William Daniel Aikens

**William Daniel Aikens** (January 26, 1876 – September 20, 1932) was an American politician who served as Vice President of the United States from 1925 to 1929, and again from 1931 until his death in 1932.

Aikens served as a Senator from Michigan from 1920 to 1925, and was prior to that, an attorney, activist, philanthropist, businessman, and political operative. He was a Republican from 1910 until 1932, when he became an Independent.

## Early life

William Daniel Aikens was born on January 26, 1876, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His father, Halburton Aikens, was a businessman who owned many pulp mills, and served as Mayor of Ann Arbor from 1896 to 1897, 1899 to 1905, and 1907 to 1916. His mother, Marie-Mae Draukly, was the daughter of John Draukley, a prominent industrialist and former Senator from Michigan. Aikens had two sisters and three brothers.

## Career

Aikens started his career as a paperboy for the Daily Ann Arbor Inquisitor in 1888, he was promoted to manager of the paperboys in 1891, in 1892 he started working as an assistant to paper's owner and editor, Willett Mitcher Wauthley. Aikens was made the sole Vice-President in 1895, however he left the paper in 1897, after a dispute with the paper's deputy treasurer. In 1898, he used the connections he had made at the paper to help nominate William Seight as the Democratic nominee for Senator from Michigan, however Seight lost the general election.

Aikens attended Harvard from 1897 to 1901, he graduated Magna Cum Laude with honours. The same year he graduated, Aikens joined the Boston-based law firm Cox, Hunter, and Leibberdart, as a clerk, and moved to Boston. Aikens moved back to Michigan in 1902, and left Cox, Hunter, and Leibberdart, taking Hansen Hunter with him, Alnor Cox also joined them the following year. Aikens attended the University of Michigan Law School for a brief period from 1902 to 1903, and was admitted into the bars in both Massachusetts and Michigan in 1903. In 1903, Cox, Hunter, and Aikens founded the law firm Cox, Aikens, and Hunter, which grew to be the largest law firm in Michigan by 1906. Cox, Aikens, and Hunter closed in 1908, following the death of Cox, and Hunter's return to Boston run as a city alderman.

Starting in 1906, Aikens started to buy small Ann Arbor local newspapers, he had purchased eleven by 1908, and that same year he merged all of his newspapers into a singular new newspaper, the Ann Arbor Revised Independent. The AARI was the first major competitor to the AAI in several decades, and the AAI began to struggle. In 1911, the AARI purchased and dissolved the AAI after it went into bankruptcy.

When Aikens father died in 1907, Aikens inherited ninety pulp mills, and a large fortune, amounting to 183,456.64$ (6,007,014.44$ in 2023 dollars adjusted for inflation). He sold the pulp mills off from 1907 to 1909. With some of his inheritance and the money from selling the family pulp mills, he funded a new library at the University of Ann Arbor, named the William Daniel Aikens Library, and he was given an honourary degree in 1912.

Aikens joined the Republican party in 1910, and was elected as a Republican National Committeeman in 1912, serving until 1918. Aikens was encouraged to run for Governor in 1916, however declined, and helped elect George Nackler. In 1917, when Democratic Senator from Massachusetts, Francis Tizzier, died in office, Dunn Van Neuhuis attempted to appoint Aikens to fill his seat, however Aikens declined.

Aikens agreed to run for Senator from Michigan in 1920, with the support of the Michigan Republican Party. Aikens won the Republican primary, defeating businessman Lachlan MacDoughty, and former Lieutenant Governor of Michigan, Lamar Hinckey. Aikens won the general election in a landslide, defeating the Democratic nominee, L. William Garrette, 68%-28%. The incumbent Senator, Robert Lee Vaughn Wathburyl resigned so Aikens could assume office early.

During his tenure, Aikens gained a reputation as a staunch ally of Michigan's black community, being opposed to segregation. Aikens voted against every major Democratic-introduced bill from 1920 to 1923, serving as chair of the Appropriations Committee from 1921 to 1922. Aikens took a leave of absence starting in 1923, ending in 1924, to help care for his severly sick sister, and to manage the sale of the AARI to a local businessman. He returned in 1924, however he largely remained on the sidelines and voted along party lines.

When Calvin Coolidge announced he was running for a second, full term, Aikens was quickly suspected to be a possible choice for his Vice Presidential running mate, and at the urging of several influential Republicans, Calvin Coolidge chose Aikens. Aikens initially declined, however excepted after the entire Republican Senate Caucus signed a letter asking him to except.

The Coolidge/Aikens ticket won by a large margin, and Aikens was sworn in as Vice President of the United States on March 4, 1925, he resigned from his Senate seat the same day.

Aikens was known as the public face of the Coolidge administration, giving speeches and going on diplomatic missions in place of Coolidge, however Aikens was almost completely uninvolved in any actual policy-making.

Aikens was speculated as a possible candidate for President in 1928, after Coolidge declined to seek a third, second full term. Aikens declined to seek the nomination and Herbert Hoover was chosen as the nominee, with Aikens being retained as the Vice Presidential nominee, however, Aikens withdrew on September 16, 1928, citing health reasons, he was replaced by Charles Curtis. Aikens left the Vice Presidency on March 4, 1929.

Aikens withdrew from public life after leaving the Vice Presidency, rarely leaving his manor in Ann Arbor.

On November 6, 1930, Charles Curtis died in Washington D.C. from pneumonia. Herbert Hoover then decided to replace Curtis with Aikens, something that had never been done before. As a result, Congress ratified a new amendment, allowing the President to fill the office of Vice President if it is left vacant, with the approval of the Senate. Aikens was formally nominated on September 12, 1931, two days after the new amendment was passed. His appointed was confirmed by a 70-to-16 vote. He was sworn in on September 17, 1931, however did not begin acting as Vice President until September 18th.

During his second Vice Presidency, Aikens grew dissatisfied with Hoover's economic policies, and made several speeches against Hoover's agenda.

Aikens was not selected to be Herbert Hoover's running mate in 1932, and Aikens initially was open to running against Hoover, however he declined to seek the nomination. Aikens publicly endorsed the candidacy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a Democrat. Later that year, Aikens left the Republican party and became an Independent. Some speculated that Roosevelt might chose Aikens as his running mate, or that Aikens might run as a third-party Presidential candidate. Aikens quickly shut down these speculations.

On September 18, 1932, Aikens traveled to England to meet with a new business partner, however these plans fell through, and Aikens traveled back to America with a large staff on the GSS St. Albert. Aikens died during the GSS St. Albert's sinking, his body was never recovered.

## Personal life

William Daniel Aikens married Ophelia Rhymer on November 25, 1902, she died on May 16, 1904, in childbirth, the child died. Aikens never remarried or had any children that made it to adulthood.