Vice President William Wheeler
Obscure –not known to many people
Not readily noticed or seen; inconspicuous;
Out of sight; hidden...Cambridge Dictionary.
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.……Thomas R. Marshall.
One night, around 4 a.m., as sleep eluded us, we went through a usually reliable soporific process of sleep inducers. We mentallylisted the kings and queens of England and then the presidents of the United States. Sleep did still did not come so we started thinking about Vice-Presidents of the U.S and realized how few of them we remember. Naturally, the following day, actually, it was later that same day, research commenced. Quick. Name ten pre 1980 vice presidents. If you can, you are eligible for the Henry Wilson Award. This raises the question are our American vice presidents obscure or just easily forgotten or both? The answer is yes. Some of them are not just obscure, they are really obscure. Even more are easily forgotten then they become obscure. A selected few are totally obscure although we hope most were probably known, at least temporarily, to their contemporaries……maybe. Indeed, they are so obscure that most educational history syllabi don’t even address them. Alas, poor William Wheeler we hardly knew ye. We all know John Adams and J.D Vance and Joe Biden but whoops what happened to Dick Cheney? He’s fading fast.
Obscurity is in the eye of the beholder. Frequently, it depends on the generation. Historians generally agree that generational naming began in the 20th century. Gertrude Stein coined the term "Lost Generation" about those born around 1900 in her work but it wasn’t an official generation, it was a group of ex-pats who lived in Paris, sat at cafes and wrote novels like The Sun Also Rises. The first official generation was the Silent Generation (1928 -1945). They might have known Charles Davis. The Baby Boomers (1946-1964), probably know Hubert Humphrey, Gen X, how about Spiro T. Agnew? Millennials (1981 - 1996)?, yes, J. Danforth Quayle. As for Gen Z, (1997-2012) probably none unless they are named dropped on dancing videos on Tik Tok. Same goes for Gen Alpha (2011-2024). Gen Beta 2025? we’ll get back to you on that one in 20 years.
Most of us, hopefully, can name the Vice-Presidents who served during our lifetimes. The author can go back to Alben Barkley as a contemporary. There’s an obscure one for most people….even for Alben Barkley.
And, so, you don’t wake up at 4 a.m. thinking “who was the vice president during the Martin Van Buren administration”, we present a brief subjective study of the American vice presidents. After comprehensive research, we have deemed many of these be very obscure no matter the generation. We also understand that there may be reader out there who thinks, “Come on! Doesn’t everyone know Schuyler Colfax?” Our obscurity methodology involved a listing of each president in order of term served. If we name the president, who was the vice president? Do we know him?
Most of those vice presidents who succeeded to the presidency are well known to varying degrees. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Tyler, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur (to a lesser degree), Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, George Bush, Joe Biden all ascended to the presidency. Other Veeps** who ascended to the presidency verge on the unknown even when they were president. Martin Van Buren and Millard Fillmore are murky examples. Fillmore is so unknown that he is almost known. We visited his home outside of Buffalo, NY, a must see on the Buffalo must see circuit along with Niagara Falls and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House. We were the only ones at the Fillmore House. They didn’t even have tee shirts or refrigerator magnets, but he is at least well known to us. There is even a Millard Fillmore Society founded in 1963, but they are dedicated to his unknown ness not his known ness. Andrew Johnson and Chester Arthur, former presidents are fairly obscure. The totally obscure are those whose names one comes across, and one has no idea who they were, like Levi P. Morton. The less really obscure are those who’s names we read or hear and they may may resonate to some from other events or times in our nation’s history such as James Buchanan’s V.P, John Breckenridge who ran for the Presidency against Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Our friend, Millard Fillmore, who was Zachary Taylor’s vice president and Hannibal Hamlin, Abraham Lincoln’s first vice president are obscure but they have become less obscure because they were formerly so obscure that they are now popular trivia answers. You will note as we continue that mid-19th century was the heyday of obscurity for the nation’s second in command. However, we are certain that by 2080, Richard Cheney and J. Danforth (Dan) Quayle will fit into the obscure category. Our objective was to have a Top Ten Most Obscure List but there were just too many and we kept forgetting them. Mercifully, we will be citing them several more times and you will be reminded of their names during our diligent investigation. You never know, you could be at a casual dinner with friends, a business dinner, a blind date, a Bar Mitzvah, a wedding, a funeral, a church service, an AA meeting….anywhere, and someone might ask, “who was the Vice President during the Franklin Pierce Administration”. You will now be prepared.
Totally Obscure Vice Presidents – The Obscure of the Obscure.
· Elbridge Gerry Republican James Madison 1813–1814
· Daniel D. Tompkins Republican James Monroe 1817–1825
· George Mifflin Dallas Democratic James K. Polk 1845–1849
· William Rufus King Democratic Franklin Pierce 1853- 1857
· Schuyler Colfax Republican Ulysses S. Grant 1869–1873
· Henry Wilson Republican Ulysses S. Grant 1873–1875
· William A. Wheeler Republican Rutherford B. Hayes1877-1881
· Thomas A. Hendricks Democratic Grover Cleveland 1885 1889
· Levi P. Morton Republican Benjamin Harrison 1889–1893
· Garret A. Hobart Republican William McKinley 1897–1899 20
· Thomas R. Marshall Democratic Woodrow Wilson 1913–1921
Ulysses S. Grant managed to have two obscure Vice Presidents which was quite an accomplishment.
There is no need to memorize the above list as you will encounter all of them in the discussion that follows. However, there will be a quiz at the end.
In summary:
· 15 Vice-presidents have become Presidents
· 8 were elevated because of the death of the President
· 7 vice presidents have died in office
· 6 were elected after having been the Vice-president
· 2 vice presidents resigned
· One became President because the former President resigned
So, why do we have a vice president? The Constitution, as ratified on June 21, 1788, included the plans for the vice president. Article II, Section 1 spelled out that “in Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President.” Congress could also declare by law when a vice president had a disability. Article I, Section 3 established the vice president’s role in Congress: “The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.”
If a vice president became president pre- 1967, the office of vice president was not filled. In 1967 the 25th Amendment filled the vacancy when a vice president became president. Section 2: 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.
Pay attention to the above because in 1974 the U.S ended up with a president and vice president, neither of whom were elected.
Returning to the consideration of Vice Presidents, the first two, Adams and Jefferson are easy. Adams referred to the office as “The vice presidency is the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.” Trouble begins with our third President, Thomas Jefferson. He served two terms. His first vice president was the odious Aaron Burr, infamous for killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel. "Talk less, smile more,” said Mr. Burr. But in 1805 Jefferson’s number 2 had had us stumped. Of course, it was George Clinton, a former governor of N.Y. Evidently, Clinton grew so fond of the job that he stuck around for the next administration and President, James Madison’s first term. In 1812, he ran against Madison. It was close, but he lost. Madison’s second V.P was the first of our obscurables, (our word), Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts. Elbridge who? Needing a job, after losing an election for governor of Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry asked President James Madison to choose him as vice president. You may recognize his name as the word gerrymandered originated with his name and from his term as governor when he manipulated election districts to favor Republicans. Then, we were lost again for James Monroe’s #2 but at least he had the same one for both of his terms. It was another former Governor of New York, Daniel Thompkins. “I know, I’m ignorant and undereducated but,” … said Thompkins. Those of us who have lived in Manhattan know that he gave his name to Thompkins Square on the lower east side. New York would have quite a few former governors and other politicians who became Veeps as we shall see.
John Adams’ son, John Quincy, came next much to the chagrin of Andrew Jackson who lost the 1824 disputed presidential election to Adams with fishy results decided in the House of Representatives. John Quincy brought along John C. Calhoun of South Carolina as vice president. Jackson succeeded Quincy Adams after his one term and Calhoun stuck around to be Jackson’s Vice President. Not obscure, Calhoun was a rabid pro slavery segregationist and states’ rights advocate and major pre-Civil War political voice for secession. The notoriously prickly Calhoun was too much for the notoriously prickly “Old Hickory” and vice versa and so he resigned the office in 1832. Along came Martin Van Buren for term number two in 1832. We count Van Buren as the first obscure President 1836-1840. If Van Buren is obscure to most of us, naturally, his V.P, Richard Mentor Johnson, could be in the running for most obscure vice president. Johnson (That’s three V.Ps named Johnson that we’ve had) was a former senator from Kentucky who was infamous at the time for his long-term relationship with an enslaved woman with whom he had two children. One term was all Van Buren, “Old Kinderhook”, would get and, thankfully, we all know the next one in 1840 thanks to the famous campaign slogan of “Tippicanoe and Tyler Too”. Alas, William Henry Harrison, old “Tippicanoe” died of pneumonia after cleverly giving a three-hour inauguration speech in the rain in March so Vice President John Tyler, former Governor and senator from Virginia, became the first vice president to replace a president and naturally the press labeled him “the Accidental President”. Tyler managed to make everyone in his party angry so there was no nomination in store for him in 1844. The next president, a favorite of ours was/is fairly obscure. James Knox Polk kept every campaign promise, good or bad depending on the historian. Polk gave us another contender for very obscure, a former senator from Pennsylvania, George Mifflin Dallas was his vice president and even though Dallas, County, Texas is named for him he is honored on our very obscure list. Polk had promised not to run for a second term and claimed to have achieved his major policy goals, so he kept his promise and didn’t run for re-election. His 1848 successor, Zachary Taylor “Old Rough and Ready” went kaput in 1850 giving us Millard Fillmore of New York. Fillmore is, as we know is almost well known because he is so not well known. He wasn’t even a former governor of New York; he was the first to hold the office of state comptroller. While Fillmore is obscure, he is also infamous for zealously enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act of 1854. 1856 gave us arguably our least known president, Franklin Pierce, the only president from New Hampshire. If Pierce was our least known, then his vice president, William Rufus King is a strong contender for most totally obscure. King was the first sitting senator (he was from Alabama) to become Vice President. Suffering from tuberculosis, he became unlucky vice president number 13. King served only 5 weeks and never got to Washington to take up the office. He took the oath of office in Cuba while trying to recuperate from his disease and became the only vice president to die before getting actually be vice president. King’s other claim to fame involved Franklin Pierce’s 1856 successor, James Buchanan. Two lifelong bachelors, Buchanan and King shared a Washington, D.C., home and their seemingly intimate relationship led to widespread gossip. Some contemporaries referred to King as “Mr. Buchanan’s wife,” or as a “Miss Nancy,” which was a commonly used 19th-century epithet for an effeminate male. Speaking of James Buchanan, generally recognized as the worst president the nation has had, his Vice President, at 36, John C. Breckenridge, not quite obscure, was the youngest to hold the office. The former member of Congress from Kentucky, ran against Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and later joined the Confederate Army. He and Aaron Burr are the only two vice presidents to be charged with treason.
“I do not propose to be buried until I am really dead.” — New Hampshire Sen. Daniel Webster, on rejecting an offer to be future President William Henry Harrison’s running mate in 1840.
In the election of 1860, Republican Abraham Lincoln had Hannibal Hamlin, a former governor of Maine as his running mate. He remains a good trivia question because of his obscurity which, as noted, makes him kind of less obscure. It is also a great name for alliterative politician fans. In fact, we have had three alliterative vice presidents, Hannibal Hamlin, William Wheeler and Calvin Coolidge. In 1864, seeking support from Democrats in Lincoln’s re-election bid, the Republicans dumped Hannibal and chose Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, a southerner to balance the ticket. If it wasn’t for Buchanan, Johnson would be a candidate for worst president in U.S history. He had no vice president. Then, along came war hero, Ulysses S. Grant and his now obscure vice president, Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and a founder of the Republican Party. Colfax was removed from the ticket in 1873 due to charges of corruption in connection with the Credit Mobilier scandal. Crédit Mobilier, now as obscure as Colfax, was a phony construction company set up to build the Union Pacific Railroad. It was financed with fraudulent bonds and used stocks to bribe government officials, resulting in hefty profits for its shareholders. Sound familiar? Quite a bit of that nowadays. Grant then selected Henry A. Wilson, another top candidate for most obscure. Wilson, a former general, had a stroke in 1873 and then died in 1975. Grant, a Civil War hero, didn’t do well with his vice-presidential selections.
Rutherford B. Hayes, Republican, is not obscure because of the election of 1876. It was one of the, shall we say, the more tainted of the presidential elections. Democrat Samuel J. Tildon of, yes New York won the popular vote, but he was one vote shy of victory in the Electoral College. 20 electoral votes in were in dispute. Books have been written about this election and PhD candidates have hurled dissertations at each other at twenty paces over this election but basically Congress established a commission. Good things rarely happen when Congress establishes a commission. Political maneuvering and deals ensued and when it was all over, Hayes was declared victor 185 -184 electoral votes thus giving us William A. Wheeler, a member of the House of Representative from New York, another of our favorite obscurables as vice president. Of note is that Wheeler was clean shaven, no beard or gigantic sideburns in contrast to the hairy individuals that preceded and succeeded him.
1880 brought us James S. Garfield of Ohio and his vice president would be listed in the upper echelon of obscurables. Garfield was assassinated and Chester A. Arthur of, yes, New York, became president. Arthur escaped major obscurity as he is best known for supporting the Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883), which provided for the open appointment and promotion of federal employees based on merit rather than patronage. Merit! Can you imagine? What a concept. On the hairy face front, Arthur had very strange sideburns but no beard. Arthur did not run for election in 1884 as he was suffering from what we know now as Bright’s Disease, a fatal kidney condition.
We return to our obscure list in 1884 when Grover Cleveland of……guess which state…..yes, New York, brought along Thomas A. Hendricks a member of Congress from Indiana as his vice president. You will note that there have been six vice presidents from Indiana, second only to New York with eight. Alas, Hendricks was also to join our list of vice presidents who bit the dust. He was gone just nine months after his inauguration due to a stroke thus rendering him totally obscure but not as totally obscure as William Rufus King.
The vice presidency was quite hazardous to the health during the 19thcentury. As we know, vice presidents would not be replaced after they ascended to the presidency until the 25th amendment in 1967. Grover Cleveland lost the election of 1888, but we have not heard the last of him. Fortunately, for our study of obscurables, Benjamin Harrison, grandson of old “Tippicanoe” from 1840 won that 1888 election and presented us with Levi P. Morton as the 22nd vice president. Morton, a banker, member of the House of Representatives was from……..three guesses…..did you say New York? He had also served as Ambassador to France during the Statue of Liberty gifting. After Harrison lost the election of 1892 to Grover Cleveland, who was at that time governor of…….go ahead, guess…..So, Grover Cleveland was back in 1892 but since Thomas A. Hendricks had gone kaput, Cleveland’s running mate was Adlai Stevenson, former member of the House of Representatives from Illinois and Republican party apparatchik. He was also the grandfather of Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson who lost two presidential elections to Dwight Eisenhower, 1952 and 1956.
Republican William McKinley former member of Congress and Governor of Ohio won the election of 1896. Garrett Hobart, a former governor of New Jersey was chosen as his running mate after Thomas Reed, who had competed for the presidential ticket, rejected the vice-presidential nomination in a snit. Hobart almost made it through his four years as vice president but, alas, he died from heart disease in 1899. This ended a streak of obscure vice presidents since McKinley ran with Theordore Roosevelt as his vice-presidential candidate in 1900. “I would a great deal rather be anything, say professor of history, than vice president.” Said Roosevelt. And we all know Theodore Roosevelt. Right? Mckinley was assassinated shortly after his 2nd term began in 1901 and Roosevelt became president. Teddy ran for re-election in 1904 with running mate Charles Warren Fairbanks, senator from Indiana. Fairbanks and Charles Mifflin Dallas are our two of our obscure vice presidents rendered less obscure because they had cities or counties named after them and would make a good trivia question n’es pas? When Roosevelt did not run again in 1908, a choice he would regret, the rather corpulent William Howard Taft was elected bringing along an obscure vice president with our favorite middle name, James Schoolcroft Sherman a member of the House of Representatives from Indiana. Sherman almost made it through his four years as vice president, but, alas, he expired in October of 1912, of Bright’s disease, (see Chester Arthur), one month before Democrat Woodrow Wilson was elected president. Sherman is famous for being the first Vice President to fly in a plane. He was also the first to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a baseball game. He was also the last Veep to die in office. Thank goodness because they had been dropping like flies for decades.
Does the name Thomas R. Marshall ring a bell? He was Woodrow Wilson’s Vice President for two full terms and former Governor of Indiana. The 25th amendment would have helped him serve as president as Wilson suffered a stroke in 1919 was incapacitated. His wife, Edith, basically ran the country as Marshall remained largely unaware of his condition because it was covered up by Wilson’s aides and Madame Wilson. He did not attempt to preside over cabinet meetings, thinking that such action might be viewed as an attempt to usurp Wilson's authority. “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.”……Thomas R. Marshall.
“Vice president: A spare tire on the automobile of government.”….. Will Rogers
In 1920 long came another of the of the “worst presidents”, the scandal scarred Warren Gamaliel Harding of Ohio. Harding’s Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall would be convicted of the secret leasing of federal oil reserves in Teapot Dome, Wyoming to oil companies. There were also several extramarital affairs and a child born out of wedlock. Harding had few enemies because he rarely took a firm enough stand on an issue to make any. His campaign slogan was a “Return to Normalcy”. Harding died in 1923 elevating his Vice President, Calvin Coolidge (another alliterative vice president) to the highest office in the land. “Silent Cal” Coolidge from Massachusetts is not obscure and was one of the better presidents. “I enjoyed my time as vice president. It never interfered with my mandatory 11 hours of sleep a day.”, Calvin Coolidge was the 29th vice president. We return to kind of obscure but not very obscure with the 2nd in command to 31st President, Iowan Herbert Hoover. Vice President, Charles Curtis, a Senator from Kansas was the first man with American Indian ancestry to be elected second highest office in the nation. Curtis was 1/8th American Indian and a descendent of Kaw Chief White Plume and Osage Chief Pawhuska. Poor Hoover and Davis along with him, was buried in the Franklin Roosevelt presidential election landslide of 1932. The Great Depression probably had something to do with it.
Democrat Franklin Roosevelt of New York would be elected four times. There were assorted vice presidents. The first was John Nance Garner, Speaker of the House of Representatives from Texas. Garner had some regrets. "Worst damnfool mistake I ever made was letting myself be elected Vice President of the United States. Should have stuck with my old chores as Speaker of the House. I gave up the second most important job in the Government for one that didn't amount to a hill of beans. I spent eight long years as Mr. Roosevelt's spare tire." He also referred to the vice presidency as “not worth a bucket of warm spit” although he may have used a different word than spit. Still, Garner is not very obscure since he is associated with the famous Roosevelt but Roosevelt’s next Vice President is more obscure than Garner but not completely obscure. Henry Wallace of Iowa. The nation dodged a bullet when Wallace was not re-nominated for the office in 1944 and replaced on the ticket by Harry Truman. Wallace wanted closer relations with mass murderer Josef Stalin and the Communist regime in Russia. He denounced the Marshall Plan in 1948 and ran as a Progressive (Thomas Dewey was the Republican candidate) in 1948 against…….. Harry S. Truman. Truman, no middle name, just S. Truman became President in 1945 when Roosevelt died. “Look at all the vice presidents in history. Where are they? They were about as useful as a cow’s fifth teat.”, said Mr. Truman,
We return to obscurity with Truman’s vice president, Alben W. Barkley, Senator from Kentucky. As noted, Barkley’s claim to fame was having his 10-year-old grandson call him **Veep, because vice president took too long to say. The media quickly picked it up, especially when the 71-year-old Barkley married a 38-year-old widow whom they dubbed the “Veepess”. Time Magazine, satirically, suggested the president should be “Peep”, the Secretary of State, “Steep”, and the Secretary of Labor, “Sleep”.
We skip obscures for a few years now since Dwight Eisenhower’s Veep, Richard Nixon is very well known. Nixon was elected President in 1968. While Richard Nixon was undergoing his Watergate travails, his vice president, former governor Maryland, Spiro T. Agnew resigned from office in October 1973 under a cloud of corruption and the American public became familiar with his “nolo contender” plea bargain to one charge of income tax evasion. Spiro T. Agnew will be a strong candidate for the most obscure list. Nixon selected Speaker of the House, the 3rd in line for the presidency, Gerald R. Ford as vice president to replace Spiro T. and when Nixon resigned in 1974, now President Ford said, “I’m a Ford, not a Lincoln”. Evidently, he was proud of that. Ford also seemed prone to falling down flights of stairs while wearing WIN (whip inflation now) buttons. Thanks to the 25th amendment, Ford selected New York governor, Nelson Rockefeller as his Veep. This ended a long streak of non-N.Y governors as vice presidents. Rockefeller was a major Republican party-political figure during the 1960s but had stayed on past his sell date as governor by 1974. He should be on our most obscure vice presidents list. He was famous but not many people remember him as a vice president. Ford would choose Robert Dole of Kansas as his running mate in 1976 but in 1974/75 the nation now had two unelected politicians in the two highest offices in the land.
In between Eisenhower and Nixon came John F. Kennedy and when Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas (see George Mifflin Dallas), Texas, his vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson former senator from Texas became president. Can you name Johnson’s V.P in 1964? Here is where generational obscurities come to the fore. Hubert Horatio Humphrey, senator from Minnesota was, like Nelson Rockefeller, a major political figure of the 1960s. Now? not so much. “The President has only 190 million bosses. The Vice President has 190 million and one.” said Humphrey. President Jimmy Carter, at a Democratic Presidential Convention introduced him as “Hubert Horatio Hornblower”. Carter’s, vice president, Walter Mondale former senator from Minnesota, again, lost the 1980 Presidential election to Ronald Reagan and George H.W Bush. George H.W Bush is not obscure, but when he served as President, his Vice President was J. Danforth (Dan) Quayle. Dan is fading from memory but many of his quotes will live on, “The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean in this century's history. But we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century." Or, referring to the slogan “a mind is a terrible thing to waste”, said “What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind. How true that is”. You get the idea.
If you think we are moving to the less obscure because they are more recent, think again. We know Bill Clinton and his Veep, Al Gore but George H. Bush’s vice president. Did you say Dick Cheney? Cheney was a former member of the House from Wyoming and held several cabinet posts. He went into hiding after 9/11 and was never seen again. Along came Obama and his vice president, Joe Biden. “It's easy being vice president - you don't have to do anything”, said Mr. Biden. Speaking of Biden, with him as president, came Kamala Harris of California as his vice president. “I love Venn diagrams. I really do; I love Venn diagrams. It's just something about those three circles and the analysis about where there is the intersection, right?”, said Harris
Stepping back one administration between Obama and Biden we have the category of Not Completely Obscure Yet But On the Way. Donald Trump’s first vice president, Mike Pence, former governor of Indiana could very well be on our most obscure list in another 10 years.
In the movie, “Back to the Future”, Michael J. Fox goes back in time and meets his parents as young people. He has to ensure that they will fall in love and marry and there will be a Michael J. Fox in the future. Every time something goes wrong and it looks like they won’t get together, he starts fade away just like our most recent vice presidents are starting to fade in the public memory. See Pence, Mike. They are becoming obscure and will be obscure for Generation Alpha and Generation Beta. Some vice presidents even became more obscure during the research and writing of this essay. We had to look up Garret Hobart several times.
“One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice-president, and that one word is 'to be prepared'.” …….Dan Quayle
And, As Promised, Your Quiz:
1. Which vice president died before he became vice president?
2. Who was Schuyler Colfax and was he related to Dodger pitcher, Sandy Koufax?
3. How many Johnsons served as vice president?
4. Which vice president was part Native American?
5. Which vice president killed Alexander Hamilton?
6. Which vice president was dumb as a rock?
7. How many vice presidents have become president?
8. Which vice president was the first to be called “Veep”
9. Which vice presidents were charged with treason?
10. Which vice president and president is honored by the Millard Fillmore Society?
The Vice Presidents
John Adams Federalist George Washington 1789–1797
Thomas Jefferson1 Republican John Adams 1797–1801
Aaron Burr Republican Thomas Jefferson 1801–1805
George Clinton Republican Thomas Jefferson 1805–1809
George Clinton Republican James Madison 1809–1812 4
Elbridge Gerry Republican James Madison 1813–1814 5
Daniel D. Tompkins Republican James Monroe 1817–1825
John C. Calhoun National Republican John Quincy Adams 1825–1829
John C. Calhoun National Republican Andrew Jackson 1829–1832
Martin Van Buren Democratic Andrew Jackson 1833–1837
Richard Mentor Johnson Democratic Martin Van Buren 1837–1841
John Tyler Democratic William H. Harrison 1841 12
George Mifflin Dallas Democratic James K. Polk1845–1849
Millard Fillmore Whig Zachary Taylor 1849–1850
William Rufus King Democratic Franklin Pierce 1853
John C. Breckinridge Democratic James Buchanan 1857–1861
Hannibal Hamlin Republican Abraham Lincoln 1861–1865
Andrew Johnson Democratic Abraham Lincoln 1865
Schuyler Colfax Republican Ulysses S. Grant 1869–1873
Henry Wilson Republican Ulysses S. Grant 1873–1875 17
William A. Wheeler Republican Rutherford B. Hayes1877–1881
Chester A. Arthur Republican James A. Garfield 1881
Thomas A. Hendricks Democratic Grover Cleveland1885
Levi P. Morton Republican Benjamin Harrison 1889–1893
Adlai E. Stevenson Democratic Grover Cleveland 1893–1897
Garret A. Hobart Republican William McKinley 1897–1899
Theodore Roosevelt Republican William McKinley 1901
Charles W. Fairbanks Republican Theodore Roosevelt1905–1909
James S. Sherman Republican William H. Taft 1909–1912
Thomas R. Marshall Democratic Woodrow Wilson 1913–1921
Calvin Coolidge Republican Warren G. Harding 1921–1923
Charles G. Dawes Republican Calvin Coolidge 1925–1929
Charles Curtis Republican Herbert C. Hoover 1929–1933
John Nance Garner Democratic Franklin Roosevelt 1933–1941
Henry A. Wallace Democratic Franklin Roosevelt 1941–1945
Harry S. Truman Democratic Franklin Roosevelt 1945
Alben W. Barkley Democratic Harry Truman 1949–1953
Richard M. Nixon Republican Dwight Eisenhower1953–1961
Lyndon B. Johnson Democratic John Kennedy 1961–1963 25
Hubert H. Humphrey Democratic Lyndon B. Johnson1965–1969
Spiro T. Agnew Republican Richard Nixon 1969–1973 26
Gerald R. Ford Republican Richard Nixon 1973–1974 28
Nelson A. Rockefeller Republican Gerald Ford 1974–1977
Walter F. Mondale Democratic Jimmy Carter 1977–1981
George H. W. Bush Republican Ronald Reagan 1981–1989
J. Danforth Quayle Republican George H. W. Bush 1989–1993
Albert A. Gore, Jr. Democratic William J. Clinton 1993–2001
Richard B. Cheney Republican George W. Bush 2001–2009
Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Democratic Barack Obama 2009–2017
Michael R. Pence Republican Donald Trump 2017–2021
Kamala D. Harris Democratic Joseph R. Biden, Jr. 2021–2025
J.D. Vance Republican Donald Trump 2025–present
*Vice president is a type of title, and titles are subject to specific rules of capitalization. Titles are specific to a person’s rank, office, job, or position. When vice president is used as a title to specify a particular person, it is capitalized.
But when it is used without a specific person in mind, it stays in the lowercase form.
Sources:
https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/what-is-the-constitutional-role-of-the-vice-president
Millercenter.org
https://www.britannica.com/browse/Vice-Presidents
https://www.kurtshistoricsites.com/vice-president-grave-directory/
https://www.archives.gov/presidential-records/vice-presidential-records
https://cv.libguides.com/US_Vice_Presidents
etymonline.com/word/veep
