The Pittsburgh Press (February 20, 1946)
Background of news –
Troubles of succeeding vice presidents
By Bertram Benedict
President Truman is said to be philosophical about the troubles into which his administration has run, saying that vice presidents who succeed to the presidency always have difficulty.
That has been true of five of the other six, particularly of Andrew Johnson, the only president to have impeachment charges brought against him. It wasn’t true of Calvin Coolidge, who got along smoothly with his party except for a few mavericks from the West and Middle West.
Much depends, of course, on the manner in which the vice president received the nomination. Mr. Truman got it after a hard fight with the supporters of Henry A. Wallace (Harold L. Ickes was one of those). Mr. Coolidge was nominated in 1920 by 674½ votes to 146½ for Sen. Lenroot of Wisconsin, but the contest was a mild one and left no hard feelings.
Above all, the accession of Mr. Coolidge was a godsend to the Republican Party. The scandals of the Harding administration were making the GOP sweat with anxiety.
Tyler and Johnson
John Tyler and Andrew Johnson belonged to the other party than that in control. Tyler had been put on the Whig ticket with William Henry Harrison because he was a Democrat opposed to the policies of President Van Buren, and the Whigs needed the votes of anti-administration Democrats.
Johnson, anti-secession Democrat, had been put on the Republican ticket with Lincoln because the Republicans also needed Democratic votes.
In each case the new president was a man without a party, because the Democrats regarded him as a turncoat.
Also, Tyler and Johnson pursued policies opposed by most of the majority party leaders in Congress.
Arthur’s record good
Fillmore as president after the death of Zachary Taylor stood for compromise with the South; he embittered the antislavery members of Congress especially after he signed and then tried to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act.
Chester A. Arthur came the presidency in 1881 with an unsavory reputation as a spoilsman and machine politician, but in the White House he rose above his past, standing for reform in government. As a result, he lost most of his following in the Republican organization, while the reformers refused to warm up to him because of his previous record.
Theodore Roosevelt got the Republican vice-presidential nomination in 1900 largely because “Boss” Platt of New York wanted him out of New York politics and “Boss” Quay of Pennsylvania supported him because “Boss” Hanna of Ohio was against him.
As president after the death of McKinley, the first Roosevelt ran his administration with a high hand, but his policies were not those of the old-line Republican leaders, and the president got relatively little of the legislation he demanded from the Republican Congress.
Coolidge and Roosevelt had not trouble in getting nominated for a second term and re-elected; Arthur, Johnson, Fillmore, and Tyler were passed over.