Responsibilities of the Vice President in the absence of the President

Vice-President

THE RESPONSIBILITIES of the VICE PRESIDENT

IN the ABSENCE of the PRESIDENT

Throughout the two hundred and fifty year history of the United States, the men who held the highest office in the land, the Presidency of the United States of America, have faced many overwhelming and dangerous situations, such as when Abraham Lincoln was forced to save the Union against the armies of the Confederacy during the Civil War and when President Franklin D. Roosevelt had to devise a way to save the country from the perils of the Great Depression in the early 1930's.

But more often than not, it was their Vice Presidents, such as Andrew Johnson under Lincoln, Harry S. Truman under FDR and George Herbert Walker Bush under Reagan, who woke up one morning and found themselves in an unexpected dilemma because the President had suddenly fallen gravely ill or had been shot by an assassin's bullet, thus forcing him to assume the duties of the President.

Historically speaking, the office of the Vice President is not as old as that of the President and "did not exist under the Continental Congresses nor the Articles of Confederation;" however, the constitution of the state of New York in 1777 did have some reference to the office of the Vice President, for as Alexander Hamilton notes in the Federalist Papers (No. 68), the Lieutenant Governor, "chosen by the people at large (and) who presides in the Senate," does have the power to assume the position of governor if and when he becomes incapacitated or dies in office. Therefore, due to this situation, the Vice President of the United States would be "authorized...

A to exercise the authorities and discharge the duties of the President" under special circumstances ("Vice Presidents of the United States," Internet).

In the United States Constitution of 1787, the office of the Vice President is laid out in a rather strange way, for it is quite vague "about the way the presidential succession would work." In Article II, section 1, we find this short description -- "The Powers and Duties of the said Office (that of the President) shall devolve on the Vice President" ("Vice Presidents of the United States," Internet) when the President is either too ill to maintain his responsibilities in office or has died in office, either through illness or assassination.

One of the most complicated situations related to the Vice President assuming power occurred in 1973 when "President Nixon appointed Gerald R. Ford to replace Spiro Agnew who had resigned" as Vice President; also, in 1974, when Nixon resigned his office, Nelson Rockefeller was appointed as Vice President soon after Gerald Ford became President. This quickly led to an amendment to the U.S. Constitution which permitted "the Vice President to serve as acting President if a President becomes unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office" as a result of unforeseen disasters or circumstances ("Vice Presidents of the United States," Internet).

It should be noted that the Vice President is always chosen by the President, either during a presidential campaign or when the current Vice President dies in office or resigns. Therefore, the Vice President must uphold all of the responsibilities of the President when he assumes power and should be willing to inherit the ideals and principles of the President and pass them on during his term in office.

When President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in April of 1865 by John Wilkes Booth, the Vice President, Andrew Johnson, assumed the office of the Presidency and inherited an entire range of serious problems, such as how to bring the country back together after four terrible years of fighting and what to do with African-Americans and ex-slaves during a time known as Reconstruction. Obviously, although Lincoln had managed to free the slaves with his

Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, Johnson "was entirely overwhelmed by his many problems and in effect failed to live up to the responsibilities of being the President of the United States" (Thomas, 483). For example, Johnson failed to use his power as President to guarantee that all African-Americans after the Civil War would be seen as equal to white Americans and have equal opportunity for jobs and housing.

In early 1867, after some very stormy confrontations with both Democratic and Republican Senators, it was decided that Johnson should be impeached. In December of 1867, "the House defeated an impeachment resolution" (Carlton, 423), but when Johnson dismissed Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, this was seen as "a deliberate breach of the Tenure of Office Act" which brought new charges against him. However, Johnson ended up serving out his term as President while under much scorn and condemnation. Thus, Johnson failed to live up to Lincoln's ideals and entirely shrugged off all of the responsibility which he had inherited.

On April 12, 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt died in office after a long illness. His death "stunned the nation and not since the death of Lincoln... had there been such evidence of grief for the loss of a national leader" (Bradley, 364). This was a time of great concern, for the Vice President, Harry S. Truman, was little known to the American public who "openly wondered whether Truman could master the complex problems Roosevelt had left behind"

Carlton, 503). But to everyone's surprise, Truman turned out to a very admirable and wise President, especially when he decided to use the atomic bomb against Japan which quickly brought World War II to a close.

Like most Vice Presidents, Truman knew little about the details of the complex policies of the Roosevelt administration; however, Truman was determined to fulfill the promises of Roosevelt and "quickly demonstrated that he could make some difficult decisions" (Bradley, 365), one being to create the United Nations which Roosevelt considered before his death as mandatory in order to keep the peace in Europe and Asia after the fall of Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire. In this respect as compared to Andrew Johnson, President Truman upheld the ideals and principles of Roosevelt and through his willingness to accept the responsibilities of the office of the President, he brought America into a new era of peace and prosperity between 1945 and 1951 when the Korean War broke out.

On March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan left the White House and traveled by limousine to the Washington Hilton hotel, where he was suppose to meet with some important union representatives. After meeting with the union representatives, Reagan stepped out of the hotel and headed for the limousine and just before climbing in, six shots were heard and Reagan was pushed back inside the limousine by a Secret Service agent who at the time was unaware that the President had been shot. The culprit turned out to be John W. Hinckley who had also shot a police officer, a Secret Service agent and Reagan press secretary James Brady.