THE ARTS | Reshaping ideas, expressing identity
30 January 2009
U.S. Vice Presidency: An Understudy’s Appointment with History
New exhibition examines vice presidents who became commander in chief
Washington — The office of the vice presidency of the United States has been mocked and disparaged almost from its inception, quite frequently by its occupants. But the vice president’s role is far more consequential than is generally understood, according to a new exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery.
Titled Presidents in Waiting, the exhibition — co-curated by historians Sidney Hart and James Barber — focuses on the 14 vice presidents who succeeded to the presidency. These men became commander in chief “either upon the death of a sitting president, election in their own right, or, in one case, the resignation of a president,” Hart told America.gov.
The exhibition traces their careers through a series of paintings, photographs, lithographs and political cartoons, and a sampling of rare books and letters.
One letter, in particular, reveals that the vice presidency was held up to ridicule long before John Nance Garner — who was Franklin Roosevelt’s vice president from 1933 to 1941 — famously said the job was “not worth a bucket of warm spit,” or words to that effect. (Garner’s actual quote was somewhat earthier.) Writing to his wife, Abigail, in 1793, John Adams — the nation’s first vice president, serving under George Washington — described the vice presidency as “the most insignificant Office that ever the Invention of Man contrived or his imagination conceived.”
Notwithstanding their frequent expressions of disdain for the office, few politicians have turned down the vice presidency if offered, Hart said. The position has been held “by nearly one-third of the 44 U.S. presidents,” he observed, “and it’s always been considered a likely path to the presidency.”
ESTABLISHING A PRECEDENT
Originally, the U.S. Constitution specified that the runner-up in the presidential election was to be named vice president, but problems ensued when political parties began to emerge in the 1790s. A “change in procedure eventually became necessary because the candidate who came in second would belong to a different party than the president-elect, as happened when Thomas Jefferson became John Adams’ vice president in 1797,” Hart said. Finally, in 1804, the 12th Amendment was added to the Constitution, redefining how electors choose the president and vice president — and ensuring that the positions are cooperative, rather than oppositional.
While the vice president’s right of succession — in the event of a president’s death or incapacitation — is now taken for granted, the principle was not firmly settled until Vice President John Tyler succeeded President William Henry Harrison in 1841.
When Harrison died in office, Tyler “immediately assumed the powers of the presidency in three ways,” the exhibition states. “He took the presidential oath of office (a practice that has continued to this day); he gave an inaugural address; and he instructed his Cabinet that he alone would be making decisions and not the majority of his Cabinet members, as had been the case when Harrison was president.” Initially, there was some confusion about whether Tyler should be declared president or acting president, but Tyler’s actions initiated a custom that would govern future successions. That custom was legally codified in the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1967.
TREADING ON HISTORY’S STAGE
One of the objects featured in the exhibition is an oil painting (Last Hours of Lincoln, by John Badger Bachelder and Alonzo Chappel, circa 1865-70) that highlights the importance of the vice presidency at a time of national crisis. The painting reveals Lincoln — felled by an assassin’s bullet in 1865 — on his deathbed, surrounded by his wife, his eldest son and several prominent contemporaries. To the left is his vice president, Andrew Johnson, seated in a rocking chair. The scene is somber, but Johnson’s presence sends a reassuring signal of continuity, even though he would prove to be an ineffectual president who narrowly escaped being removed from office at his impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate.
Theodore Roosevelt’s arrival on the national landscape marked the next important vice presidency, Hart said. Roosevelt served under William McKinley from March 4 to September 14, 1901, “and was an exceedingly activist political figure with a larger-than-life personality,” said Hart. Presidents in Waiting captures Roosevelt’s impact with a cartoon that depicts his greatly magnified shadow falling across the White House lawn, presenting a looming threat to corrupt officials who feared him. Catapulted into the presidency by McKinley’s assassination, Roosevelt “wanted to pursue a reform agenda,” Hart said. “His elevation to the presidency marked the beginning of American progressivism.”
Famous images of other significant vice presidents — a guarded Calvin Coolidge, looking like a model of New England rectitude; an ebullient Harry Truman; Richard Nixon, opaque and mysterious; a forceful Lyndon Johnson, alternately cajoling and browbeating a fellow politician — leap off the walls of the exhibition. The accompanying text provides insights about each man: for example, Coolidge’s dry wit — now largely forgotten — once delighted his countrymen, while Johnson’s potent mix of Southern charm and bare-knuckles intimidation fueled his rise to the top.
Videotaped interviews with four living former vice presidents round out the exhibition; a touchscreen enables visitors to access the recollections of Walter Mondale (who served under Jimmy Carter), George H.W. Bush (vice president to Ronald Reagan), Dan Quayle (who served under George H.W. Bush) and Dick Cheney (vice president to George W. Bush).
The vice presidency has evolved over the years, but its occupants all recognize one essential fact, Hart said: “As vice president, you don’t have any independent source of power; it’s what the president chooses to give you.”
Presidents in Waiting opened on January 22, 2009, and runs through January 3, 2010. For more information, visit the National Portrait Gallery’s Web site.
