Them: Presidents and Politics from Grant to Coolidge (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1927), p. 539.Google Scholar
8. Cooper, John Milton Jr. “A shadowed office: The vice presidency and its occupants, 1900–1920,” in At the President's Side, Walch, Timothy, ed. (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1997), p. 20.Google Scholar
9. Link, , “Woodrow Wilson: A cautionary tale,” p. 592.Google Scholar
10. Stannard Baker, RayWoodrow Wilson — Life and Letters, Volume 3: Governor, 1910–1913 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1931), p. 362.Google Scholar
11. Link, Arthur S., Wilson: The Road to the White House (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1947), pp. 462–463; Thomas, Charles M., Thomas Riley Marshall: Hoosier Statesman (Oxford, OH: Mississippi Valley Press, 1939), pp. 123–124. But seeDaniels, Josephus, The Wilson Era Years of Peace — 1910–1917 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1944), pp. 550–551.Google Scholar
12. Wilson, Woodrow, Congressional Government (Cleveland: Meridian, 1885), p. 162.Google Scholar
13. Wilson, Woodrow, Constitutional Government in the United States (New York: Columbia University Press 1908), p. 130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14. Marshall, Thomas R., A Hoosier Salad: Recollections of Thomas R. Marshall (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1925), pp. 228–229.Google Scholar
15. Baker, , p. 373Google Scholar
16. Marshall, , p. 233.Google Scholar
17. Daniels, Josephus, Wilson Era, pp. 554, 556.Google Scholar
18. Quoted inLudlow, Louis, From Cornfield to Press Gallery: Adventures and Reminiscences of a Veteran Washington Correspondent (Washington, DC: W.F. Roberts, 1924), p. 312.Google Scholar
19. “Marshall still has rivals,” New York Times, June 15, 1916, 3; “Fight Marshall for second place,” New York Times, June 13, 1916, 1, 2.Google Scholar
20. “Diary of Colonel House, May 24, 1916,” in The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vol. 37, Link, Arthur S., ed. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981), pp. 103, 105; Cooper, pp. 17–18.Google Scholar
21. “Wilson off on peace trip,” New York Times, December 5, 1918, 1.Google Scholar
22. Houston, David F., Eight Years With Wilson's Cabinet, 1913 to 1920, Vol. 1 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1926), pp. 349–350; David Cronon, E., ed., The Cabinet Diaries of Josephus Daniels, 1913–1921 (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1963), p. 351.Google Scholar
23. “Marshall heads cabinet session,” New York Times, December 11, 1918, 1; Daniels, , Cabinet Diaries, p. 354.Google Scholar
24. 57 Congressional Record 23–28 (1918); “Senators clash over trip,” New York Times, December 4, 1918, 1; “Would vacate Wilson's office,” New York Times, December 3, 1918, 1.Google Scholar
25. “Wickersham raises issue: Vice president, he says, may have to take Wilson's place,” New York Times, November 27, 1918, 1; “Seat of government fixed,” November 28, 1918; “Decision by a court doubtful, says Taft,” New York Times, November 28, 1918, 2; see alsoMiller, David Hunter, “Some legal aspects of the visit of President Wilson to Paris,” Harvard Law Review, 1922, 36(1): 51–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
26. Taft, William Howard, Our Chief Magistrate and His Powers (New York: Columbia University Press, 1915), pp. 50, 51.Google Scholar
27. “Vice President Marshall on his relation to the presidency,” New York Times, November 27, 1918, A1.Google Scholar
28. “Marshall to be on duty,” New York Times, November 29, 1918, 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
29. Thomas, , pp. 222–223.Google Scholar
30. Daniels, , Wilson Era, p. 558.Google Scholar
31. Wilson, Edith Bolling, My Memoir (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1939), p. 249.Google Scholar
32. McDermott, , pp. 72–73.Google Scholar
33. Wilson, Edith Bolling, pp. 273–274; Grayson, Cary T., Woodrow Wilson: An Intimate Portrait (New York: Holt Rinehart, 1960), pp. 94–95; Tumulty, Joseph, Woodrow Wilson As I Knew Him (Garden City, NY: Garden City Publishing, 1925), p. 434.Google Scholar
34. SeeMcDermott, , pp. 50–56, 69–74.Google Scholar
35. Wilson, Edith Bolling, pp. 276, 280.Google Scholar
36. Grayson, , p. 99.Google Scholar
37. Grasty, Charles H., “Strain of years tells on Wilson,” New York Times, September 27, 1919, 1; see alsoLawrence, David, True Story of Woodrow Wilson (New York: George H. Doran, 1924), p. 279.Google Scholar
38. Wilson, Edith Bolling, p. 285.Google Scholar
39. Wilson, Edith Bolling, p. 284.Google Scholar
40. “Grayson's order ends tour,” New York Times, September 27, 1919, A1; “Wilson's condition ‘not alarming,’ says Grayson, but he must rest for ‘a considerable time,”’ New York Times, September 27, 1919, 1.Google Scholar
41. Houston, , Vol. 2, p. 36.Google Scholar
42. “Lansing to Polk, October 1, 1919,” in The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vol. 63, Link, Arthur S., ed. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990), p. 539.Google Scholar
43. “Mr. Wilson's breakdown,” New York Times, September 29, 1919, 9.Google Scholar
44. Grayson, , p. 100.Google Scholar
45. Wilson, Edith Bolling, p. 288.Google Scholar
46. “Text of bulletins on the president's condition as issued by Dr. Grayson from the White House,” New York Times, October 3, 1919, 1.Google Scholar
47. “Doctors in consultation call Wilson ‘a very sick man,”’ New York Times, October 3, 1919, Al; “President Wilson better, sleeping naturally once more; Treaty defenders must continue fight without his aid,” New York Times, October 4, 1919, Al; “More encouraging day,” New York Times, October 5, 1919, 1.Google Scholar
48. Daniels, , Cabinet Diaries, p. 444.Google Scholar
49. “Lansing to Polk, October 4, 1919,” in The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vol. 63, p. 541; “Lansing's Diary Oct. 3, 1919,” in The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vol. 63, p. 547; Link, pp. 589–590; Blum, 312, n. 39.Google Scholar
50. Lansing, , “Cabinet meetings during the illness of the President, February 23, 1920,” The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vol. 64, pp. 454, 455.Google Scholar
51. Tumulty, , pp. 443–444.Google Scholar
52. Houston, , Vol. 2, p. 36.Google Scholar
53. Daniels, , Cabinet Diaries, p. 444.Google Scholar
54. Houston, , Vol. 2, pp. 36–37.Google Scholar
55. Houston, , Vol. 2, p. 37.Google Scholar
56. Houston, , Vol. 2, p. 38; Daniels, , Cabinet Diaries, p. 445.Google Scholar
57. Houston, , Vol. 2, pp. 38–39; Daniels, , Cabinet Diaries, p. 445.Google Scholar
58. Lansing, , “Cabinet meetings during the illness of the President, February 23, 1920,” The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vol. 64, pp. 454, 457–58.Google Scholar
59. “Cabinet meets, Lansing presiding,” New York Times, October 7, 1919, 1.Google Scholar
60. “Wilson's condition better,” New York Times, October 7, 1919, 1.Google Scholar
61. “Wilson better but must still rest,” New York Times, October 8, 1919, 1.Google Scholar
62. Grayson, , p. 108.Google Scholar
63. “President needs long rest,” New York Times, October 12, 1919, 1; “Wilson must stay in bed; Question of disability revived,” New York Times, October 12, 1919, 1.Google Scholar
64. Lawrence, David, “Three or four weeks more before President Wilson will be able to transact public business again,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 12, 1919, 1.Google Scholar
65. “Reports Wilson suffered shock,” New York Times, October 12, 1919, 1.Google Scholar
66. “Rumors busy about Wilson,” New York Times, October 13, 1919, 1.Google Scholar
67. “Wilson's mind is clear and can act but Grayson says cure requires time,” New York Times, October 14, 1919, 1.Google Scholar
68. Wilson, Edith Bolling, p. 292.Google Scholar
69. Feerick, John D., From Failing Hands: The Story of Presidential Succession (New York: Fordham University Press, 1965), p. 168.Google Scholar
70. Hoover, Herbert, The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1958), p. 271.Google Scholar
71. Ferrell, , p. 171.Google Scholar
72. “President needs long rest,” New York Times, October 12, 1919, 1; see alsoFeerick, , p. 172.Google Scholar
73. “Col. House back, ill, from Paris,” New York Times, October 13, 1919, 1.Google Scholar
74. “Senators discuss Wilson rumors,” New York Times, October 14, 1919, 1.Google Scholar
75. Wilson, Edith Bolling, pp. 288–290.Google Scholar
76. Grayson, , pp. 52, 53.Google Scholar
77. Daniels, , Cabinet Diaries, pp. 446–447.Google Scholar
78. “Lansing to Frank Lyon Polk, October 14, 1919,” in The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vol. 63, p. 571.Google Scholar
79. James, Edwin L., “President cannot take up official duties ‘for some time,’ Washington tells Paris,” New York Times, October 16, 1919, 1.Google Scholar
80. “Diary of Colonel House, October 21, 1919,” in The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vol. 63, pp. 585–586.Google Scholar
81. Thomas, , p. 215.Google Scholar
82. Wilson, Edith Bolling, p. 296.Google Scholar
83. “Memorandum by Lansing, November 5, 1919,” in The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vol. 63, pp. 618–619.Google Scholar
84. Bender, Robert J., “Wilson bedfast for five weeks; Escape narrow,” Chicago Daily Tribune, November 5, 1919, 10.Google Scholar
85. “Prince's jokes amuse Wilson; feeling better,” Chicago Daily Tribune, November 14, 1919, 3; Grayson, , pp. 102–105; Wilson, Edith Bolling, pp. 294–295; “Grayson let Wilson transact more business, board arranged so President can use it as desk,” New York Times, December 5, 1919, 1.Google Scholar
86. “Viscount Grey to go home soon,” New York Times, December 12, 1919, 8.Google Scholar
87. Hoover, Irwin, Forty-Two Years in the White House (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1934), p. 95.Google Scholar
88. Hoover, , Forty-Two Years, p. 103.Google Scholar
89. Daniels, , Cabinet Diaries, p. 466; “Memorandum by Robert Lansing, December 4, 1919,” in The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vol. 64, p. 124.Google Scholar
90. “President's health shows steady improvement despite many rumors and he is doing more work,” New York Times, December 3, 1919, 1.Google Scholar
91. “Grayson to let Wilson transact more business; Board arranged so president can use it as desk,” New York Times, December 5, 1919, 1.Google Scholar
92. “Senators see president,” New York Times, December 6, 1919, 1.Google Scholar
93. “Memorandum by Robert Lansing, December 5, 1919,” in The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vol. 64, p. 139.Google Scholar
94. Wilson, Edith Bolling, p. 299.Google Scholar
95. Ferrell, , p. 170.Google Scholar
96. Blum, John M., Joe Tumulty and the Wilson Era (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1951), pp. 214, 312.Google Scholar
97. Daniels, , Wilson Era, p. 559; Thomas, p. 211.Google Scholar
98. Frederick Essary, J., Covering Washington: Government Reflected to the Public in the Press, 1822–1926 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1927), p. 49; Thomas, , pp. 206–207.Google Scholar
99. Marshall, , p. 368.Google Scholar
100. Thomas, , pp. 225–227; Oulahan, Richard V., “Marshall's part in the Wilson drama,” New York Times, January 7, 1925, 4.Google Scholar
101. Thomas, , pp. 212–213.Google Scholar
102. Stoddard, , p. 541.Google Scholar
103. Daniels, , Wilson Era, p. 559.Google Scholar
104. Thomas, , p. 227.Google Scholar
105. Thomas, , p. 227.Google Scholar
106. Marshall, , p. 368; “Diary of Colonel House, December 27, 1919,” in The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vol. 64, p. 231.Google Scholar
107. “Diary of Colonel House, December 22, 1919,” in The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vol. 64, p. 217Google Scholar
108. Daniels, , Wilson Era, pp. 560–561; “False telephone report of president's death breaks up Marshall address in Atlanta,” New York Times, November 24, 1919, 1.Google Scholar
109. Lansing, , “Cabinet meetings during the illness of the President, February 23, 1920,” in The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vol. 64, pp. 454, 457; Lawrence, , p. 285.Google Scholar
110. Houston, , Vol. 2, pp. 65–66; “Lansing quits after clash,” New York Times, February 14, 1920, 1.Google Scholar
111. “Letters tell story of Wilson-Lansing split,” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 14, 1920, 1; Houston, , Vol. 2, p. 69.Google Scholar
112. Tumulty, , pp. 444–445.Google Scholar
113. Lawrence, , p. 289.Google Scholar
114. Tumulty, , p. 445.Google Scholar
115. Hoover, , Ordeal, pp. 276–278, 293.Google Scholar
116. “Congress sides with Lansing, scores Wilson,” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 15, 1920, 4.Google Scholar
117. Grayson, , p. 114.Google Scholar
118. Cooper, John Milton Jr., “Disability in the White House: The case of Woodrow Wilson” in The White House: The First Two Hundred Years, Friedel, Frank and Pencak, William, eds., (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1994), p. 89.Google Scholar
119. Grayson, , p. 112.Google Scholar
120. Grayson, , p. 112; “Memorandum by Cary Travers Grayson, April 13, 1920,” in The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vol. 65, p. 179.Google Scholar
121. Hoover, , Ordeal, p. 277. Daniels, , Cabinet Diaries, pp. 517–518.Google Scholar
122. Ferrell, , pp. 222–223.Google Scholar
123. Grayson, , p. 116.Google Scholar
124. Grayson, , p. 117.Google Scholar
125. Ferrell, , p. 224.Google Scholar
126. “Woodrow Wilson's administration,” New York Times Book Review, February 27, 1921, BR1, 6.Google Scholar
127. “Wilson's exit is tragic,” New York Times, March 5, 1921, 1.Google Scholar
128. Ferrell, , p. 170.Google Scholar
129. Lawrence, , pp. 283, 288, 290.Google Scholar
130. Blum, , p. 214.Google Scholar
131. Cooper, , “A Shadowed Office,” p. 20.Google Scholar
132. Cooper, , “Disability in the White House,” p. 80.Google Scholar
133. Ferrell, Robert H., Ill-Advised: Presidential Health and Public Trust (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1992), p. 11.Google Scholar
134. Ferrell, , Woodrow Wilson and World War I, p. 171.Google Scholar
135. Ferrell, , Ill-Advised, p. 162.Google Scholar
136. Link, , “Woodrow Wilson: A Cautionary Tale,” p. 592.Google Scholar
137. Silva, , p. 63. Hansen, Richard, The Year We Had No President (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1962), pp. 42–43.Google Scholar
138. Post, Jerrold M. and Robins, Robert S., When Illness Strikes the Leader (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), p. 88.Google Scholar
139. Witcover, Jules, Crapshoot: Rolling the Dice on the Vice Presidency (New York: Crown, 1992), p. 64.Google Scholar
140. Goldstein, Joel K., “The vice presidency and the Twenty-Fifth Amendment: The power of reciprocal relationships,” in Managing Crisis: Presidential Disability and the 25th Amendment, Gilbert, Robert E., ed. (New York: Fordham University Press, 2000), p. 191.Google Scholar
141. Marshall, , p. 368.Google Scholar
142. Feerick, , pp. 237–238; Goldstein, , pp. 168–172.Google Scholar
143. Feerick, , pp. 50–51, 89–98.Google Scholar
144. U.S. Const. art II, sec. 1.Google Scholar
145. Amar, Akhil Reed, America's Constitution: A Biography (New York: Random House, 2005), p. 449.Google Scholar
146. Daniels, , Wilson Era, pp. 558–559.Google Scholar
147. Daniels, , Wilson Era, p. 562.Google Scholar
148. Thomas, , p. 227.Google Scholar
149. “President needs long rest,” Washington Post, October 11, 1919.Google Scholar
150. Blum, , p. 215.Google Scholar
151. Daniels, Josephus, The Life of Woodrow Wilson, 1856–1924 (Philadelphia: Universal Book and Bible House, 1924), p. 340.Google Scholar
152. Feerick, , pp. 168–169, 172.Google Scholar
153. “Letter, Brandeis to Felix Frankfurter, February 17, 1920,” in Letters of Louis D. Brandeis, Vol. IV, Urofsky, Melvin I. and Levy, David W., eds. (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1975), p. 449.Google Scholar
154. “Sees president near recovery,” New York Times, February 11, 1920, 1.Google Scholar
155. Essary, pp. 48–49.Google Scholar
156. Blum, , p. 214.Google Scholar
157. Stoddard, , p. 547.Google Scholar
158. Link, , “Woodrow Wilson: A Cautionary Tale,” p. 592.Google Scholar
159. Goldstein, Joel K., “Taking from the Twenty-Fifth Amendment: Lessons in ensuring presidential continuity,” Fordham Law Review, 2010, 79: 959, 963–968.Google Scholar
160. SeeFeerick, , From Failing Hands.Google Scholar
161. Goldstein, Joel K., “The new constitutional vice presidency,” Wake Forest Law Review, 1995, 30(3): 505–561.Google Scholar
162. Goldstein, Joel K., “The rising power of the modern vice presidency,” Presidential Studies Quarterly, 2008, 38(3): 374–389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
163. Goldstein, , “Reciprocal relationships.”Google Scholar
164. Feerick, John D., The Twenty-Fifth Amendment: Its Complete History and Applications, 3e (New York: Fordham University Press, 2014).Google Scholar
165. Mohr, Lawrence C., “Medical consideration in the determination of presidential disability,” in Managing Crisis, Gilbert, ed., pp. 104–105.Google Scholar