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deadpresidents · 4 months

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As quite a few Presidents were Secretaries of State and so many politicians vied for the position, when and why did that stop being the "gateway" to the Presidency?

That is a really good question.

You're correct that being Secretary of State was seemingly a stepping-stone to the Presidency at one point early in American history. Five of the first eight Presidents were Secretary of State prior to being elected President (Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, J.Q. Adams, and Van Buren). Madison, Monroe, and John Quincy Adams were elected President directly from the State Department. But James Buchanan was the last President who had served as Secretary of State.

I think that one of the reasons that being Secretary of State was, as you said, a "gateway" to the Presidency in the early years of the republic was because it was one of the few positions in government that built obvious foreign policy experience for the holders of that job at a time when the country was still a pretty isolated, insular nation. The Secretary of State is basically the American version of a foreign minister, of course, but because it was the premiere Cabinet post (and still is), the Secretary of State often had higher name recognition nationally than anyone in government other than the President at a time when the Vice Presidency was an afterthought with very little influence. From the beginning of the federal government, the State Department was a very important part of the Executive Branch, so the early Secretaries of State also gained valuable administrative experience which only helped their cause when it came to running for President.

I think the reason that Secretaries of State stopped being viable candidates for President is because the the growth of the country meant that their were more-and-more qualified candidates who had gained the foreign policy or administrative experience through other means. The country started turning to military leaders and Governors, as well as candidates with more significant Congressional experience than was possible at the early stage of American history when Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and J.Q. Adams were going from the State Department to the White House. After Buchanan's election, not only were there no other Secretaries of State elected President, but very few were even nominated. James G. Blaine briefly served as Secretary of State in 1881 until a few months after President Garfield died in office and was the Republican Presidential nominee in 1884 (he served as Secretary of State again from 1889-1892), but since then, the only major party Presidential nominee who had previously served as Secretary of State was Hillary Clinton (Secretary of State from 2009-2013) in 2016.

In fact, the reverse has been true more frequently in recent history. Since 1884, four major party nominees for President have served as Secretary of State AFTER losing Presidential elections. Blaine lost the 1884 election and served as President Harrison's Secretary of State from 1889-1892 (again, that was his second stint at the State Department after his brief 1881 service). William Jennings Bryan was the unsuccessful Democratic nominee for President in 1896, 1900, and 1908, and went on to serve as President Wilson's first Secretary of State (1913-1915). Charles Evans Hughes was the Democratic nominee in 1916 and lost to Wilson, but went on to serve as Secretary of State under Presidents Harding and Coolidge (1921-1925). And John Kerry was the Democratic nominee in 2004 and later served as President Obama's second Secretary of State (2013-2017).

It's really difficult today for any Cabinet member to be elected directly to the Presidency (or even get close to the nomination -- just ask Julián Castro about his 2020 campaign). While there is no job that can truly prepare someone for the modern Presidency, Governors tend to be in a better position than Cabinet secretaries or members of Congress. Only four incumbent members of Congress have been elected directly to the Presidency -- James Garfield (1880), Warren G. Harding (1920), John F. Kennedy (1960), and Barack Obama (2008). And Garfield is the only sitting member of the House of Representatives to have been elected President. While the position of Secretary of State remains the prime Cabinet post in the United States, the days of the Cabinet being the gateway to the Presidency seem to have gone away with powdered wigs and shoe buckles.

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deadpresidents · 4 months

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Who are the youngest and oldest vice presidents

At the time of their Inauguration? Here's the list of the Vice Presidents' Age at Inauguration, from youngest-to-oldest:

AGE AT INAUGURATION: NAME OF VP [Administration] 36 years, 42 days: John C. Breckinridge [Buchanan] 40 years, 11 days: Richard Nixon [Eisenhower] 41 years, 353 days: Dan Quayle [G.H.W. Bush] 42 years, 128 days: Theodore Roosevelt [McKinley's 2nd VP] 42 years, 256 days: Daniel D. Tompkins [Monroe] 42 years, 352 days: John C. Calhoun [J.Q. Adams/Jackson's 1st VP] 44 years, 232 days: Al Gore [Clinton] 45 years, 26 days: Aaron Burr [Jefferson's 1st VP] 45 years, 346 days: Schuyler Colfax [Grant's 1st VP] 48 years, 243 days: Calvin Coolidge [Harding] 49 years, 15 days: Walter Mondale [Carter] 49 years, 56 days: Millard Fillmore [Taylor] 50 years, 72 days: Spiro Agnew [Nixon's 1st VP] 50 years, 98 days: Martin Van Buren [Jackson's 2nd VP] 50 years, 340 days: John Tyler [W.H. Harrison] 51 years, 150 days: Chester A. Arthur [Garfield] 51 years, 189 days: Hannibal Hamlin [Lincoln's 1st VP] 52 years, 105 days: Henry A. Wallace [FDR's 2nd VP] 52 years, 146 days: Lyndon B. Johnson [JFK] 52 years, 237 days: George M. Dallas [Polk] 52 years, 274 days: Garret A. Hobart [McKinley's 1st VP] 52 years, 297 days: Charles W. Fairbanks [T. Roosevelt] 53 years, 131 days: James S. Sherman [Taft] 53 years, 174 days: John Adams [Washington] 53 years, 238 days: Hubert H. Humphrey [LBJ] 53 years, 325 days: Thomas Jefferson [J. Adams] 56 years, 65 days: Andrew Johnson [Lincoln's 2nd VP] 56 years, 92 days: Kamala Harris [Biden] 56 years, 138 days: Richard M. Johnson [Van Buren] 56 years, 223 days: George H.W. Bush [Reagan] 57 years, 132 days: Adlai E. Stevenson [Cleveland's 2nd VP] 57 years, 227 days: Mike Pence [Trump] 57 years, 247 days: William A. Wheeler [Hayes] 58 years, 355 days: Thomas R. Marshall [Wilson] 59 years, 189 days: Charles G. Dawes [Coolidge] 59 years, 335 days: Dick Cheney [G.W. Bush] 60 years, 145 days: Gerald Ford [Nixon's 2nd VP] 60 years, 257 days: Harry S. Truman [FDR's 3rd VP] 61 years, 16 days: Henry Wilson [Grant's 2nd VP] 64 years, 102 days: John Nance Garner {FDR's 1st VP] 64 years, 292 days: Levi P. Morton [B. Harrison] 65 years, 178 days: Thomas A. Hendricks [Cleveland's 1st VP] 65 years, 221 days: George Clinton [Jefferson's 2nd/Madison's 1st] 66 years, 61 days: Joe Biden [Obama] 66 years, 165 days: Nelson Rockefeller [Ford] 66 years, 331 days: William R.D. King [Pierce] 68 years, 230 days: Elbridge Gerry [Madison's 2nd VP] 69 years, 38 days: Charles Curtis [Hoover] 71 years, 57 days: Alben W. Barkley [Truman]

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