Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-04-27
THE YICE-PRESIDENTS.
THE NATIONS SECOND HIGHEST
EXECUTIVE STATION.
and Records of Many Emil
nent Statesmen.

lie is chosen Tor the same length OF time
as the President, presides over the Senate
votes when that body is tied, and succeed.
to the Presidency when the President dies
resigns, is removed, or is otherwise consti
tutionally disabled from performing the
duties of that office.
Originally under the Constitution the
man standing next to the highest on the
vote for President was chosen Vice-Presi
dent. Under this system the President
and Vice President would usually be o.
opposite parties. This was actually the
case in the four years beginning with
March 4, 1897, John Adams. Federalist
being President, and Thomas Jefferson
Republican Tor in the present partisan
nomenclature, Democratic), Fice-Presi.
dent. Such a regulation involved strange
and decidedly unsatisfactory possibilities
If it had been in force in 1884, James G
Blaine would have been made Vice-Presi-
dent. That law in 1888 would have given
the Vice-Presidency to Grover Cleveland
The disability of a President at any time
in the term for which he had been chosen
would place the chief executive Office in
the control of the party which had been
defeated at the polls, a possibility which
would please neither Republicans nol
Democrats.
The manner of electing the President
and Vice-President was changed by the
twelfth amendment to the Constitution
which was adopted in 1904. Since then
these officials have been voted for sepa-
rately, and have belonged to the same
party.
ONLY TWENTY-FIVE OF THEM.
There have been only twenty-five Vice
Presidents, including Mr.. Morton, the
present official, although, counting General
Harrison, there have been twenty three
Presidents. Seven Vice residents-John
Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Van
Buren,, John Tyler, Willard Fillmore, An
drew johnson and Chester A. Arthur
have reached the presidency, the three
first named by election, and the other four
through the death of the President. -Four
Vice observation-disclosures, George Clinton,
Daniel d. Tompkins and John C. Calhoun
have been reelected, while seven Presi-
dents - Washington, Jefferson, Madison,
Monroe, Jackson, Lincoln and Grant
nave otcn gwen ludl w nile, rs
before mentioned, four Presidents have
died in Office, death came to five Vice
Presidents Clinton, Elbridge Gerry, Will
lam r. King, Henry Wilson and Thomas
A. Hendricks.
EVENTS IN THEIR CAREERS.
The foregoing outlines the powers and
possibilities of the Vice Presidency and
gives few facts regarding the men who
have filled that office. The principal
events in the career of each will now be
presented, emitting the officials who be-
came President, either by election or by
the death of the Executive. In preced
ing articles of this series in the Globe
Democrat published in the RECORD
UNION, the records of all the President
have been given.
The first man who held the office Of
Nice-President under the Government wa
John Adams. He was chosen two terms
and filled the office during the eight year
of Washington's Presidency, passing from
that to the Presidential station on March
4, 1897. Thomas Jefferson was the SECOND
Nice-President, and he, too, stepped into
the Presidency at the conclusion of hi
service in the lower station, which wa:
March 4, 1901. The third Vice-Presiden
was Aaron Burr, who held that post durin:
the first Presidential term of Jefferson
Burr was the strangest and most pictur
esque character of the time, and, despite
his political and moral vices, he is still, il
his way, one of the most interesting fig
ures in American history.
GEORGE CLINTON.
Al.
stands George Clinton. He was one of tn
strongest men, intellectually of his time
was excessively soldier in the Frencl
and Indian wars, member of the Cont
mental Congress- a General in the Revolu
tionary arm, Governor of his State-Ne,
York-two terms, and was twice chosen +
the Vice-Presidency-in 1904 and 1905
TIE fret of these dates was the year il
which Jefferson was elected for the secon,
time TO the Presidency, and the secon
date was when Madison was chosen Presi
dent for his first term. Clinton was tn
second Vice-President to secure reelection
John Adams being the first, and was tn
first to die in Office. His death took place i
1872, after service of seven years one an
half months George Clinton, Will
Governor, recommended to the Legisla
ture the project resulting in the construC
ton of the Erie and Champlain Canal.
which was carried out by his equally cele
brated nephew, De Witt Clinton, who ais
became Governor of New York. Geors
Clinton was member of the Jeffersonia
party, while De Witt was one of the mos
conspicuous and aggressive opponents {
that organization.
ELBRIDGE GERRY,
The fifth Vice President, was Federalis
early in political life, and afterwards
Jeffersonian. He was conspicuous in hi
Observation-Disclosures the war fo
independence began, served in the Cont
mental Congress, the Constitutional Cor
yention and the First and Second Cor
crosses under the Constitution. Subse
quently he was sent on a special mission I
France, afterward was twice chosen Cox
ernor of his State, and ended his career i
the Vice-Presidency, to which Office h
was elected in 1872. He died after a ser,
Ice of year and two-thirds in that pos
aged 20. While In the GovernorshiI
Gerry redistricted the State with the hop
of securing party advantage for the Je
fersonians 1t failed of its object, how
ever, as the Federalists swept the State
the following year, defeating him for r,
election. Gerry, in this act, did more
give his name certain sort of immo
tally than he had done in a third of
century's creditable services to his Sta
and the nation. This particular specie
of political knavery has ever since bee
known as gerrymandering.
-cALHoUS-JoHSsoN.
The sixth Vice-President, Daniel ]
Tompkins, who, like Burr and Clinic
was New Yorker, had, like all his pr
decessors except Adams and Burr, been
Governor, and like all of them had serve
in Congress He was the third Vic
President elected TO second term, servir
eight years, during the Presidency
Monroe. At his death, in 1S25-thrt
months after vacating the Nice-Presidel
tial office-he was 81 years of age.
The career of John c. Calhoun, Il
seventh yice-President, was given in son
detail IN the article on Defeated A
pirants."
A stirring and romantic career was tn;
led by Richard Mentor johnson, the mint
of the Vice Presidents. While represen
ing a district of Kentucky in Congress
1912, he was outspoken and active in fav,
of declaring war against England. Whe
bostilitles began he left his seat in Coz