When Lyndon Johnson assumed the presidency after JFK’s tragic ending, did he appoint a Vice President? I’ve researched a history of veeps and it skips from Johnson to Humphrey, but lists Humphrey’s start date as 1964 (if elected with LBJ in 1964, he wouldn’t have been veep until 1965). Was the issue of succession cleared up by then? What would have happened if LBJ ended up like JFK before 1965’s inauguration?
Thanks
Prior to Article 25 of the Constitution (1967), the office of Vice President remained vacant until the next election.
From the time of the death of John F. Kennedy until the inauguration of Hubert Humphrey in 1965, Speaker of the House John McCormick was second in line for the presidency. He would have been followed by Senate President Pro Tem Carl Hayden.
Because both men were very old, the country didn’t feel very comfortable with either of them being so close to the presidency.
Because of this, and other reasons, the 25th Amendment was adopted.
I have looked at several references, none of which mention the particular worry about succession that is mentioned by BobT. As noted in the history regarding the 25th Amendment at U.S. Constitution, the main impetus for the 25th Amendment was the worry about long-term presidential incapacity, which had happened before, and which might have resulted from Kennedy’s assassination attempt. It doesn’t specifically address the reason that a procedure for filling a vacancy in the Vice-Presidency was added to the Amendment. I’m not old enough to remember the discussion.
Is there a reference for reading a detailed history of the amendment’s clauses as written and passed?
I only said that the age of McCormick and Hayden was one factor, but I didn’t mean to say it was the most important one. Mainly, it was just a visible one. I doubt that reason would show up in any Congressional debates for obvious reasons.
I only mentioned McCormick and Hayden because both my high school teachers and my parents mentioned it as something that they were both concerned with.
Someone probably would need to check to things like NY Times op-ed pieces to see what the popular sentiment was at the time.
From the afternoon of November 22, 1963 until shortly after Noon on January 20, 1965, there was no vice president. This was the case because, prior to the adoption of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution in 1967 there was no constitutional mechanism for filling a vacancy in the vice presidency. Cumulatively, America has been without a vice president for about 38 years since the Constitution was ratified in 1789.
The image of Johnson (who had had a near-fatal heart attack in 1955) speaking before a joint session of Congress, with Speaker John McCormack (age 74 at the time) and Senate President Pro Tem Carl Hayden (86), was very disconcerting to many. It did lead directly to an examination into possible ways to fill a vice presidential vacancy, and for a mechanism for dealing with a presidential disability (such as those that occurred in 1881 when President James A. Garfield was incapacitated for 79 days before succumbing to a gunshot wound, and when President Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke on October 2, 1919 and was incapacitated either fully or partially until the end of his term on March 4, 1921.)
Senator Birch Bayh (D-IN) gave a fascinating account of the creation of the 25th Amendment in his book, One Heartbeat Away: President Disability and Succession, Bobbs-Merrill, 1968.
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