n 1904; James S. Sherman
of New York, in 1908.
Four Vice-Presidents were subsequently elected Presidents, namely:
John Adams in 1796; Thomas Jefferson in 1800 and 1804; Martin
Van Buren in 1836; and Theodore Roosevelt in 1904. The dates given
have reference to the election by vote of the electors in the
several States by whom the President and Vice-President were
subsequently chosen. Six Vice-Presidents died in office: namely,
Clinton, Gerry, King, Wilson, Hendricks, and Hobart. In the
Presidential contest of 1836, Martin Van Buren received a majority
of the electoral votes for President, but no candidate received a
majority for Vice-President. By Constitutional requirement the
duty of electing a Vice-President then devolved upon the Senate,
the candidates from whom such choice was to be made being restricted
to the two who had received the highest number of electoral votes.
One of these, Richard W. Johnson of Kentucky, was duly elected
by the Senate. The only Vice-President who resigned the office
was John C. Calhoun. This occurred in 1832, and Mr. Calhoun
soon thereafter took his seat in the Senate, to which body he
had been elected by the Legislature of South Carolina.
Five Vice-Presidents have, upon the death of the President, succeeded
to the Presidency. The first President to die during his incumbency
of the great office, was William Henry Harrison. His death occurred
April 4, 1841, just one month after his inauguration. The
Vice-President John Tyler, then at his country home in Virginia, was
officially notified of the event, and upon reaching the seat of
Government at once took the oath of office as President. There
was much discussion for a time in and out of Congress as to his
proper title, whether "Vice-President of the United States acting as
President," or "President." The language of the Constitution
however, is clear, and it is no longer controverted that upon
the death of the President the Vice-President becomes, in name
as in fact, President. Upon the death of President Zachary Taylor,
July 9, 1850, Vice-President Millard Fillmore succeeded to the
Presidency, and was at a later date an unsuccessful candidate
for election to that office. The third Vice-President who reached
the Presidency by succession was Andrew Johnson; this occurred
April 15, 1865, the day following the assassination of President
Lincoln. President Garfield was shot July 2, 1881, and died in
September of that year,
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