Editing Vice President of the United States (section)

==History and development==
===Constitutional Convention===

No mention of an office of vice president was made at the 1787 [[Constitutional Convention (United States)|Constitutional Convention]] until near the end, when an eleven-member committee on "Leftover Business" proposed a method of electing the chief executive (president).<ref>{{cite web|title=Major Themes at the Constitutional Convention: 8. Establishing the Electoral College and the Presidency|url=http://teachingamericanhistory.org/static/convention/themes/8.html|website=TeachingAmericanHistory.org|publisher=Ashbrook Center at Ashland University|location=Ashland, Ohio|access-date=February 21, 2018|archive-date=February 10, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180210174819/http://teachingamericanhistory.org/static/convention/themes/8.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Delegates had previously considered the selection of the Senate's presiding officer, deciding that "the Senate shall choose its own President", and had agreed that this official would be designated the executive's immediate successor. They had also considered the mode of election of the executive but had not reached consensus. This all changed on September 4, when the committee recommended that the nation's chief executive be elected by an [[Electoral College (United States)|Electoral College]], with each [[U.S. state|state]] having a number of presidential electors equal to the sum of that state's allocation of [[United States House of Representatives|representatives]] and [[United States Senate|senators]].<ref name=Garvey/><ref name=RA2005TLR>{{cite journal|last=Albert|first=Richard|title=The Evolving Vice Presidency|journal=Temple Law Review|date=Winter 2005|volume=78|issue=4|url=https://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1624&context=lsfp|pages=811–896|publisher=Temple University of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education|location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|access-date=July 29, 2018|via=Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School|archive-date=April 1, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401064932/https://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&httpsredir=1&article=1624&context=lsfp|url-status=live}}</ref>

Recognizing that loyalty to one's individual state outweighed loyalty to the new federation, the Constitution's framers assumed individual electors would be inclined to choose a candidate from their own state (a so-called "[[favorite son]]" candidate) over one from another state. So they created the office of vice president and required the electors to vote for two candidates, at least one of whom must be from outside the elector's state, believing that the second vote would be cast for a candidate of national character.<ref name=RA2005TLR/><ref>{{cite magazine|title=US Vice Presidents|url=http://www.historytoday.com/mark-rathbone/us-vice-presidents|last=Rathbone|first=Mark|magazine=History Review|issue=71|date=December 2011|publisher=History Today|location=London|access-date=February 21, 2018|archive-date=February 19, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180219050924/http://www.historytoday.com/mark-rathbone/us-vice-presidents|url-status=live}}</ref> Additionally, to guard against the possibility that electors might [[Gamesmanship#Usage outside of games|strategically]] waste their second votes, it was specified that the first runner-up would become vice president.<ref name=RA2005TLR/>

The resultant method of electing the president and vice president, spelled out in [[Article Two of the United States Constitution#Clause 3: Electoral College|Article{{spaces}}II, Section{{spaces}}1, Clause{{spaces}}3]], allocated to each [[U.S. state|state]] a number of electors equal to the combined total of its Senate and House of Representatives membership. Each elector was allowed to vote for two people for president (rather than for both president and vice president), but could not [[Ranked voting|differentiate]] between their first and second choice for the presidency. The person receiving the greatest number of votes (provided it was an [[absolute majority]] of the whole number of electors) would be president, while the individual who received the next largest number of votes became vice president. If there were a tie for first or for second place, or if no one won a majority of votes, the president and vice president would be selected by means of [[contingent election]]s protocols stated in the clause.<ref name=A2TKec>{{cite web|last=Kuroda|first=Tadahisa|title=Essays on Article II: Electoral College|work=The Heritage Guide to The Constitution|url=https://www.heritage.org/constitution/#!/articles/2/essays/80/electoral-college|publisher=The Heritage Foundation|access-date=July 27, 2018|archive-date=August 22, 2020|archive-url=https://archive.today/20200822232208/https://www.heritage.org/constitution/%23!/amendments/8/essays/161/cruel-and-unusual-punishment#!/articles/2/essays/80/electoral-college|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=CRS2017THN>{{cite web|last=Neale|first=Thomas H.|title=The Electoral College: How It Works in Contemporary Presidential Elections|date=May 15, 2017|url=https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL32611.pdf|work=CRS Report for Congress|publisher=Congressional Research Service|location=Washington, D.C.|page=13|access-date=July 29, 2018|archive-date=December 6, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201206064910/https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL32611.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Early vice presidents and Twelfth Amendment===
[[File:John Adams 1800 to 1815 Portrait (4x5 cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|250px|[[John Adams]], the first vice president of the United States]]

The first two vice presidents, [[John Adams]] and [[Thomas Jefferson]], both of whom gained the office by virtue of being runners-up in presidential contests, presided regularly over Senate proceedings and did much to shape the role of Senate president.<ref name=VP-PS/><ref>{{cite web| last=Schramm| first=Peter W.| title=Essays on Article I: Vice President as Presiding Officer| url=https://www.heritage.org/constitution/#!/articles/1/essays/15/vice-president-as-presiding-officer| work=Heritage Guide to the Constitution| publisher=The Heritage Foundation| access-date=July 27, 2018| archive-date=August 22, 2020| archive-url=https://archive.today/20200822232208/https://www.heritage.org/constitution/%23!/amendments/8/essays/161/cruel-and-unusual-punishment#!/articles/1/essays/15/vice-president-as-presiding-officer| url-status=live}}</ref> Several 19th-century vice presidents—such as [[George M. Dallas|George Dallas]], [[Levi Morton]], and [[Garret Hobart]]—followed their example and led effectively, while others were rarely present.<ref name=VP-PS/>

The emergence of [[Political party|political parties]] and nationally coordinated election campaigns during the 1790s (which the Constitution's framers had not contemplated) quickly frustrated the election plan in the original Constitution. In the [[1796 United States presidential election|election of 1796]], [[Federalist Party|Federalist]] candidate John Adams won the presidency, but his bitter rival, [[Democratic-Republican Party|Democratic-Republican]] candidate Thomas Jefferson, came second and thus won the vice presidency. As a result, the president and vice president were from opposing parties; and Jefferson used the vice presidency to frustrate the president's policies. Then, four years later, in the [[1800 United States presidential election|election of 1800]], Jefferson and fellow Democratic-Republican [[Aaron Burr]] each received 73 electoral votes. In the contingent election that followed, Jefferson finally won the presidency on the 36th ballot, leaving Burr the vice presidency. Afterward, the system was overhauled through the [[Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Twelfth Amendment]] in time to be used in the [[1804 United States presidential election|1804 election]].<ref name=HF-XII>{{cite news|last=Fried|first=Charles|title=Essays on Amendment XII: Electoral College|work=The Heritage Guide to the Constitution|url=https://www.heritage.org/constitution/#!/amendments/12/essays/165/electoral-college|publisher=The Heritage Foundation|access-date=February 20, 2018|archive-date=August 22, 2020|archive-url=https://archive.today/20200822232208/https://www.heritage.org/constitution/%23!/amendments/8/essays/161/cruel-and-unusual-punishment#!/amendments/12/essays/165/electoral-college|url-status=live}}</ref>

===19th and early 20th centuries===

For much of its existence, the office of vice president was seen as little more than a minor position. John Adams, the first vice president, was the first of many frustrated by the "complete insignificance" of the office. To his wife [[Abigail Adams]] he wrote, "My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man{{spaces}}... or his imagination contrived or his imagination conceived; and as I can do neither good nor evil, I must be borne away by others and met the common fate."<ref>{{cite book| last=Smith| first=Page| author-link=Page Smith| title=John Adams| volume=II 1784–1826| date=1962| publisher=Doubleday| location= New York| lccn=63-7188| page=844}}</ref> [[Thomas R. Marshall]], who served as vice president from 1913 to 1921 under President [[Woodrow Wilson]], lamented: "Once there were two brothers. One ran away to sea; the other was elected Vice President of the United States. And nothing was heard of either of them again."<ref name="casevpquote">{{cite web|url=http://www.case.edu/news/2004/10-04/vp_trivia.htm|title=A heartbeat away from the presidency: vice presidential trivia|publisher=[[Case Western Reserve University]]|date=October 4, 2004|access-date=September 12, 2008|archive-date=October 19, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019155112/http://case.edu/news/2004/10-04/vp_trivia.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> His successor, [[Calvin Coolidge]], was so obscure that [[Major League Baseball]] sent him free passes that misspelled his name, and a fire marshal failed to recognize him when Coolidge's Washington residence was evacuated.<ref name="greenberg2007">{{cite book|title=Calvin Coolidge profile|publisher=Macmillan|author=Greenberg, David|year=2007|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wq1D6hcYlFwC&q=notary&pg=PA40|isbn=978-0-8050-6957-0|pages=40–41|access-date=October 15, 2020|archive-date=January 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210114195045/https://books.google.com/books?id=wq1D6hcYlFwC&q=notary&pg=PA40|url-status=live}}</ref> [[John Nance Garner]], who served as vice president from 1933 to 1941 under President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], claimed that the vice presidency "isn't worth a pitcher of warm piss".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thinkexist.com/quotation/the_vice-presidency_isn-t_worth_a_pitcher_of_warm/196103.html|title=John Nance Garner quotes|access-date=August 25, 2008|archive-date=April 14, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414213700/http://thinkexist.com/quotation/the_vice-presidency_isn-t_worth_a_pitcher_of_warm/196103.html|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Harry Truman]], who also served as vice president under Franklin Roosevelt, said the office was as "useful as a cow's fifth teat".<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Nation: Some Day You'll Be Sitting in That Chair|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,875366,00.html|magazine=Time|access-date=October 3, 2014|date=November 29, 1963|archive-date=October 7, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141007074757/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,875366,00.html|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Walter Bagehot]] remarked in ''[[The English Constitution]]'' that "[t]he framers of the Constitution expected that the ''vice''-president would be elected by the Electoral College as the second wisest man in the country. The vice-presidentship being a sinecure, a second-rate man agreeable to the wire-pullers is always smuggled in. The chance of succession to the presidentship is too distant to be thought of."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bagehot|first=Walter|title=[[The English Constitution]]|publisher=Collins|year=1963|pages=80|orig-year=1867}}</ref>

When the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig Party]] asked [[Daniel Webster]] to run for the vice presidency on [[Zachary Taylor]]'s ticket, he replied "I do not propose to be buried until I am really dead and in my coffin."<ref name="webster-novp">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FVSFAAAAMAAJ&q=%22I+do+not+propose+to+be+buried+until+I+am+really+dead+and+in+my+coffin.%22|title=A Grammar of American Politics: The National Government|last1=Binkley|first1=Wilfred Ellsworth|last2=Moos|first2=Malcolm Charles|author-link2=Malcolm Moos|location=New York|publisher=[[Alfred A. Knopf]]|year=1949|page=265|access-date=October 17, 2015|archive-date=September 13, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150913042802/https://books.google.com/books?id=FVSFAAAAMAAJ&q=%22I+do+not+propose+to+be+buried+until+I+am+really+dead+and+in+my+coffin.%22|url-status=live}}</ref><!--See also: https://books.google.com/books?id=FVSFAAAAMAAJ&q=%22I+do+not+propose+to+be+buried+until+I+am+really+dead+and+in+my+coffin.%22+webster (note the added word).--> This was the second time Webster declined the office, which [[William Henry Harrison]] had first offered to him. Ironically, both the presidents making the offer to Webster died in office, meaning the three-time candidate would have become president had he accepted either. Since presidents rarely die in office, however, the better preparation for the presidency was considered to be the office of [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]], in which Webster served under Harrison, Tyler, and later, Taylor's successor, Fillmore.

In the first hundred years of the United States' existence no fewer than seven proposals to abolish the office of vice president were advanced.<ref name="ames">{{cite book|last1=Ames|first1=Herman|title=The Proposed Amendments to the Constitution of the United States During the First Century of Its History|date=1896|publisher=[[American Historical Association]]|pages=[https://archive.org/details/proposedamendmen00amesrich/page/70 70]–72|url=https://archive.org/details/proposedamendmen00amesrich}}</ref> The first such constitutional amendment was presented by [[Samuel W. Dana]] in 1800; it was defeated by a vote of 27 to 85 in the [[United States House of Representatives]].<ref name="ames"/> The second, introduced by United States Senator [[James Hillhouse]] in 1808, was also defeated.<ref name="ames"/> During the late 1860s and 1870s, five additional amendments were proposed.<ref name="ames"/> One advocate, [[James Mitchell Ashley]], opined that the office of vice president was "superfluous" and dangerous.<ref name="ames"/>

[[Garret Hobart]], the first vice president under [[William McKinley]], was one of the very few vice presidents at this time who played an important role in the administration. A close confidant and adviser of the president, Hobart was called "Assistant President".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historycentral.com/Bio/rec/GarretHobart.html|title=Garret Hobart|access-date=August 25, 2008|archive-date=September 27, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927233833/http://www.historycentral.com/Bio/rec/GarretHobart.html|url-status=live}}</ref> However, until 1919, vice presidents were not included in meetings of the [[United States Cabinet|President's Cabinet]]. This precedent was broken by Woodrow Wilson when he asked Thomas R. Marshall to preside over Cabinet meetings while Wilson was in France negotiating the [[Treaty of Versailles]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lugar.senate.gov/services/pdf_crs/executive/The_Vice_Presidency.pdf|title=The Vice Presidency: Evolution of the Modern Office, 1933–2001|author=Harold C. Relyea|date=February 13, 2001|publisher=Congressional Research Service|access-date=February 11, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111109070153/http://www.lugar.senate.gov/services/pdf_crs/executive/The_Vice_Presidency.pdf|archive-date=November 9, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> President [[Warren G. Harding]] also invited Calvin Coolidge, to meetings. The next vice president, [[Charles G. Dawes]], did not seek to attend Cabinet meetings under President Coolidge, declaring that "the precedent might prove injurious to the country."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_Charles_Dawes.htm|title=U.S. Senate Web page on Charles G. Dawes, 30th Vice President (1925–1929)|publisher=Senate.gov|access-date=August 9, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141106112435/https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_Charles_Dawes.htm|archive-date=November 6, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> Vice President [[Charles Curtis]] regularly attended Cabinet meetings on the invitation of President [[Herbert Hoover]].<ref>{{cite magazine| title=National Affairs: Curtis v. Brown?| date=April 21, 1930| url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,739085,00.html| magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]| access-date=October 31, 2022}}</ref>

===Emergence of the modern vice presidency===
[[File:Harry S. Truman.jpg|thumb|upright|Though prominent as a Missouri Senator, [[Harry Truman]] had been vice president only three months when he became president; he was never informed of [[Franklin Roosevelt]]'s war or postwar policies while serving as vice president.]]

In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt raised the stature of the office by renewing the practice of inviting the vice president to cabinet meetings, which every president since has maintained. Roosevelt's first vice president, [[John Nance Garner]], broke with him over the "[[Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937|court-packing]]" issue early in his second term, and became Roosevelt's leading critic. At the start of that term, on [[Second inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt|January 20, 1937]], Garner had been the first vice president to be sworn into office on the Capitol steps in the same ceremony with the president, a tradition that continues. Prior to that time, vice presidents were traditionally inaugurated at a separate ceremony in the Senate chamber. [[Gerald Ford]] and [[Nelson Rockefeller]], who were each appointed to the office under the terms of the 25th Amendment, were inaugurated in the House and Senate chambers respectively.

At the [[1940 Democratic National Convention]], Roosevelt selected his own running mate, [[Henry A. Wallace|Henry Wallace]], instead of leaving the nomination to the convention, when he wanted Garner replaced.<ref name=VPrising>{{cite journal|last=Goldstein|first=Joel K.|title=The Rising Power of the Modern Vice Presidency|journal=Presidential Studies Quarterly|volume=38|issue=3|date=September 2008|pages=374–389|publisher=Wiley|doi=10.1111/j.1741-5705.2008.02650.x|jstor=41219685|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41219685|access-date=December 10, 2021 | issn = 0360-4918 }}</ref> He then gave Wallace major responsibilities during [[World War II]]. However, after numerous policy disputes between Wallace and other [[Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt|Roosevelt Administration]] and Democratic Party officials, he was denied re-nomination at the [[1944 Democratic National Convention]]. [[Harry Truman]] was selected instead. During his {{age in days|January 20, 1945|April 12, 1945}}-day vice presidency, Truman was never informed about any war or post-war plans, including the [[Manhattan Project]].<ref name="JSTOR daily">{{cite web| last=Feuerherd| first=Peter| title=How Harry Truman Transformed the Vice Presidency| date=May 8, 2018| url=https://daily.jstor.org/how-harry-truman-transformed-the-vice-presidency/| work=JSTOR Daily| publisher=[[JSTOR]]| access-date=August 12, 2022}}</ref> Truman had no visible role in the Roosevelt administration outside of his congressional responsibilities and met with the president only a few times during his tenure as vice president.<ref>{{cite web| last=Hamby| first=Alonzo L.| title=Harry Truman: Life Before the Presidency| date=October 4, 2016| url=https://millercenter.org/president/truman/life-before-the-presidency| publisher=Miller Center, University of Virginia| location=Charlottesville, Virginia| access-date=August 12, 2022}}</ref> Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, and Truman succeeded to the presidency (the state of Roosevelt's health had also been kept from Truman). At the time he said, "I felt like the moon, the stars and all the planets fell on me."<ref>{{cite web| title=Harry S Truman National Historic Site: Missouri| url=https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/presidents/harry_truman_nhs.html| publisher=National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior| access-date=August 12, 2022}}</ref> Determined that no future vice president should be so uninformed upon unexpectedly becoming president, Truman made the vice president a member of the [[United States National Security Council|National Security Council]], a participant in Cabinet meetings and a recipient of regular security briefings in 1949.<ref name="JSTOR daily"/>

The stature of the vice presidency grew again while [[Richard Nixon]] was in office (1953–1961). He attracted the attention of the media and the Republican Party, when [[Dwight Eisenhower]] authorized him to preside at [[Cabinet of the United States|Cabinet]] meetings in his absence and to assume temporary control of the executive branch, which he did after Eisenhower suffered a [[myocardial infarction|heart attack]] on September 24, 1955, [[ileitis]] in June 1956, and a [[stroke]] in November 1957. Nixon was also visible on the world stage during his time in office.<ref name="JSTOR daily"/>

Until 1961, vice presidents had their offices on [[Capitol Hill]], a formal office in the Capitol itself and a working office in the [[Russell Senate Office Building]]. [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] was the first vice president to also be given an office in the White House complex, in the [[Old Executive Office Building]]. The former Navy Secretary's office in the OEOB has since been designated the "Ceremonial Office of the Vice President" and is today used for formal events and press interviews. President [[Jimmy Carter]] was the first president to give his vice president, [[Walter Mondale]], an office in the [[West Wing]] of the White House, which all vice presidents have since retained. Because of their function as president of the Senate, vice presidents still maintain offices and staff members on Capitol Hill. This change came about because Carter held the view that the office of the vice presidency had historically been a wasted asset and wished to have his vice president involved in the decision-making process. Carter pointedly considered, according to Joel Goldstein, the way Roosevelt treated Truman as "immoral".<ref name="WPO 41921">{{cite news|last=Balz|first=Dan|title=Mondale lost the presidency but permanently changed the office of vice presidency|date=April 19, 2021|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mondale-lost-the-presidency-but-permanently-changed-the-office-of-vice-presidency/2021/04/19/478b1a68-a17b-11eb-85fc-06664ff4489d_story.html|access-date=August 2, 2023}}</ref>

Another factor behind the rise in prestige of the vice presidency was the expanded use of presidential preference primaries for choosing party nominees during the 20th century. By adopting primary voting, the field of candidates for vice president was expanded by both the increased quantity and quality of presidential candidates successful in some primaries, yet who ultimately failed to capture the presidential nomination at the convention.<ref name=VPrising/> 

At the start of the 21st century, [[Dick Cheney]] (2001–2009) held a tremendous amount of power and frequently made policy decisions on his own, without the knowledge of the president.<ref name="Kenneth T. Walsh">{{cite magazine |url=https://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/031013/13cheney.htm|title=Dick Cheney is the most powerful vice president in history. Is that good?|magazine=U.S. News & World Report|author=Kenneth T. Walsh|date=October 3, 2003|access-date=September 13, 2015 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110205021439/http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/031013/13cheney.htm|archive-date=February 5, 2011}}</ref> This rapid growth led to [[Matthew Yglesias]] and [[Bruce Ackerman]] calling for the abolition of the vice presidency<ref>{{cite news|last1=Yglesias|first1=Matthew|title=End the Vice Presidency|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/07/end-the-vice-presidency/307516/|access-date=December 28, 2017|work=[[The Atlantic]]|date=July 2009|archive-date=December 29, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171229052318/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/07/end-the-vice-presidency/307516/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Ackerman|first1=Bruce|title=Abolish the vice presidency|url=http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-oe-ackerman2-2008oct02-story.html?barc=0|access-date=December 28, 2017|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=October 2, 2008|archive-date=December 29, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171229112244/http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-oe-ackerman2-2008oct02-story.html?barc=0|url-status=live}}</ref> while [[2008 United States presidential election|2008]]'s both vice presidential candidates, [[Sarah Palin]] and [[Joe Biden]], said they would reduce the role to simply being an adviser to the president.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89FbCPzAsRA|title=Full Vice Presidential Debate with Gov. Palin and Sen. Biden|date=October 2, 2008 |publisher=YouTube|access-date=October 30, 2011|archive-date=January 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210114195116/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89FbCPzAsRA|url-status=live}}</ref>