Medical Histories of the Vice-Presidents
Highlights:
- Seven Vice Presidents have died in office:
In each case the office remained open because there was no provision to
fill a vacancy in the Vice Presidency. This changed when the
25th Amendment
to the Constitution was ratified.
So, when
Agnew resigned from office in 1973, the vacancy was
promptly filled by
Ford.
-
Cheney
was nominated as George W. Bush's running mate in 2000, despite a 22-year
history of symptomatic atherosclerosis.
- Partly to avoid hurting his Presidential campaign,
Humphrey did not undergo an aggressive
medical evaluation when he passed blood in his urine in 1968. This was an early symptom of the
bladder cancer that ultimately killed him in 1978.
-
Sherman was renominated as Taft's running mate in 1912, but died before the election. Taft did not win that year.
The Vice Presidents
- John Adams -- see presidential entry
- Thomas Jefferson -- see presidential entry
- Aaron Burr
- George Clinton
- Elbridge Gerry
- died in office
- His name gave rise to the word "gerrymander"
- Daniel D. Tompkins
- Reputed to be a drunkard 1a, but this is probably unfair
- John C. Calhoun
- resigned from the office in 1832
- Martin van Buren -- see presidential entry
- Richard M. Johnson
- Was elected Vice President by the Senate. No Vice Presidential candidate had received a majority of the electoral vote.
- John Tyler -- see presidential entry
- George M. Dallas
- Millard Fillmore -- see presidential entry
- William R. D. King
- died in office after less than 7 weeks as Vice President -- the shortest term of any Vice-President who did not accede to the Presidency
- John C. Breckinridge
- became a general in the Confederate Army after leaving office, and later Secretary of War for Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
- On Dec. 7, 1863, rumors of his death prompted the New York Times to editorialize his life.
- Labelling him one of the "basest and wickedest of traitors," this may be the most damning judgment of a nationally-elected figure in American history.
- Hannibal Hamlin
- Andrew Johnson -- see presidential entry
- Schuyler Colfax
- Was not renominated as Grant's running mate 1872 because of corruption questions.
- Henry Wilson
- died in office, in the Capitol building
- Born "Jeremiah Jones Colbath," but legally changed his name at age 20
- William A. Wheeler
- Chester Arthur -- see presidential entry
- Thomas A. Hendricks
- Levi P. Morton
- Adlai E. Stevenson
- lived in three rooms in a Washington hotel. [Manners p. 39]
- Garret A. Hobart
- Theodore Roosevelt -- see presidential entry
- Charles W. Fairbanks
- James S. Sherman
- Died in office, on October 30, 1912 after being renominated for the 1912 campaign. Although Sherman added no particular strength to the ticket, Taft felt that the hurried substitution of President Butler of Columbia University puzzled the voters 2a.
- Taft wrote, on July 10, 1912, "I hear Jim Sherman is quite ill with cardiac asthma, and that his condition is very serious. He does not expect to be back here [in Washington] for a month. He was not looking well when I saw him." [WHT-Helen Herron Taft, July 10, 1912]
- Since 1904 Sherman had suffered from Bright's disease, a serious kidney ailment. During the long session of the Senate in 1912, Sherman's discomfort had been increased by the Senate's inability to elect a Republican president pro tempore who might spell him as presiding officer. He returned to Utica, where his family doctor diagnosed his condition as dangerous and prescribed rest and relaxation. His doctor urged him not even to deliver his speech accepting the nomination, at ceremonies planned for late August. "You may know all about medicine," Sherman responded, "but you don't know about politics." Sherman went through with the ceremonies and spoke for half an hour. Two days later, his health collapsed, leaving him bedridden. By mid-September, Sherman felt well enough to travel to Connecticut, where he checked into an oceanside hotel to recuperate. When reporters caught up with him and asked why he had avoided campaigning, Sherman replied, "Don't you think I look like a sick man?" -- http://www.senate.gov/learning/stat_vp27.html
- Taft considered naming the progressive governor of Missouri, Herbert S. Hadley, to replace Sherman, but members of the national committee persuaded the president that it would be poor politics to choose someone who was unlikely to carry his own state in the election. So Taft put off the decision and went into the election with a deceased running mate. It mattered little, since the Democratic candidate, Woodrow Wilson, won the presidency handily. Taft came in a dismal third, with only the 8 electoral votes of Vermont and Utah. In January, the Republican National Committee named another New Yorker, Columbia University president Nicholas Butler, to fill out the Republican ticket for purposes of receiving electoral votes, which were counted on February 12, 1913. -- http://www.senate.gov/learning/stat_vp27.html
- Thomas R. Marshall
- Calvin Coolidge -- see presidential entry
- Charles G. Dawes
- When the Senate voted on the confirmation of Charles B. Warren as Attorney General in 1925, Dawes fell asleep. The vote was a tie. Vice President Dawes, had he been awake, would have cast the deciding vote, but, instead, a major Presidential nominee went down to defeat for the first time in 60 years. Outside the Dawes' hotel, a wag put up a sign: DAWES SLEPT HERE 3a 4a
- Charles Curtis
- John N. Garner
- Henry A. Wallace
- Harry Truman -- see presidential entry
- Alben W. Barkley
- Richard Nixon -- see presidential entry
- Lyndon Johnson -- see presidential entry
- Hubert H. Humphrey
- died of bladder cancer. When he was a candidate for president in 1968, he passed blood in his urine. A committee of 3 missed the diagnosis; the opinion of the Johns Hopkins physician was correct.
- New England Journal of Medicine. 1994;330:1276-1278. PMID = 7993407. It cites:
- Berman E. Hubert: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Humphrey I Knew. New York: G. P. Putnam, 1979.
- Cohn V. We must know about our leader's health. Washington Post. March 26, 1978: C1.
- Solberg C. Hubert Humphrey: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton, 1984.
- Clark M, Shapiro D. Humphrey's operation. Newsweek. October 18, 1976: 87.
- H.H.H.'s cystectomy. Time. October 18, 1976: 100-102.
- Humphrey's bladder wall penetrated by cancer. New York Times. October 16, 1976: 6.
- Brody JE. Humphrey's bladder removed in surgery. New York Times. October 8, 1976: I11.
- Spiro T. Agnew
- Gerald Ford -- see presidential entry
- Nelson A. Rockefeller
- died suddenly and unexpectedly. There are salacious stories involving his secretary, Megan Marshak [sp?].
- Is there a picture of his body being carried out of the building in LOOK Magazine, March 5, 1979 on page 39?
- Walter F. Mondale
- Hypertension, controlled with medications [Crispell and Gomez, page 236]
- George H.W. Bush -- see presidential entry
- Danforth (Dan) Quayle
- Albert (Al) Gore
- Richard (Dick) Cheney
- Joseph Biden
- The book What It Takes, by Richard Ben Cramer 5,
recounts Biden's 1988 cerebral aneurysm and operation, as well has his struggles since boyhood against a severe stutter.
- Michael Pence
Cited Sources
- Remini, Robert V. The Life of Andrew Jackson. New York: Penguin, 1990 (hardback 1988).
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a p.143
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- Pringle, Henry F. The Life and Times of William Howard Taft: A Biography. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1939.
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a p.836
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- Dole, RJ. Great Presidential Wit. NY: Scribner, 2001.
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a p.72
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- Stoddard, Henry L. It Costs to Be President. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1938.
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a p.134
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- Cramer, Richard Ben. What It Takes: The Way to the White House. New York: Random House, 1992.
