The 25th Amendment to the constitution was passed in 1967. It fixed a hole in the constitution which allowed the vice presidency to become vacant if the vice president died or became president because of the death or resignation of the president. Oddly enough, it was used twice during the period of 1973-4. Vice president Spiro Agnew was forced to resign in 1973 when it was revealed that he had been taking bribes from Maryland contractors. Using the 25th Amendment for the first time, Richard Nixon appointed Gerold R. Ford to replace him. For some reason, it was decided to issue an inaugural medal to mark the time when Ford took the vice presidential Oath of Office. I had almost forgotten about this medal when I spotted it at a politcal button show which was held in Palm Beach last weekend. The reverse design spells out that this was the first use of the 25th Amendment and includes the vice presidential seal as part of the design. This piece cost me $20 so it didn't break the bank. Of course, most people remember than Richard Nixon had his troubles too because of the Watergate scandal. He was forced to resign in 1974. There was another medal issued for the Ford presidential inauguration. Since Ford had moved up to the presidency, he appointed a replacement for vice president, Nelson Rockefeller. There was also a medal for him. These three pieces recall a time in our history when our political system survived two major scandals.
Those were the good old days, back when politicians were classy. All I remember of Nelson was that photo of him giving the salute to a heckler.
Yes, Nelson had the presidency in mind after he was elected Governor of New York in 1958. Those were the days. The guy he unseated was Averal Harriman who was as much of or more of blue blood than Rockefeller. Nelson fought for the presidency for a little while in 1960, but finally bowed to Nixon. In 1964, he fought hard against Goldwater, but by the then the Republican Party are turned far to his right. I remember staying up late with my mother during the 1964 Republican Convention when Rockefeller addressed the gathering. At one point he told the delegates, who was mosly Goldwater supporters, that the party had moved to positions that were alien to the core party values. That drew a huge chorus of boos. I had never seen a national figure hooted down like that before. Rockerfeller finished his speech. He was lucky the delegates didn't have rotten eggs and tomatoes because he would have been covered with them. By the time Rockefeller gave that salute to a heckler, around 1970, he had no hope of ever getting the Republican nomination or being elected president. Ford gave him his best chance in 1974 when he appointed Rockefeller to be his vice president. Here is a group of buttons from the 1960 campaign with a Rockefeller button in the upper right.
Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., senator from Massachusetts, seems to be one of those political figures that kind of got forgotten about (if people knew of him of the first place) but he was Nixon's running mate in 1960, and tried running for the presidency himself in 1964. Served as ambassador to the United Nations, South Vietnam, and West Germany. Was also the "Personal Representative of the President to the Holy See" (apparently not called an ambassador in that position.) Passed away in 1985.
That explains a lot. Ford passed over Rockefeller for the 1976 vice presidential nomination in favor of Dole.
Nixon didn’t do a good job when he picked running mates. Lodge was from Massachusetts and brought nothing to the ticket. There was no way Nixon and Lodge were going to beat Kennedy in Massachusetts. Lodge was also a lethargic campaingner who wasn’t ready to go to work until 11 AM. Of course Agnew was worse.
Now that you mention it, as someone not quite voting age yet I recall being confused as to why the sitting vice president wasn't sort of automatically on the ticket with Ford. But he had a lot of baggage/scandals and it seems like they didn't want another Spiro Agnew on their hands.
It went deeper than that. After the conflict with Goldwater supporters, Rockefeller’s name was mud with conservative Republicans. That’s probably the reason Ford dropped him.
Thanks for another interesting post! Even though I was aware of the events surrounding Gerald Ford as they were happening, it wasn't until now that it occurred to me the number of appointments and replacements that shaped his political career.
