GASP! Lawyers who have become President/VP of the USA

[UrbScotty]

75 people have held either or both of the nation’s highest offices.

Eight lawyers became both Vice President and President: 4 Republicans, 2 Whigs, 1 Federalist, and 1 Democrat.

John Adams (F) Vice President 1789-1797; President 1797-1801
Martin Van Buren (D) 1833-1837; President 1837-1841
John Tyler (W) Vice President 1841; President 1841-1845
Millard Fillmore (W) Vice President 1849-1850; President 1850-1853
Chester Arthur (R) Vice President 1881; President 1881-1885
Calvin Coolidge (R) Vice President 1921-1923; President 1823-1929
Richard Nixon (R) Vice President 1953-1961; President 1969-1974
Gerald Ford (R) Vice President 1973-1974; President 1974-1977

If you include Grover Cleveland only once, fifteen lawyers have held the Presidency, but not the Vice Presidency: six Democrats, six Republicans, and three Democratic-Republicans.

James Madison (DR) 1809-1817
James Monroe (DR) 1817-1825
John Quincy Adams (DR) 1825-1829
James K. Polk (D) 1845-1849
Franklin Pierce (D) 1853-1857
James Buchanan (D) 1857-11861
Abraham Lincoln (R) 1861-1865
Rutherford B. Hayes (R) 1877-1881
James A. Garfield (R) 1881
Grover Cleveland (D) 1885-1889, 1893-1897
Benjamin Harrison (R) 1889-1893
William McKinley (R) 1897-1901
William H. Taft (R) 1909-1913
Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) 1933-1945
Bill Clinton (D) 1993-2001

Twenty lawyers became Vice President, but not Chief Executive: ten Democrats, eight Republicans, and three Democratic-Republicans. John Calhoun served as a Democratic-Republican and a Democrat.

Aaron Burr (DR) 1801-1805
Daniel D. Tompkins (DR)1817-1825
John Calhoun (DR/D)1825-1832
Richard M. Johnson (D) 1837-11841
George Dallas (D) 1845-1849
William R.D. King (D) 1853
John C. Breckenridge (D) 1857-1861
Hannibal Hamlin (R) 1861-1865
William Wheeler (R) 1877-1881
Thomas A. Hendricks (D) 1885
Adlai E. Stevenson (D) 1893-1897
Garret Hobart (R) 1897-1899
Charles W. Fairbanks (R) 1905-1909
James Sherman (R) 1909-1913
Thomas R. Marshall (D) 1913-1921
Charles G. Dawes (R) 125-1929
Charles Curtis (R) 1929-1933
John N. Garner (D) 1-1941)
Alben W. Barkley (D) 1949-1953
Spiro T. Agnew (R) 1969-1973

43/75=~57%, so 57% of all the Presidents and Vice Presidents we have had in this country have been lawyers.

[spooky3]

1. Thanks for the research! Looks like a LOT of "unqualified" men held

office. :-)

[elcondor]

2. So was Woodrow Wilson!

Thanks so much for compiling this list! Yeah, lawyer's aren't fit to be president! That Lincoln was a two-bit huckster who was in the pocket of big business!! :eyes:

[UrbScotty]

4. And he was a TRIAL LAWYER!

:eyes:

[RoeBear]

3. It certainly shows how...

...vice presidents can be forgotten, unless they become president or do something illegal like Agnew.