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Podcast Transcript
On the 1787 Constitutional Conference, the delegates labored onerous to create a doc that might govern their new nation.
On the finish of the conference, that they had a session titled “Leftover Enterprise.” It was right here within the “leftover enterprise” part of the constitutional conference the place the Vice Presidency was born.
Some say it has been leftover enterprise ever since.
Be taught extra concerning the Vice President of the United States, its historical past, and the women and men who’ve held the job on this episode of Every thing All over the place Every day.
When the delegates to the Constitutional Conference first arrived, just about nobody was fascinated about making a place of vp.
The factor on everybody’s thoughts was the position of the president. There have been many debates about what position the president ought to have and the way they need to be chosen.
Figuring out the duties and powers of the president was executed first, and afterward, they tackled the issue of how one can choose the president.
As talked about within the introduction, this was executed within the final session dubbed “leftover enterprise.”
The preliminary concept was to easily permit congress to pick out the president. This is able to be extra akin to how a Prime Minister is chosen, however it might be totally different. The President wouldn’t essentially be a member of congress, and it might be for a hard and fast time period.
Nonetheless, the thought of congress electing the president was scrapped as a result of it was felt that there can be an excessive amount of vote buying and selling. Members of Congress would tie their votes for president to those that would promise them issues in return.
So, they went to Plan B. As a substitute of getting congress choose the president; they’d simply create a mirror of congress to elect the president. This mirror physique can be the identical dimension as congress and have the identical illustration by the states, however the people wouldn’t, and couldn’t, be members of congress.
Nonetheless, they quickly noticed one other downside. They thought that each state would simply vote for somebody from their very own state for president.
So, they figured if everybody was going to waste a vote for somebody from their very own state, they gave everybody a second vote which needed to be for somebody from a distinct state.
They assumed that this second vote can be the actual vote to find out who was president.
To protect in opposition to electors losing their second vote, they created the workplace of Vice-President to make the vote significant.
The individual receiving essentially the most votes can be the president, and the runner-up can be the vp.
There was quite a lot of thought put into the powers and duties of the president. For the vice-president, nevertheless, not a lot.
In the long run, the vice-president was merely made the President of the Senate. This was the one official responsibility given to the vice-president within the authentic structure. Even then, as President of the Senate, they may solely vote on a invoice to interrupt a tie.
The primary two vice-presidents have been chosen on this method. John Adams was runner-up to Geroge Washington, and he spent most of his time presiding over the senate.
This was fantastic as each Washington and Adams have been members of the identical Federalist get together.
Nonetheless, the subsequent vice-president was Thomas Jefferson. He ran in opposition to Adams, they usually have been very bitter rivals with very totally different views on how the nation ought to be run.
Adams now was caught with a vice-president who was not a member of his get together. Jefferson was a member of the Democratic-Republican get together and didn’t assist a lot of Adam’s insurance policies.
This got here to a head in 1800 when every get together chosen an individual for each President and Vice-President.
The thought was that the electors would forged each of their votes for the candidates from their get together.
Sadly, this labored a bit too effectively. Each Thomas Jefferson and his working mate, Aaron Burr, acquired the identical variety of electoral votes.
This made the election go to the Home of Representatives, the place Burr refused to step apart. So, the presidential candidate was working in opposition to his working mate.
Ultimately, Jefferson gained, and Aaron Burr turned out to be one of many worst vice presidents in historical past. Not solely did he kill Alexander Hamilton whereas in workplace, however he was truly introduced up on treason costs after he was out of workplace.
Everybody rapidly realized that this technique was dumb. Their assumption that everybody would vote for somebody from the identical state was mistaken. Each the elections of 1796 and 1800 have been outcomes that didn’t please anybody.
So, the twelfth modification was handed, which modified the system for electing the vp.
Now, as a substitute of the runner-up turning into vice-president, every elector would get one vote for president and one vote for vp.
This solved the quick downside, however it didn’t change the truth that the vice-president actually didn’t do something. The place was broadly considered a joke.
Nonetheless, there was, after all, one essential responsibility that the vp had. Article II, Part 1, Clause 6 of the structure stipulates:
In Case of the Elimination of the President from Workplace, or of his Loss of life, Resignation, or Incapability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the mentioned Workplace, the Similar shall devolve on the Vice President…
Now, in case you learn it carefully, it doesn’t say that the vice-president turns into president upon the president vacating the workplace. It says that the vice-president shall obtain the powers and duties of the workplace.
This may sound like a minor distinction, however it turned an enormous deal in 1841 when President William Henry Harrison died solely 31 days after his inauguration.
For the primary time in American historical past, a sitting president had died in workplace, and for the primary time, a vice-president needed to step up. That individual was John Tyler.
Harrison’s cupboard met inside an hour of his loss of life and decided that Tyler would proceed to carry the workplace of vice-president and would serve the duties of the appearing president. He can be “the vp, appearing as president.”
Tyler, however, assumed that he was now truly the president and went and took the oath of workplace from an area district court docket choose.
He then wrote the cupboard and mentioned the next:
“I encourage your pardon, gents…I’m positive I’m very glad to have in my Cupboard such in a position statesmen as you’ve got proved yourselves to be, and I shall be happy to avail myself of your counsel and recommendation, however I can by no means consent to being dictated to as to what I shall or shall not do. I, as president, will likely be liable for my administration. I hope to have your cooperation in finishing up its measures. As long as you see match to do that I shall be glad to have you ever with me. If you suppose in any other case, your resignations will likely be accepted.”
He was finally accepted as president, however many individuals nonetheless referred to him as “His Accidency.” I ought to observe that Tyler additionally turned treasonous as after the Civil Warfare broke out, he served within the Accomplice Congress.
This precedent of the vp not solely taking on the duties of the president however the workplace and title itself turned essential. On eight separate events, together with Tyler, the vice-president has ascended to the presidency on the loss of life of the president.
The opposite occasions it occurred have been:
Millard Fillmore, following the loss of life of Zachary Taylor in 1850
Andrew Johnson, following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865
Chester Alan Arthur, following the assassination of James Garfield in 1881
Theodore Roosevelt, following the assassination of William McKinley in 1901
Calvin Coolidge, following the loss of life of Warren G. Harding in 1923
Harry Truman, following the loss of life of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945
Lyndon B. Johnson, following the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963
In every of those circumstances, as soon as the vp ascended to the presidency, there was no vice-president for the rest of their time period. The workplace was merely vacant.
There have been 49 vice presidents as of the time of recording, so the chances of turning into president by way of loss of life or resignation is about 18%.
Likewise, seven vice presidents died in workplace.
George Clinton (served underneath James Madison)
Elbridge Gerry (served underneath James Madison)
William Rufus De Vane King (served underneath Franklin Pierce)
Henry Wilson (served underneath U.S. Grant)
Thomas Hendricks (served underneath Grover Cleveland)
Garret Hobart (served underneath William McKinley)
James Sherman (served underneath William Howard Taft)
Two vice presidents resigned from workplace: John C. Calhoun and Spiro Agnew.
The workplace of Vice President has been vacant for over 37 years in complete all through US historical past.
After the loss of life of President Kennedy, it was determined that the difficulty of presidential succession and vice-presidential emptiness needed to be addressed.
This led to the passage of the twenty fifth modification in 1967. The twenty fifth modification explicitly says that the vp turns into president, clearing up the difficulty which existed since John Tyler. It additionally supplied a course of for filling a emptiness within the vice presidency, in addition to for non permanent presidential incapacitation.
The primary actual check of the twenty fifth modification came about within the early Nineteen Seventies.
Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned in 1973 as a result of a monetary scandal. With the workplace vacant, Richard Nixon nominated Consultant Gerald Ford as Vice-President, which the Senate then permitted.
He took the oath of workplace on December 6, 1973.
Nonetheless, simply 9 months later, on August 9, Nixon himself resigned, elevating Ford to the workplace of president. He turned the primary and solely individual ever to carry the workplace of president with out having been elected.
He then appointed Nelson Rockafeller as vp, so that you had two unelected officers holding the 2 highest workplaces.
The subsequent check of the twenty fifth modification occurred when part 3 was exercised. Part 3 specifies that the president might briefly switch the powers of the president if they’re to be incapacitated.
This occurred for the primary time in 1985 when Ronald Reagan needed to endure colon most cancers surgical procedure. For eight hours on July 13, 1985, Geroge H. W. Bush was the appearing president.
Part three has been invoked on three different events.
June 29, 2002, and July 21, 2007, when George W. Bush ceded energy Dick Cheney for underneath 90 minutes when present process a colonoscopy.
Most not too long ago, it occurred on November 19, 2021, when Joe Biden ceded energy to Kamala Harris for underneath 90 minutes when he additionally underwent a colonoscopy.
Part 4 concerned the involuntary switch of energy, and thus far, it has by no means been invoked. This turned an enormous controversy in 1981 after the assassination try on President Reagan.
Many members of Congress felt that Part 4 ought to have been evoked as a result of the president was in surgical procedure; nevertheless, it was by no means executed. Likewise, a Part 3 switch of energy was ready for Reagan to signal, however he by no means did.
Presidential succession apart, the difficulty of the worth of the workplace has remained because the place was created.
Immediately, the vp will seldom present as much as the senate chamber exterior of particular occasions and to interrupt a tie vote. The variety of tie votes that are damaged can fluctuate drastically relying on the vp.
Each Dan Quayle and Joe Biden by no means needed to break a tie vote. Kamala Harris did it 17 occasions in slightly over a yr. At this charge, she’s going to break the report of 31 tie-breaking votes set by John C. Calhoun.
Immediately, the vp is commonly despatched as a high-ranking consultant to state funerals, and they’re often given some assignments like overseeing the area program.
No fewer than seven occasions within the first 100 years of the nation, constitutional amendments have been proposed that might eradicate the place of vp.
Vice presidents themselves felt the futility of the workplace. John Adams, the primary vp, wrote to his spouse Abagail, “My nation has in its knowledge contrived for me essentially the most insignificant workplace that ever the invention of man … or his creativeness contrived or his creativeness conceived; and as I can do neither good nor evil, I should be borne away by others and met the frequent destiny.”
Daniel Webster declined the supply to be vice-president by saying, “I don’t suggest to be buried till I’m actually useless and in my coffin.”
Harry Truman mentioned that the vice presidency was as “helpful as a cow’s fifth teat.”
However maybe the job was greatest described by the thirty third vp, John Nance Gardner, who mentioned that the vice presidency “wasn’t price a heat bucket of spit.”
Every thing All over the place Every day is an Airwave Media Podcast.
The chief producer is Darcy Adams.
The affiliate producers are Thor Thomsen and Peter Bennett.
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