As we saw in Part One of this article last month, there have been no fewer than 17 times when America has had no vice president. And those times have not been brief either. Frequently, they lasted not days or weeks but years. The office of the vice president, it seems, is truly the Rodney Dangerfield of U.S. government. It just doesn’t get any respect.
While Part One covered periods of VEEP-lessness in administrations from James Madison to Chester Arthur, Part Two begins with Grover Cleveland -- who had no VEEP from mid-1885, when vice president Thomas Hendricks died after serving just a few months in office, to the end of his term in 1889. Despite his short tenure, Hendricks is the only U.S. Vice President (who did not also serve as President) whose portrait appears on U.S. paper money! His engraved portrait appears on the so called 'tombstone” $10.00 silver certificate of 1886.
From late 1901, when he ascended to the presidency upon the assassination of William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt had no VEEP until 1905, when he took office for his second term with running mate Charles Fairbanks. By winning that election, Roosevelt became the first former vice president to be voted into the presidency.
William Taft became VEEP-less in late 1912, when his vice president, James S. Sherman, died due to kidney complications just a few days prior to the election for a second term. Taft remained without a a vice presidential running mate until Woodrow Wilson beat him in the 1913 election.
Calvin Coolidge had no vice president from August 1923, when he ascended to the presidency upon the death of incumbent Warren G. Harding from a heart attack, until 1925 when he and his running mate, Charles Dawes, took office for his second term.
Harry Truman was VEEP-less from April 1945, when he inherited the presidency upon Franklin Roosevelt’s death from a massive cerebral hemorrhage. In 1949, he added running mate Alben W. Barkley for his second term. To this day, the 71-year-old Barkley remains the oldest person to serve as vice president.
Lyndon Johnson had no vice president from November 1963, when he succeeded the assassinated John F. Kennedy as president, until January 1965 when he and his running mate, Hubert Humphrey, were voted in for a second term.
Richard Nixon was VEEP-less briefly in 1973 after Spiro Agnew resigned from office on Oct. 10th upon being charged with tax evasion. He was the first (and only) VEEP to remove himself from office! The spot was vacant for just under two months, when Gerald Ford took the oath of office as Agnew’s successor. Ford’s nomination to succeed Agnew was the first test of the vice-presidential vacancy provision (the 25th Amendment), which had become part of the Constitution in 1967. Both the Senate and the House confirmed Ford.
A year later, Ford became president upon the resignation of Nixon on Aug. 9, 1974 under threat of impeachment due to the Watergate scandal. Ford was VEEP-less until Dec. 19 when his nominee for vice president, Nelson Rockefeller, took office after being confirmed by the House and Senate pursuant to the 25th Amendment.
