Besides breaking a tie vote in the Senate, the Constitution assigns few responsibilities to the vice president. John Adams summed up his role when he observed, "I am Vice President, in this I am nothing, but may be everything." Since then, the functions of the office have been shaped by each vice president's relationship to the president, and by the events of the era. Vice presidents have served as unofficial envoys to Congress, presidential emissaries to official ceremonies, and have acceded to the presidency upon the death of the president.

As president of the Senate, many early vice presidents took an active role in Chamber proceedings, presiding over debates and interpreting parliamentary questions. In response, the Senate developed rules and practices to affirm its independence from this representative of the executive branch. Nevertheless, the vice president has continued over the years to serve as a bridge between the administration and the Senate, and still maintains an office in the Capitol for that reason.

Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826)
Moses Ezekiel, 1889

[image: bust of Thomas Jefferson]

Thomas Jefferson may be best known for his accomplishments as author of the
Declaration of Independence, president of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia, but during his years as vice president from 1797 to 1801 he made an important contribution to the Senate. As the Senate's presiding officer, Jefferson drafted a manual of parliamentary practice that members of Congress still consult today.

Virginian Moses Ezekiel completed the bust of Jefferson in the late 1880's A Confederate soldier during the Civil War, Ezekiel later embarked on a prolific sculpture career. Among his other works are the Confederate Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery, and 11 sculptures that filled the niches in the facade of the original Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

John C. Calhoun
(1782-1850)
Theodore Mills, 1896

[image: bust of John Calhoun]

John C. Calhoun of South Carolina was elected vice president in 1824 with John Quincy Adams, and was reelected with Andrew Jackson in 1828. While vice president, Calhoun developed his theory of nullification, which would have let a state disregard, or nullify federal laws it deemed harmful. This theory helped tie the ideas of slavery, states' rights, and secession together in the ante-bellum South. When Calhoun resigned from the vice presidency in 1833, South Carolina elected him to the Senate. There he became one of the Senate's "Great Triumvirate" (with Daniel Webster and Henry Clay), which led the Senate during the second quarter of the 19th century.

Theodore Mills actively sought the commission to sculpt the official bust of Calhoun, making a plaster model from a life mask that his father, noted sculptor Clark Mills, had made years earlier. The Senate Committee on the Library awarded the commission to Mills based on the plaster model.

John Tyler
(1790-1862)
William C. McCauslen, 1898

[image: bust of John Tyler]

John Tyler served as a representative and senator from his native Virginia. Tyler was the first vice president to succeed to the presidency following the death of a president. Rejecting the notion that he was an "acting president," Tyler established himself as president in his own right by holding firm to his political convictions.

Washington, DC artist William C. McCauslen executed the bust of John Tyler for the Senate. Because the Senate commissioned the Tyler bust after the subject's death, McCauslen relied upon portraits painted during Tyler's lifetime as models. The artist also created the busts of Vice Presidents William R. King and Andrew Johnson in the Senate collection.

Henry Wilson
(1812-1875)
Daniel Chester French, 1885

[image: bust of Henry Wilson]

Henry Wilson epitomized the American Dream. Born to a destitute family, at age 21 he walked to a nearby town and began a business as a cobbler. Wilson soon embarked on a career in politics, and worked his way from the Massachusetts legislature to the U.S. Senate. In a politically turbulent era, he shifted political parties several times, but maintained a consistent stand against slavery throughout his career. Wilson was elected to the vice presidency on the 1872 Republican ticket with Ulysses S. Grant. He died in the Vice President's Room in the Capitol in 1875. Ten years later, the Senate placed a bust of Wilson in that room as a memorial to him.

Daniel Chester French, long considered the "dean of American sculptors," modeled the bust of Henry Wilson. One of the country's most popular and prolific artists, French is known for his public monuments, private memorials, and portrait busts. French's most celebrated work is the monumental statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC

Chester Alan Arthur
(1830-1886)
Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1892

[image: bust of Chester Arthur]

In 1881, just months after assuming the vice presidency, Chester Alan Arthur became
president following the assassination of James Garfield. Although his early political success had been through the machine politics of New York, Arthur surprised critics by fighting political corruption. He supported the first civil service reform, and his administration was marked by honesty and efficiency. Because he refused to engage in partisan politics, party regulars did not nominate him in 1884.

Sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens originally declined to create Arthur's official vice presidential bust, citing his own schedule and the low commission the Senate offered. Eventually he reconsidered, and delivered the finished work in 1892. One of America's best known sculptors. Saint-Gaudens also created the statue of Abraham Lincoln in Chicago's Lincoln Park and the design for the 1907 $20 gold piece, considered by many collectors to be America's most beautiful coin.

Theodore Roosevelt
(1858-1919) James Earle Fraser, 1910

[image: bust of Theodore Roosevelt]

Theodore Roosevelt served as governor of New York prior to his
term as vice president. He succeeded to the presidency following the assassination of William McKinley in 1901. Roosevelt strongly supported railroad regulation, construction of the Panama Canal, and conservation of natural resources, especially through national parks. In 1906, Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work In ending the Russo-Japanese war.

Roosevelt's interests in nature and the American West made the choice of James Earle Fraser as sculptor of his bust particularly appropriate. Fraser is perhaps best known for his mounted Native American figure, End of the Trail, and the design for the American buffalo nickel. More than 25 years after sculpting the Roosevelt bust, Fraser created the marble bust of Vice President John Nance Garner for the Senate collection.

Charles G. Dawes
(1865-1951)
Jo Davidson, 1930

[image: bust of Charles Dawes]

Prior to World War I, Charles Dawes was a lawyer, banker and politician in his native Ohio. During the war, he became a brigadier general and afterwards headed the Allied reparations commission. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925 for the "Dawes Plan" to stabilize Germany's finances after World War I. Following his term as vice president under Calvin Coolidge from 1925 to 1929, Dawes served as ambassador to Great Britain for Herbert Hoover.

American artist JO Davidson carved the Senate's bust of Charles Dawes. A renowned sculptor Davidson created likenesses of Gertrude Stein, Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein, and other prominent American figures of the 20th century. The Senate collection also contains the artists bust of Vice President Henry Wallace. Davidson's statues of Senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr. of Wisconsin and humorist Will Rogers are part of the Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection.

[image: map of the second floor of the Senate wing.]
[image: map of the third floor of the Senate wing.]

* Died in office ** Succeeded to the presidency
† Bust nor completed

Prepared under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate by the Office of Senate Curator
S. Pub. 106-28

View PDF Version
Return to Index