Why did the Founding Fathers create the Vice Presidency?

Authors Avatar

Devlyn Brisson

The Presidency

Dr. Fistek

Why did the Founding Fathers create the Vice Presidency?

        It appears to me that the vice president serves little or no significant purposes in the American political system.  When I think of the role of vice president, the only thing that comes to mind is the fact that if the president dies or is not able to hold office it is the job of the vice president to take over as president.  I am sure I share this ideology with many others; however, the role of the vice president is far more complex than that.  In this paper, I will discuss the position of the vice presidency and the role of the 25th amendment.

        The Framers devoted little attention to the vice president’s duties when designing this role.  They provided that “he shall be president of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be evenly divided” (U.S. Senate).  I feel that when the Framers sat down to debate the powers of the presidency, they were fearful of a powerful executive that would in any way resemble in its powers of the King of England.  Therefore, in order to avoid this, they had to put the concentration of power in the hands of more than one so they considered a multi-person executive (This Nation).  

        Although the Framers finally settled on the Executive Branch being led by a single individual; they remained concerned about the amount of power the President would exert, the method of electing presidents, the relationship between the president and the other two branches of the government, and the manner of succession in the case of a president’s death or incapacitation (This Nation).  As you can see, the Framers spent a great amount of time and energy in developing the role of the presidency.  Likewise, they spent a considerable amount of time and energy weaving checks and balances between the president, the Legislative and Judiciary into the structure of government they created (This Nation).  In contrast, with little display and without extensive discussion, the office of the Vice Presidency was added to the constitutional system primarily to address the problem of succession (This Nation).

Join now!

        The Framers decided that the vice president would become the president of the U.S. Senate.  This is a role that only allows the vice president to cast votes when the Senate is deadlocked in a tie.  This role is not found to be significant to the American Constitutional system; however it was taken seriously by the Framers. The vice president has no formal Constitutional authority.  In terms of real political power, vice presidents have exercised only the amounts of power and authority given to them by the presidents under who they have served (This Nation).  The vice presidency has also ...

This is a preview of the whole essay