The First VP to Succeed

Yesterday, we reviewed what the Constitution says about vice presidents, not to mention what vice presidents have said about their job. That left us with a question: Why would anyone actually want to be VP?

The simplest answer, of course, is that the vice president is "a heartbeat away" from the most powerful office on earth. In U.S. history, 42 men have been president. Nine of them have succeeded directly to the job from the vice presidency.

But here's another question: Who was the first VP to succeed his passed-on boss? Answer: Think "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too." Then think controversial thoughts.

Whig History

Before there were Republicans in America, there were Whigs, who borrowed their name from a British party dedicated to reducing the power of the monarchy. It seemed to fit. Initially, the American Whig party was a mix-and-match bunch held together by their opposition to President Andrew Jackson (1829-37), whom they called "King Andrew I."

By the election of 1840, the Whigs were ready for presidential primetime--not least because the country had been in an economic depression since Martin Van Buren (Jackson's former VP) became president in 1837. To unseat Van Buren, the Whigs nominated William Henry Harrison for president and John Tyler (pictured above) for vice president.

"Tippecanoe and Tyler Too"

Harrison was a former governor of the Indiana Territory who had gained fame fighting Native Americans, specifically those who lived near the junction of the Tippecanoe and Wabash rivers. Tyler was a Virginian, an ex-Jacksonian, and a supporter of Senator Henry Clay, the man who had served as the unofficial epicenter of the Whig party for some 25 years.

The Whigs presented "Old Tippecanoe" as the candidate of the common man and depicted Van Buren as an effeminate fop (campaign techniques they stole directly from the Jacksonians). None of it was true, but it worked anyway. Harrison won in an electoral landslide. Then, while delivering the longest inaugural address ever given, Harrison caught a cold. One month later, he died.

To Succeed, Or Not to Succeed

At first, no one was quite sure what to do. Article II of the Constitution doesn't clearly say whether the vice president should then assume the office of the presidency or simply its "powers and duties." Article II reads, "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." Does "the same" refer to "office" or "powers and duties"?

Big Whig Henry Clay argued that Tyler should think of himself merely as an "acting president," and that a committee of Whigs (chaired by Clay) should make executive decisions. Given the Whigs' historical antipathy to a strong presidency, Clay's position was more principled than it sounds, and many agreed with it. Tyler should only "discharge the powers and duties" of the presidency, without succeeding to that office.

His Accidency

Tyler didn't buy it. He insisted that the Constitution authorized him to take over as president. So that's what he did, establishing a precedent that has been followed eight times--three times when presidents died, four times when they were assassinated, and once when a president resigned.

At first, Tyler and Clay tried to get along, but within months they were locked in a dispute over the reestablishment of a national bank (dissolved under Jackson). After Tyler vetoed a series of bank bills, five of his six cabinet members resigned. A few days later, party leaders kicked Tyler out of the Whigs. For the rest of his term, "His Accidency," as critics called him, was a president without a party.