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Some Aspects of the Vice-Presidency
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 October 2013
Extract
No one has yet given any careful attention to the vice-presidency on its historical bearings. Indeed, if one may judge by the opinions if writers who have touched upon the theme, it would seem to be hardly worth consideration. Within recent years there has been a good deal of free discussion of the vice-presidential office, chiefly, it would appear for the purpose of trying to supply the second officer of the national government with something to do. The ideal of the office as a sinecure is not only widespread but old. The office, it is said, offers nothing attractive to men of first-rate capacity. At this point, some one is sure to recall John Adams's reflection of December, 1793, when he wrote that “my country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived. And as I can do neither good nor evil, I must be borne away by others and meet the common fate.” It may be desirable at the outset to call attention to several other well-known opinions.
- Type
- Papers and Discussions
- Information
- Proceedings of the American Political Science Association , Volume 9: Ninth Annual Meeting , December 1913 , pp. 162 - 177
- Copyright
- Copyright © American Political Science Association 1913
References
1 Works, i, 460Google Scholar.
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3 Twenty Years of Congress, ii, 57Google Scholar.
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5 Congressional Government, 13th ed., 1898, pp. 240–241Google Scholar.
6 The first declination of the vice-presidency after a nomination seems to have been that of Thomas Earl of Pennsylvania, placed on the ticket of the Abolition party with James G. Birney of New York by a convention held at Warsaw, N. Y., on November 13, 1839, Earl's substitute was Francis Lemoyne, likewise of Pennsylvania. McKee, T. H., The National Conventions and Platforms (5th ed., 1904), p. 43Google Scholar. The second instance, that of Silas Wright of New York, is well known. Wright's substitute was George M. Dallas of Pennsylvania who ran with J. K. Polk in 1844. Ibid., p. 48. In the Utica convention of the Free-Soilers of June 22, 1848, General Henry Dodge of Wisconsin was named for the second place on the ticket with Van Buren, but subsequently declined it, and was replaced by Charles Francis Adams. Ibid., p. 66. The fourth instance occurred in 1860 when Benjamin Fitzpatrick of Alabama, nominated on the first ballot by the Democratic convention at Baltimore, declined. The national committee then placed the name of Herschel V. Johnson of Tennessee on the ticket with Stephen A. Douglas. Ibid., p. 108.
7 Stimson, F. J., The Law of the Federal and State Constitutions, 1908, pp. 243, 244Google Scholar.
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9 Ames, Herman V., Proposed Amendments to the Constitution, 1896, pp. 70 ff.Google Scholar, and Appendix A.
10 See, for example, Senator Beveridge's, A. J. article, “The Vice-President; the Fifth Wheel in our Government,” in the Century, December, 1909, lvii, 208 ff.Google Scholar
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12 Ibid., i, 176.
13 Ibid., i, 292.
14 Ibid., ii, 146, 155, 158, 163, 165, 172, 179, 186; iii, 622, 625.
15 Ibid., ii, 401 ff., 427.
16 Ibid., ii, 481, 495, 499 ff., 532, 536–538.
17 Charters and Constitutions, Poore, B. P., editor; 2d ed. 1878, II, 1336Google Scholar. Sec.xx.
18 I have not reckoned among the group of opponents of the Vice Presidency Rev. David Caldwell of North Carolina, chiefly because his attitude, though hostile, was one of inquiry and of no special moment. It may be useful to list the materials, not heretofore directly referred to in footnotes, bearing on the office (1787-1788):
Farrand, 's Records: ii, 545, 552, 567, 573 ff.Google Scholar, 592, 597, 598, 600, 633, 635, 636, 639, iii, 136, 217 (Martin, Luther's comment in “Genuine Information.”), 343–344Google Scholar (W. R. Davie's comment in the N. C. Convention).
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27 W. R. King died on April 18, 1853, before he took the chair.
28 Ṡee Van Buren Papers, MSS., Library of Congress. January-March, 1832, passim.
29 It is not usually recalled that New York gave three of its electoral votes to Madison for vice-president in 1809.
30 In the electoral count in 1825 Jackson received thirteen votes for vice-president.
31 This idea underlay some of the opposition to the office in 1787-1788. It was at times emphasized in the debates over the Twelfth Amendment in 1802-1803.
32 Roosevelt, T. in Review of Reviews (September, 1896), xiv, 289 ff.Google Scholar; Hon. Clark, Walter in Green Bag (October, 1896), vii, 427–428Google Scholar; Sen. Beveridge, A. J. in Century (December, 1909), lvii, 208 ff.Google Scholar
33 Hon. W. Clark in Green Bag as cited above.
34 July 19, 1908.
35 Lotos Club Speech, New York City, November 16, 1912. Printed in The Independent, (New York), November 21, 1912Google ScholarPubMed. President Taft elaborated his plan in a message to Congress of December 19, 1912. See Congressional Record, vol. xlix, 846 ffGoogle Scholar. It is peculiarly notable as the first instance of this project in a Presidential message.
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38 New York Herald, December 26, 1848.
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40 Annals of Congress, i, 673. July 16, 1789Google Scholar.
41 Ibid., i, 674.
42 For a table of salaries of President, vice-president and cabinet officers (1789-1909), see The President's Cabinet, Appendix A, p. 396.
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