Encyclopedia
The
Vice President of the United States is the second-highest executive official of the
United States government. As first in the
presidential line of succession, the Vice President becomes the new
President of the United States upon the death, resignation, or removal of the President. The Vice President also serves as the President of the Senate, and may break tie votes in that chamber.
The current Vice President of the United States is
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney.
Constitutional requirements
The Vice President must be a natural-born citizen of the United States, at least thirty-five years of age and a resident of the U.S. for 14 years. The
Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution requires vice presidents to meet the same requirements as presidents, and the
22nd amendment limits presidents to being elected to only two terms. It is, however, debated whether a former two-term president could be elected Vice President since the 22nd amendment doesn’t limit a president to serving two terms; it only prevents him from being elected to more than two terms. According to one interpretation a two term president could be elected to the vice-presidency and then serve another term in the presidency if the elected president died or was removed from office. The 22nd amendment only forbids election to, not service in, the presidency more than twice. In such a circumstance the two-term president turned vice president would still be elected to the presidency twice.
Traditionally, the Vice President-Elect takes office just before the President-Elect. Unlike the President, the
Constitution does not specify an oath of office for the Vice President. Several variants of the oath have been used since 1789; the current form, which is also recited by
Senators,
Representatives and other government officers, has been used since 1884:
- I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.
Election
Under the original terms of the Constitution, the members of the
U.S. Electoral College voted only for office of President rather than for both President and Vice President. The person receiving the greatest number of votes would be President, while the individual who was in second place became Vice President. If no one received a majority of votes, then the
U.S. House of Representatives would choose between the four highest vote-getters, with each state getting one vote. In such a case, the person who received the highest number of votes but was not chosen President would become Vice President. If there was ever a tie for second, then the
U.S. Senate would choose the Vice President.
The original plan, however, did not foresee the development of political parties. In the
election of 1796, for instance, Federalist
John Adams came in first, and Democratic-Republican
Thomas Jefferson came second. Thus, the President and Vice President were from different parties. An even greater problem occurred in the
election of 1800, when Democratic-Republicans Jefferson and
Aaron Burr tied the vote. While it was intended that Jefferson was the Presidential contender and Burr was the Vice Presidential one, the electors did not and could not differentiate between the two under the system of the time. After 35 unsuccessful votes in the
U.S. House of Representatives, Thomas Jefferson finally won on the 36th ballot and Burr became Vice President.
The tumultuous affair led to the adoption of the
Twelfth amendment in 1804, which directed the electors to use separate ballots to vote for the President and Vice President. While this solved the problem at hand, it ultimately had the effect of lowering the prestige of the Vice Presidency, as the Vice President was no longer the second choice for President.
The Constitution also prohibits electors from voting for both a Presidential and Vice Presidential candidate from the same state as themselves. In theory, this might deny a Vice Presidential candidate with the most electoral votes the absolute majority required to secure election, even if the Presidential candidate is elected, and place the Vice Presidential election in the hands of the Senate. In practice, this requirement is easily circumvented by having the candidate for Vice President change the state of residency as was done by
Dick Cheney, who changed his legal residency from
Texas to
Wyoming, his original homestate, in order to run for election as Vice President alongside
George W. Bush.
Formally, the Vice Presidential candidate is nominated by the party convention. However, it has long been the custom that the Vice Presidential candidate has been effectively named by the Presidential candidate. Often, the Presidential candidate will name a Vice Presidential candidate to bring geographic or ideological balance to the ticket or to appeal to a particular constituency. The last presidential candidate to not name his vice presidential choice was Harry Truman in 1948. Truman left the choice up to the convention, which chose Kentucky Senator Alben Barkley whose convention keynote address stirred up the crowd.
Role of the Vice President
President of the Senate
As President of the Senate , the Vice President oversees procedural matters and may cast a tie-breaking vote. There is a strong convention within the
U.S. Senate that the Vice President not use his position as President of the Senate to influence the passage of legislation or act in a partisan manner, except in the case of breaking tie votes. As president of the Senate, Adams cast twenty-nine tie-breaking votes—a record that no successor has ever threatened. His votes protected the president's sole authority over the removal of appointees, influenced the location of the national capital, and prevented war with
Great Britain. On at least one occasion he persuaded senators to vote against legislation that he opposed, and he frequently lectured the Senate on procedural and policy matters. Adams' political views and his active role in the Senate made him a natural target for critics of the Washington administration. Toward the end of his first term, as a result of a threatened resolution that would have silenced him except for procedural and policy matters, he began to exercise more restraint in the hope of realizing the goal shared by many of his successors: election in his own right as president of the United States.
In modern times, the Vice President rarely presides over day-to-day matters in the Senate; in his place, the Senate chooses a
President pro tempore to preside in the Vice President's absence, and the Senate maintains a Duty Roster for the post, normally selecting the longest serving senator in the majority party.
When the President of the United States is
impeached, the
Chief Justice of the United States presides over the Senate during the impeachment trial.
One duty required of President of the Senate is presiding over the counting and presentation of the votes of the
U.S. Electoral College. This process occurs in the presence of both houses of Congress, on January 6 of the year following a U.S. presidential election. In this capacity, only four Vice Presidents have been able to announce their own election to the Presidency:
John Adams,
Thomas Jefferson,
Martin Van Buren, and
George H. W. Bush.
Though he was President of the Senate, Vice President
John C. Calhoun believed he would have more power as a Senator. When he was elected to the Senate from his native
South Carolina, he became the first Vice President to resign the office.
Growth of the office
For much of its existence, the office of Vice President was seen as a little more than a minor position.
John Adams, the first Vice President, described it as "the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived." Even 150 years later, 32nd Vice President
John Nance Garner famously described the office as "not worth a pitcher of warm piss" .
Thomas R. Marshall, the 28th Vice President, lamented: "Once there were two brothers. One went away to sea; the other was elected Vice President of the United States. And nothing was heard of either of them again." When the Whig Party was looking for a vice president on
Zachary Taylor's ticket, they approached
Daniel Webster who said of the offer "I do not intend to be buried until I am dead." The natural stepping stone to the Presidency was long considered to be the office of
Secretary of State. It has only been fairly recently that this notion has reversed; indeed, the notion was still very much alive when
Harry Truman became the Vice President for
Franklin Roosevelt.
For many years, the Vice President was given few responsibilities. After John Adams attended a meeting of the President's
Cabinet in 1791, no Vice President did so again until Thomas Marshall stood in for President
Woodrow Wilson while he travelled to Europe in 1918 and 1919. Marshall's successor,
Calvin Coolidge, was invited to meetings by President
Warren G. Harding. The next Vice President,
Charles G. Dawes, was not invited after declaring that "the precedent might prove injurious to the country." Vice President Charles Curtis was also precluded from attending by President
Herbert Hoover.
In 1933, Roosevelt raised the stature of the office by renewing the practice of inviting the Vice President to cabinet meetings, which has been maintained by every President since. Roosevelt's first Vice President,
John Nance Garner broke with him at the start of the second term, on the Court-packing issue, and became Roosevelt's leading political enemy. Garner's successor, Henry Wallace was given major responsibilities during the war, but moved further to the left than the Democratic Party and the rest of the Roosevelt administration, and was relieved of actual power. Roosevelt kept his last Vice President
Harry Truman uninformed on all war and postwar issues, such as the
atomic bomb, leading Truman to wryly remark that the job of the Vice President is to "go to weddings and funerals". The need to keep Vice Presidents informed on national security issues became clear, and Congress made the Vice President one of four statutory members of the National Security Council in 1949.
Richard Nixon reinvented the office of Vice President. Although he had no formal power, he had the attention of the media and the Republican party. Eisenhower ordered him to preside at Cabinet meetings in his absence. Nixon demonstrated for the first time that the office could be a springboard to the White House; most Vice Presidents since have followed his lead and sought the presidency. Nixon was the first Vice President actually to step in to run the government temporarily: when Eisenhower suffered a
heart attack on September 24, 1955; ileitis in June 1956; and a stroke in November 1957.
Modern role
The formal powers and role of the Vice President are limited to the Presidency of the Senate, including a casting vote in the event of a deadlock . As a recent example, in the first half of 2001, the Senators were divided 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats and thus Dick Cheney's tie-breaking vote gave the Republicans the Senate majority.
Their other functions are as a drafter and spokesperson for the administration's policy, as an adviser to the President, as Chairman of the Board of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration , as a Member of the board of the
Smithsonian Institution, and as a symbol of American concern or support. Their influence in this role depends almost entirely on the characteristics of the particular administration. Cheney, for instance, is widely regarded as one of George W. Bush's closest confidantes.
Al Gore was an important advisor to President
Bill Clinton on matters of foreign policy and the environment. Often, Vice Presidents will take harder-line stands on issues to ensure the support of the party's base while deflecting partisan criticism away from the President. They often meet heads of state or attend state funerals in other countries, at times when the administration wishes to demonstrate concern or support without having to actually send the President to do so.
Normally, candidates for President will name a candidate for Vice President when they are assured of the party's nomination. Since the Presidential candidate is now generally known before the party convention, this announcement is now typically made in the first day or so of the party convention. Generally, the choice of running mate is ultimately made by the Presidential candidate alone and often is done to create balance on a ticket. It is common for the Vice Presidential candidate to come from a different
region of the country than the President or appeal to a slightly different ideological wing of the party. The
12th Amendment discourages the Vice President from legally residing in the same state as the President, as Electors must vote for at least one candidate not in the same state as themselves. However, the ease of changing one's state of residence minimizes the effect of this provision.
In recent years, the Vice Presidency has frequently been used to launch bids for the Presidency. Of the 13 presidential elections from 1956 to 2004, 9 featured the incumbent President; the other 4 all featured the incumbent Vice President. Former Vice Presidents also ran, in
1984 , and in 1968 .
Since 1974, the official residence of the Vice President and his family has been
Number One Observatory Circle, on the grounds of the
United States Naval Observatory in
Washington, DC.
Succession and the 25th Amendment
The U.S. Constitution provides that should the President die or become disabled while in office, the "powers and duties" of the office are transferred to the Vice President. It remained unclear as to whether the Vice President actually became the new President or merely Acting President. This was first tested in 1841 with the death of President
William Harrison. Harrison's Vice President,
John Tyler, asserted that he should gain the full Presidential office, powers, and title. Despite some strong calls against it, Tyler took the oath of office, becoming the tenth President. Tyler's claim was not challenged legally, and so the precedent of full succession was established.
The Constitution still left several questions unanswered, however. If the Vice President died in office, resigned, or succeeded to the Presidency, there was no process for selecting a replacement, so the office of Vice President remained vacant until the next Presidential election. Additionally, the
assassination of President Kennedy on November 22 1963 provoked the question of who has the power to declare that an incapacitated President is unable to discharge his duties. This question prompted the adoption of
Amendment XXV to the U.S. Constitution in 1967.
Section 2 of the 25th Amendment provides that "Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress."
Gerald Ford was the first Vice President selected by this method, after the resignation of Vice President
Spiro Agnew in 1973; after succeeding to the Presidency, Ford nominated
Nelson Rockefeller as Vice President.
Sections 3 and 4 of the amendment provides means for the Vice President to become
Acting President upon the temporary disability of the President. Section 3 deals with self declared incapacity of the president, and section 4 deals with incapacity declared by the joint action of the Vice President and of a majority of the Cabinet. While section 4 has never been invoked, section 3 has been invoked twice: on July 13, 1985 when
Ronald Reagan underwent surgery to remove cancerous polyps from his colon, and again on June 29, 2002 when
George W. Bush underwent a colonoscopy procedure requiring sedation. Prior to this amendment, Vice President
Richard Nixon informally replaced President
Dwight Eisenhower three times for a period of weeks each time when Eisenhower was ill.
Vice Presidents of the United States
Prior to ratification of the
25th Amendment in 1967, no provision existed for filling a vacancy in the office of Vice President. As a result, the Vice Presidency was left vacant 16 times until the next ensuing election and inauguration -- 8 times due to the death of the sitting President, resulting in the Vice President becoming President; 7 times due to the death of the sitting Vice President, and once due to the resignation of VP John Calhoun to become a Senator. Since the adoption of the 25th Amendment, the office has been vacant twice while awaiting confirmation of the new Vice President by both houses of
Congress.
| # | Name | Home State | Took Office | Left Office | Party | President |
|---|
| 1 | John Adams | Massachusetts | April 21, 17891 | March 3, 1797 | Federalist | Washington |
| 2 | Thomas Jefferson | Virginia | March 4, 1797 | March 3, 1801 | Democratic-Republican | J. Adams |
| 3 | Aaron Burr | New York | March 4, 1801 | March 3, 1805 | Democratic-Republican | Jefferson |
| 4 | George Clinton | New York | March 4, 1805 | April 20, 18122 | Democratic-Republican | Jefferson/Madison |
| Vacant | April 20, 1812 | March 3, 1813 | | Madison |
| 5 | Elbridge Gerry | Massachusetts | March 4, 1813 | November 23, 18142 | Democratic-Republican | Madison |
| Vacant | November 23, 1814 | March 3, 1817 | | Madison |
| 6 | Daniel Tompkins | New York | March 4, 1817 | March 3, 1825 | Democratic-Republican | Monroe |
| 7 | John Calhoun | South Carolina | March 4, 1825 | December 28, 18323 | Democratic-Republican | J. Q. Adams/Jackson |
| Vacant | December 28, 1832 | March 3, 1833 | | Jackson |
| 8 | Martin Van Buren | New York | March 4, 1833 | March 3, 1837 | Democrat | Jackson |
| 9 | Richard Johnson | Kentucky | March 4, 1837 | March 3, 1841 | Democrat | Van Buren |
| 10 | John Tyler | Virginia | March 4, 1841 | April 6, 18414 | Whig | W. Harrison |
| Vacant | April 6, 1841 | March 3, 1845 | | |
