47 Heartbeats Away from the Presidency

A menagerie of 80 VPs, Speakers, Presidents Pro Tem, and Secretaries of State and Treasury who were first-in-line to inherit the White House from 47 presidents

Graphic by Graboyes+ChatGPT

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With so many moving parts, this piece will surely have a few factual or formatting errors. Let me know if you spot any.

Eighty individuals have stood a heartbeat away from the U.S. presidency. Seven did so twice. They were vice presidents or, when that office was vacant, Presidents Pro Tempore of the Senate, Speakers of the House, Secretaries of State, and Secretary of the Treasury. On three brief occasions, there was no one at all in the line of succession.

These 80 included:

• A general who won the Nobel Peace Prize and also wrote a musical piece performed by classical masters. Fifty years later, with lyrics added, it topped the Billboard charts for six weeks, making an R&B singer the first African American with a #1 hit. Other recordings featured Louis Armstrong, Art Garfunkel, Van Morrison, Merle Haggard, Cass Elliot, Freddy Fender, and countless others. (Videos below.)

• A person of color who predated Barack Obama and Kamala Harris by nearly a century.

• A Jewish Christmas tree farmer who lived next-door to a future president who also grew Christmas trees.

• A man whose friends claimed (almost certainly wrongly) that he was actually President of the U.S. for one day.

• A world-class plant geneticist whose sharp leftward turn and involvement with astrology and mysticism may have cost him the presidency and who learned botany from George Washington Carver, who lived as a guest in his house.

• One who was so despised by his fellow senators that he derailed a presidential impeachment.

• A 20th century diplomat who had been a right-hand man to Abraham Lincoln and was a poet, novelist, and naturalist.

• A man who rose from stock clerk at GM to Chairman of U.S. Steel in 12 years.

• Several Confederate officials and/or military officers.

• A general described by Winston Churchill as “the noblest Roman of them all.”

• A dying man who spent almost all his heartbeat-away time in Cuba.

• A wit who said, “What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar.”

• Another who said the vice presidency “wasn’t worth a bucket of warm piss.”

You’ll meet these and many more in the chronology below. But first, a bit on laws of succession and formatting of this chronology.

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LAWS OF SUCCESSION

Congress altered the line of succession three times and later gave presidents the power to appoint a new vice president (with Senate and House approval):

• The Presidential Succession Act of 1792: If the presidency and vice presidency were both vacant, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate was next in line, followed by the Speaker of the House. That’s where the lineup ended. On three occasions in the 19th century no one stood a heartbeat away, because (1) the offices of Vice President and President Pro Tem were both vacant and because (2) there was either no Speaker or the Speaker was ineligible to serve as president. Under this law, a President Pro Tem or Speaker would not become president, but rather would act as president till a special election.

• The Presidential Succession Act of 1886: The President Pro Tem and Speaker were removed and replaced by members of the president’s cabinet in the order in which their departments were established. The idea of special election was also abandoned.

• The Presidential Succession Act of 1947: This law, proposed by Harry Truman, returned the Speaker of the House and President Pro Tem to the line of succession, with the Speaker first this time. After those two, the line continued through the Cabinet, in the order prescribed in 1886.

• The 25th Amendment: Passed after the Kennedy assassination, the 25th specified a process for determining the previously vague notion of presidential disability and empowered the President to name a new Vice President in the event of a vacancy.

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READING THE CHRONOLOGY

The text below lists the 47 presidents, plus their parties and dates of service. The bullets below each one indicate the heartbeat-away heirs, their dates of service in this capacity, their parties, and offices they occupied.

• Parties: Federalist (F), Democratic-Republican (D-R), Nullifier (N), Democrat (D), Whig (W), Republican (R).

• Offices occupied: Vice President (VP), President Pro Tem (PPT), Speaker of the House (SH), Secretary of State (SS), and Secretary of the Treasury (ST).

• Bullets in blue: Periods when no one stood in the line of succession.

• Names in pink: Vice presidents who inherited the presidency.

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THE CHRONOLOGY

GEORGE WASHINGTON (F): 4/30/1789-3/4/1797

• JOHN ADAMS (F)(VP): 4/30/1789-3/4/1797. Said of the vice presidency: “My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man or his imagination conceived.”

JOHN ADAMS (F): 3/4/1797-3/4/1801

• THOMAS JEFFERSON (D-R)(VP): 3/4/1797-3/4/1801. Political opposite of Adams, whose policies he fervently opposed.

THOMAS JEFFERSON (D-R): 3/4/1801-3/4/1809

• AARON BURR (D-R)(VP): 3/4/1801-3/4/1805. Jefferson/Burr tie threw election into pandemonium and prompted the 12th Amendment. Burr killed Alexander Hamilton during his term and was later tried for treason for machinations in the South.

• GEORGE CLINTON (D-R)(VP): 3/4/1805-3/4/1809 (and 3/4/1809-4/20/1812 under Madison). See description under Madison.

JAMES MADISON (D-R): 3/4/1809-3/4/1817

• GEORGE CLINTON (D-R)(VP): 3/4/1809-4/20/1812 (and 3/4/1805-3/4/1809 under Jefferson). First VP under two presidents and first to die in office.

• WILLIAM HARRIS CRAWFORD (D-R)(PPT): 4/20/1812-3/4/1813. First non-VP to stand a heartbeat away. Ran for president in 1824 after a severe stroke.

• ELBRIDGE GERRY (D-R)(VP): 3/4/1813-11/23/1814. As governor of Massachusetts, agreed to a redistricting that forever tied his name to a new word—“Gerrymander.” Died in office.

• LANGDON CHEVES (D-R)(SH): 11/23/1814-11/25/1814. Anti-tariff, pro-slavery, early advocate of secession. A heartbeat away because PPTS was vacant.

• JOHN GAILLARD (D-R)(PPT): 11/25/1814-3/4/1817. So highly respected, popular, competent, and long-serving that no one remembered him.

JAMES MONROE (D-R): 3/4/1817-3/4/1825

• DANIEL D. TOMPKINS (D-R)(VP): 3/4/1817-3/4/1825. Added middle initial; not clear it stood for anything, though some have suggested “Decius.”

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS (D-R): 3/4/1825-3/4/1829

• JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN (D-R)(VP): 3/4/1825-3/4/1829 (and 3/4/1829-12/28/1832 under Jackson). See description under Jackson.

ANDREW JACKSON (D): 3/4/1829-3/4/1837

• JOHN C. CALHOUN (N)(VP): 3/4/1829-12/28/1832 (and 3/4/1825-3/4/1829 under Adams). Pro-slavery firebrand. Architect of nullification. Second VP under two presidents. First VP to resign (after Peggy Eaton Affair and to take a Senate seat). Jackson reportedly said, “If I live, I will hang Calhoun as high as Haman.”

• HUGH LAWSON WHITE (D)(PPT): 12/28/1832-3/4/1833. Jackson ally. Key figure in Indian Removal Act. Played a role in the failed State of Franklin in what is now Eastern Tennessee.

• MARTIN VAN BUREN (D)(VP): 3/4/1833-3/4/1837. First VP (and only president) for whom English was his second language. Spoke Dutch in childhood, whereas another VP, described below, spoke Kaw before English.)

MARTIN VAN BUREN: 3/4/1837-3/4/1841

• RICHARD MENTOR JOHNSON (D)(VP): 3/4/1837-3/4/1841. Some believed he personally killed Chief Tecumseh—a story he used to political advantage. His open affairs with nonwhite women were a key factor in the Democrats’ refusal to renominate him.

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON: 3/4/1841-4/4/1841

• JOHN TYLER (W*)(VP): 3/4/1841-4/4/1841. Democrat nominated for VP by Whigs. First person to inherit presidency, after Harrison’s death. Tyler set the precedent that a VP who inherits the presidency is a full-fledged president. Elected to Confederate Congress just prior to his death.

JOHN TYLER (W*): 4/4/1841-3/4/1845

• SAMUEL LEWIS SOUTHARD (W)(PPT): 4/4/1841-5/31/1842. Dutch and Moorish ancestors. As Secretary of the Navy, modernized the Navy, including the first Navy dry docks.

• WILLIE PERSON MANGUM (W)(PPT): 5/31/1842-3/4/1845. One of the Whig Party’s regional presidential candidates in a failed strategy to defeat van Buren in 1836.

JAMES KNOX POLK (D): 3/4/1845-3/4/1849

• GEORGE MIFFLIN DALLAS (D)(VP): 3/4/1845-3/4/1849. Dallas, Texas may have been named for him, though other possible namesakes included his brother, a couple of other brothers named Dallas, and a town in Scotland.

ZACHARY TAYLOR (W): 3/4/1849-7/9/1850

• MILLARD FILLMORE (W)(VP): 3/4/1849-7/9/1850. Ambiguous on slavery, he fiercely opposed secession.

MILLARD FILLMORE (W): 7/9/1850-3/4/1853

• VACANT: 7/9/1850-7/11/1850. For these days, there was no President Pro Tem, and the Speaker of the House, Howell Cobb, was too young to serve as President. Thus, Fillmore had no legal successor.

• WILLIAM RUFUS DEVANE KING (D)(PPT): 7/11/1850-12/20/1852. See description under Franklin Pierce.

• DAVID RICE ATCHISON (D)(PPT): 12/20/1852-3/4/1853. Pro-slavery activist and organizer of Border Ruffians. Confederate Brigadier General. His grave marker says, “President of the United States for One Day,” based on an historically and legally dubious story told by his friends. (Zachary Taylor refused to take the oath on Sunday, so the inauguration was delayed a day. Atchison’s friends claimed that as president pro tem, he was Acting President during that day.)

FRANKLIN PIERCE (D): 3/4/1853-3/4/1857

• WILLIAM RUFUS DEVANE KING (D)(VP): 3/4/1853-4/18/1853. Suffering from TB, Congress allowed King to take the Oath of Office in Cuba. Returned to U.S. in April and died two days later. Seattle’s King County was named for him till it was retroactively declared to be named for Martin Luther King, Jr.

• DAVID RICE ATCHISON (D)(PPT): 4/18/1853-12/4/1854. See description under Millard Fillmore.

• LEWIS CASS (D)(PPT): 12/4/1854-12/5/1854. 1848 Democratic presidential nominee. Popularized Popular Sovereignty.

• JESSE D. BRIGHT (D)(PPT): 12/5/1854-6/9/1856. As of 2026, the most recent person expelled from Senate (for Confederate sympathies).

• CHARLES E. STUART (D)(PPT): 6/9/1856-6/10/1856. Raised and equipped 13th Michigan Infantry during Civil War; served as lieutenant colonel.

• JESSE D. BRIGHT (D)(PPT): 6/11/1856-1/6/1857. See description above.

• JAMES MURRAY MASON (D)(PPT): 1/6/1857-3/4/1857. Grandson of George Mason. Author of Fugitive Slave Act. Expelled from Senate for supporting the Confederacy. Failed to persuade Britain to ally with the South. Captured in Trent Affair. Lived for a time in exile.

JAMES BUCHANAN (D): 3/4/1857-3/4/1861

• JOHN CABELL BRECKINRIDGE (D)(VP): 3/4/1857-3/4/1861. Youngest VP in history (36). Presidential nominee of breakaway Southern Democrats in 1861. Confederate general.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN (R): 3/4/1861-4/15/1865

• HANNIBAL HAMLIN (R)(VP): 3/4/1861-3/4/1865. Originally a Democrat, Hamlin was the first-ever Republican VP. He was dropped from the 1864 ticket in favor of Southerner Andrew Johnson.

• ANDREW JOHNSON (R*)(VP): 3/4/1865-4/15/1865. Pro-Union Democratic Senator from Tennessee. Only Southerner to remain in the Senate during the War. Lincoln and Johnson ran on the “National Union Party” ticket—a one-time rechristening of the Republican Party.

ANDREW JOHNSON (R*): 4/15/1865-3/4/1869

• LAFAYETTE S. FOSTER (R)(PPT): 4/15/1865-3/2/1867. Anti-slavery activist. Publicly railed against ads in Southern publications setting prices on the heads of Northern abolitionists and against the federal government’s broken promises to Native Americans.

• BENJAMIN WADE (R)(PPT): 3/2/1867-3/4/1869. Unpopular among colleagues and deeply critical of Lincoln’s conciliatory plans for the post-Civil War South, though his fervent support for civil rights has improved his posthumous reputation. Andrew Johnson’s impeachment died by one vote in the Senate in part because moderate Republicans couldn’t stand the idea of Wade becoming president.

ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT: 3/4/1869-3/4/1877

• SCHUYLER COLFAX (R)(VP): 3/4/1869-3/4/1873. While Speaker of the House, he was a key figure in passing the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery. Passed over for renomination and later accused of accepting bribes in the Crédit Mobilier scandal—which he denied.

• HENRY WILSON (R)(VP): 3/4/1873-11/22/1875. Born Jeremiah Jones Colbath, he was an indentured servant in childhood and at 21, changed his name for uncertain reasons. Sponsored bills to abolish slavery in D.C. and to incorporate African Americans into the armed forces. Suffered a debilitating stroke soon after becoming VP and died of a second one.

• THOMAS W. FERRY (R)(PPT): 11/22/1875-3/4/1877. Referred to during this time as “Acting Vice President”—a term not generally used elsewhere in American history.

RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES (R): 3/4/1877-3/4/1881

• WILLIAM ALMON WHEELER (R)(VP): 3/4/1877-3/4/1881. When Governor Hayes heard that Rep. Wheeler had been nominated as his running mate, he wrote to his wife, “I am ashamed to say: Who is Wheeler?”

JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD: 3/4/1881-9/19/1881

• CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR (R)(VP): 3/4/1881-9/19/1881. Remarkably underqualified for national office. A slippery customs official, Arthur was a thorn in the side of President Garfield—till the moment that Garfield was shot. Then, he underwent a stunning change of behavior, turned on corrupt former allies, and served with distinction as president. In part, his transformation stemmed from mysterious letters from a young woman in NYC. (The story is told magnificently in Candice Millard’s Destiny of the Republic.)

CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR (R): 4/19/1881-3/4/1885

• VACANT: 9/19/1881-10/10/1881. The offices of President Pro Tem and Speaker were briefly vacant, so, as in 1850, the president had no legal successor.

• THOMAS F. BAYARD (D)(PPT): 10/10/1881-10/13/1881. Something of a Southern sympathizer. Opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1875. Instrumental in establishing the Electoral Commission to settle the disputed 1876 election. Samuel Tilden, the Democratic loser, blamed Bayard for the outcome, but Bayard argued the Commission had prevented a second civil war.

• DAVID DAVIS (I)(PPT): 10/13/1881-3/3/1883. Engineered the nomination of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. His resignation from the Electoral Commission described in the paragraph above (to accept a Senate seat) led to Hayes’s victory over Tilden.

• GEORGE F. EDMUNDS (R)(PPT): 3/3/1883-3/3/1885. Edmunds declined a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.

STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND (D): 3/4/1885-3/4/1889

• THOMAS ALAN HENDRICKS (D)(VP): 3/4/1885-11/25/1885. Samuel Tilden’s running mate in the ill-fated 1876 election described above. Died months after assuming the vice presidency.

• VACANT: 11/26/1885-12/7/1885. Again, vacancies meant no one was heir to the presidency.

• JOHN SHERMAN (R)(PPT): 12/7/1885-1/19/1886. Brother of William Tecumseh Sherman. Ran for president in 1880—four years before his brother famously issued his “Sherman Statement” (“I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected.”).

• THOMAS F. BAYARD (D)(SS): 1/19/1886-3/4/1889. See description above under Arthur’s presidency.

BENJAMIN HARRISON (R): 3/4/1889-3/4/1893

• LEVI PARSONS MORTON (R)(VP): 3/4/1889-3/4/1893. Declined the VP nomination in 1880 under the soon-to-be-assassinated James Garfield.

STEPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND (D): 3/4/1893-3/4/1897

• ADLAI EWING STEVENSON I (D)(VP): 3/4/1893-3/4/1897. Grandfather of the 1952 and 1956 Democratic presidential nominee. Ran for VP again under William Jennings Bryan in 1900.

WILLIAM McKINLEY (R): 3/4/1897-9/14/1901

• GARRETT AUGUSTUS HOBART (R)(VP): 3/4/1897-11/21/1899. In an era when presidents often barely knew or trusted their VPs, Hobart was known as the “Assistant President” because of his close relationship with McKinley.

• JOHN HAY (R)(SS): 11/21/1899-3/4/1901. Had been personal secretary to Lincoln and sired the Open Door Policy making America a world power. Also a poet, novelist, and naturalist. Probable author of Theodore Roosevelt’s memorable and effective threat: “Perdicaris alive, or Raisuli dead.”

• THEODORE ROOSEVELT (R)(VP): 3/4/1901-9/14/1901. McKinley mentor Mark Hanna famously said, “Don’t any of you realize that there’s only one life between this madman and the presidency?” and, after McKinley’s assassination, “Now look, that damned cowboy is President of the United States.”

THEODORE ROOSEVELT (R): 9/14/1901-3/4/1909

• JOHN HAY (R)(SS): 9/14/1901-3/4/1905. See description under McKinley.

• CHARLES WARREN FAIRBANKS (R)(VP): 3/4/1905-3/4/1909. Ran again for VP under Charles Evans Hughes in 1916. Fairbanks, Alaska was named for him in 1902—while he was senator from Indiana and a friend of Alaskan interests.

WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT (R): 3/4/1909-3/4/1913

• JAMES SCHOOLCRAFT SHERMAN (R)(VP): 3/4/1909-10/30/1912. First VP to fly in an airplane. First VP to throw out a ceremonial pitch in a baseball game. Died six days before Election Day in 1912 and replaced as nominee by Columbia University President Nicholas Murray Butler.

• PHILANDER C. KNOX (R)(SS): 10/30/1912-3/4/1913. Called “Sleepy Phil” because of his tendency to doze off in meetings—despite being one of the top legal minds of his time. Helped organize U.S. Steel—and paradoxically later became a huge antitrust advocate.

WOODROW WILSON (D): 3/4/1913-3/4/1921

• THOMAS RILEY MARSHALL (D)(VP): 3/4/1913-3/4/1921. Wilson’s wife tried to hide from Marshall the fact that her husband had suffered a debilitating stroke. Others urged Marshall to declare Wilson disabled and claim the role of Acting President. Marshall thought that would be a dangerous precedent and refused. Famous quotes included: “What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar” and “Once there were two brothers. One ran away to sea, and the other was elected Vice President. And neither was ever heard of again.”

WARREN GAMALIEL HARDING (R): 3/4/1921-8/2/1923

• JOHN CALVIN COOLIDGE (R)(VP): 3/4/1921-8/2/1923. Sworn in by his father in a remote section of Vermont. Laden with anecdotes about his penchant for silence. Wore Native American headdresses, cowboy hats, etc. around the White House. Kept exotic White House pets (raccoon, pygmy hippopotamus, etc.). On hearing that Coolidge had died, Dorothy Parker asked, “How can they tell?”

JOHN CALVIN COOLIDGE (R): 8/2/1923-3/4/1929

• CHARLES EVANS HUGHES (R)(SS): 8/2/1923-3/4/1925. Quit the Supreme Court to run for President, and almost won. Returned to Court as Chief Justice. Most recent presidential nominee with a beard.

• CHARLES GATES DAWES (R)(VP): 3/4/1925-3/4/1929. Nobel Peace Prize winner for the Dawes Plan. A self-taught composer, his 1911 classical piece, “Melody in A Major,” became well-known and performed by the likes of Fritz Kreisler. With lyrics added in 1951 by Carl Sigman under the name “It’s All in the Game,” it was recorded by artists as diverse as Louis Armstong, Merle Haggard, and Van Morrison. In 1958, Tommy Edwards’s R&B version topped the Billboard charts for six weeks—the first #1 hit by an African-American performer. The LAGNIAPPE segment below offers more info and two important recordings of Dawes’s song.

HERBERT CLARK HOOVER (R): 3/4/1929-3/4/1933

• CHARLES CURTIS (R)(VP): 3/4/1929-3/4/1933. First nonwhite person to serve as president or vice president (80 years before Barack Obama and 98 years before Kamala Harris.) He was an enrolled member of the Native American Kaw Tribe who spoke Kaw before he spoke much English. He was also a highly successful jockey.

FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT (D): 3/4/1933-4/12/1945

• JOHN NANCE GARNER (D)(VP): 3/4/1933-1/20/1941. Known as “Cactus Jack.” Famously said the vice presidency was “not worth a bucket of warm piss”—usually bowdlerized to read “warm spit.”

• HENRY AGARD WALLACE (D)(VP): 1/20/1941-1/20/1945. Accomplished plant geneticist. As a student of Wallace’s father, George Washington Carver lived in their Iowa home because black students were barred from campus housing; Carver tutored young Wallace in plant breeding. Wallace’s leftist proclivities and involvement with mysticism, astrology, etc. led Roosevelt to drop him as VP and damaged his Progressive Party run for the presidency in 1948.

• HARRY S TRUMAN (D)(VP): 1/20/1945-4/12/1945. Owned a haberdashery store. Highly competent pianist who famously accompanied Lauren Bacall (who sat atop his piano). Middle name was “S”—that’s it. Knew next-to-nothing about the atomic bomb when he became president—and dropped two on Japan four months later.

HARRY S TRUMAN (D): 4/12/1945-1/20/1953

• EDWARD STETTINIUS, JR. (D)(SS): 4/12/1945-6/27/1945. Rose from stock clerk at General Motors to chairman of U.S. Steel in 12 years. Secretary of State when Germany surrendered and a principal architect of the United Nations. Died at 49.

• HENRY MORGENTHAU, JR. (D)(ST): 6/27/1945-7/3/1945. Only Jewish person and only Secretary of the Treasury to be a heartbeat from the presidency (for six days, when there was no Secretary of State). Father was a real estate mogul in NYC, but young Morgenthau never finished high school or college and ended up farming (Christmas trees) near FDR’s estate (and Christmas tree farmer) in Upstate New York. Fought organized crime at Treasury. Prominent in efforts to save Jews from the Holocaust. His Morgenthau Plan would have reduced postwar Germany to a deindustrialized agricultural society.

• JAMES F. BYRNES (D)(SS): 7/3/1945-1/21/1947. Governor, Congressman, Senator, Supreme Court Justice, and Secretary of State. Left school at 14 and became an attorney. Key figure in shaping the postwar world. Segregationist and opponent of Brown v. Board of Education.

• GEORGE C. MARSHALL (I)(SS): 1/21/1947-7/18/1947. Political independent with zero political ambitions. Oversaw the U.S. military during WWII. Devised the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe. Described by Churchill as the “organizer of victory” and “the noblest Roman of them all.” The new five-star Army rank was called “General of the Army” because no one wanted “Field Marshal Marshall.”

• JOSEPH W. MARTIN, JR. (R)(SH): 7/18/1947-1/3/1949. Called “Mr. Republican” before that moniker went to Robert Taft. Along with General MacArthur, Martin publicly challenged Truman on Korea.

• SAM RAYBURN (D)(SH): 1/3/1949-1/20/1949. Immensely powerful. Mentored Lyndon Johnson—and told off-color stories about him, as well.

• ALBEN WILLIAM BARKLEY (D)(VP): 1/20/1949-1/20/1953. Oldest VP to date. Coined the term “Veep.” In a 1956 speech, he said, “I would rather be a servant in the House of the Lord than sit in the seat of the mighty;” moments later, he collapsed and died.

DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER (R): 1/20/1953-1/20/1961

• RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON (R)(VP): 1/20/1953-1/20/1961. Reportedly financed his first Congressional campaign with poker winnings. Competent musician. Nominated for VP at age 39. Almost dropped from ticket over ethics, but saved his candidacy with “Checkers Speech,” describing his cocker spaniel. Calmly stared down a mob in Caracas and engaged Soviet Premier Khrushchev in the “Kitchen Debate.”

JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY (D): 1/20/1961-11/22/1963

• LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON (D)(VP): 1/20/1961-11/22/1963. Key figure in establishing America’s moon landing program. Went from powerful Senate leader to despised outsider in JFK’s administration. LBJ accompanied JFK to Dallas on 11/22/1963 in part because he was worried that his political career was fizzling out; by mid-afternoon, LBJ was president. Seeing LBJ age in office, it’s difficult to imagine that he left the presidency at 60 and died at 64.

LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON: 11/22/1963-1/20/1969

• JOHN WILLIAM MCCORMACK (D)(SH): 11/22/1963-1/20/1965. First Catholic Speaker of the House. Genial, competent, private, and not overly ambitious. Was “absolutely horrified” to find himself a heartbeat from the presidency after JFK’s assassination.

• HUBERT HORATIO HUMPHREY (D)(VP): 11/22/1965-1/20/1969. Forceful advocate of equal rights and opponent of segregation. Reputation for logorrhea; a colleague said if you ask him the time, he’ll tell you how to build a clock. Beloved on both sides of the aisle but shackled and frustrated as VP. Subject of a Tom Lehrer song whose lyrics included, “Once a fiery liberal spirit, ah, but now when he speaks, he must clear it.”

RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON (R): 1/20/1969-8/9/1974

• SPIRO THEODORE AGNEW (R)(VP): 1/20/1969-10/10/1973. First Greek in national office. Great talent for memorable insults (e.g., “nattering nabobs of negativism” and “effete corps of impudent snobs.”). Second VP to resign (after Calhoun), and the first to do so because of scandal (financial misdeeds). Made “nolo contendere” a household expression.

• CARL ALBERT (D)(SH): 10/10/1973-12/6/1973. Grew up in poverty and went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. Known as the Little Giant from Little Dixie. (He was 5’4” tall and grew up in Bugtussle, Oklahoma.) Army lieutenant colonel. With Nixon’s presidency in freefall, Albert grappled with the tensions that would arise if he, a Democrat, were to inherit the presidency from a Republican.

• GERALD RUDOLPH FORD (R)(VP): 12/6/1973-8/9/1974. First VP appointed under the 25th Amendment. Born Leslie Lynch King, Jr. Gifted athlete who could have played pro-football but chose law school, instead; portrayed (unfairly, to be honest) on Saturday Night Live as clumsy. Survived two female would-be assassins weeks apart. Considered returning to the vice presidency as running mate to Ronald Reagan—four years after barely defeating Reagan for the Republican nomination.

GERALD RUDOLPH FORD (R): 8/9/1974-1/20/1977

• CARL ALBERT (D)(SH): 8/9/1974-12/19/1974. See description under Nixon.

• NELSON ALDRICH ROCKEFELLER (R)(VP): 12/19/1974-1/20/1977. Second VP appointed under the 25th Amendment. Declined to live in the newly designated Vice President’s residence, as his nearby home on Foxhall Road was nicer. Gave the middle finger to a group of hecklers—and appeared to greatly enjoy doing so. Under pressure from conservatives, Ford dumped him from the 1976 ticket in favor of Bob Dole—a decision Ford later regretted deeply.

JAMES EARL CARTER (D): 1/20/1977-1/20/1981

• WALTER FREDERICK MONDALE (D): 1/20/1977-1/20/1981. Arguably the progenitor of the modern, politically powerful vice presidency. First VP with an office in the West Wing. Described himself as the first VP with a job description—and he had insisted on elevating the office as a condition for accepting the nomination.

RONALD WILSON REAGAN (R): 1/20/1981-1/20/1989

• GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH (R)(VP): 1/20/1981-1/20/1989. Had served as Congressman, UN Ambassador, Republican National Committee Chairman, Envoy to China, and CIA Director. One of the youngest pilots to fly in WWII, he was famously filmed climbing aboard a ship after his plane was shot down; the other eight aviators shot down were captured, executed and, in four cases, cannibalized by their captors; Bush only learned of his comrades’ fates in 2003. Nixon gave some thought to appointing Bush as VP in 1973, and he was one of the finalists for Ford’s VP in 1974. First person to serve as Acting President under the 25th Amendment (during Reagan’s colon surgery).

GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH (R): 1/20/1989-1/20/1993

• JOHN DANFORTH QUAYLE (R)(VP): 1/20/1989-1/20/1993. Dan Quayle was only 41 when he became president, but he had already established a formidable reputation on Capitol Hill. It was his fate, however, to become a national joke due to a spelling bee, some misstatements, an anatomically explicit fertility doll, and an assortment of other trivial, but image-wrecking items.

WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON (D): 1/20/1993-1/20/2001

• ALBERT ARNOLD GORE (D)(VP): 1/20/1993-1/20/2001. Ridiculed for saying, “I took the initiative in creating the Internet,” Gore, in fact, was a key figure in the emergence of what would become the Internet. The male protagonist in Erich Segal’s Love Story was partially inspired by the young Al Gore and by his college roommate—Tommy Lee Jones. Gore was in line to assume the presidency during the Clinton impeachment and just barely missed out on the office in the 2000 election.

GEORGE WALKER BUSH (R): 1/20/2001-1/20/2009

• RICHARD BRUCE CHENEY (R)(VP): 1/20/2001-1/20/2009. He had been a Congressman, Secretary of Defense, and White House Chief of Staff. In 2000, George W. Bush put Dick Cheney in charge of finding Bush a running mate. After considering a number of other possibilities, Cheney suggested Dick Cheney. Second VP to serve as Acting President under the 25th Amendment (during two Bush colonoscopies).

BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA (D): 1/20/2009-1/20/2017

• JOSEPH ROBINETTE BIDEN (D)(VP): 1/20/2009-1/20/2017. Elected to the U.S. Senate before he was old enough to serve in the U.S. Senate. (He turned 30 before the swearing-in.) Obama designated him as the “last man in the room”—the one with the final say on topics under discussion.

DONALD JOHN TRUMP (R): 1/20/2017-1/20/2021

• MICHAEL RICHARD PENCE (R)(VP): 1/20/2017-1/20/2021. Former Congressman, Governor and radio talk-show host when chosen for VP. Close relationship with Trump completely ruptured when Pence declined to reject or delay the certification of electoral votes on January 6, 2021.

JOSEPH ROBINETTE BIDEN (D): 1/20/2021-1/20/2025

• KAMALA DEVI HARRIS (D)(VP): 1/20/2021-1/20/2025. First woman elected to national office. Second person of color elected VP (after Charles Curtis in 1928). First VP of African and of Asian descent. First woman to exercise presidential powers—when she was Acting president during a Biden colonoscopy.

DONALD JOHN TRUMP (R): 1/20/2025-date

• JAMES DAVID VANCE (R)(VP): 1/20/2025-date. Born James Donald Bowman. Renamed James David Hamel after a stepfather. In 2013, dropped “Hamel” in favor of his mother’s maiden name, “Vance.” His name became a household word three years later, when he published his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis—which formed the basis for the 2020 biopic, Hillbilly Elegy.

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CHARLES GATES DAWES’S MUSICAL MASTERPIECE

As noted above, General and Vice President Dawes wrote a musical work that had two distinct lives. “Melody in A Major,” written in 1911, became a popular classical violin piece. Fifty years later, lyrics were added, and it was rechristened as “It’s All in the Game.” In its first iteration, it was performed by artists like violinist Fritz Kreisler. In its later iteration, R&B artist Tommy Edwards made it a #1 Billboard hit—the first such achievement by an African American. At various times, it was recorded by Dinah Shore, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Merle Haggard, Tommy Dorsey, Englebert Humperdinck, The Four Tops, Art Garfunkel, The Keith Jarret Trio, Johnny Mathis, Michael Bublé, Cliff Richard, Bobby Vinton, Freddy Fender, Cass Elliott, Phoebe Snow, Roger Williams, Cliff Richard, Slim Whitman, Barry Manilow, Ricky Nelson, Donnie and Marie Osmond, and Van Morrison. It became a favorite closing number for Kreisler. Dawes grew to detest hearing it wherever he went.

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Robert F. Graboyes is president of RFG Counterpoint, LLC in Alexandria, Virginia. An economist, journalist, and musician, he holds five degrees, including a PhD in economics from Columbia University. An award-winning professor, in 2014, he received the Reason Foundation’s Bastiat Prize for Journalism. He publishes Bastiat’s Window, a Substack-based journal of economics, science, and culture. His music compositions are at YouTube.com/@RFGraboyes/videos.