gordly brought forward during her time in office to again highlight come to create the space, assign, a memory of civil rights accomplishment, which event is much more accessible and visible to anyone who comes into the capital, and to see that image and to be reminded of the particular oregon civil rights story i think is a very, very important legacy. >> our visit to portland, oregon, continues with author james hite who provides a history of the office of the vice president and the people who held the post. >> mr. chairman, delegates, friends and my fellow americans, thank you from the bottom of my heart. i am deeply humbled by your confidence, and on behalf of my family, here and gone, i accept

your nomination to run and serve as vice president of united states of america. [cheers and applause] >> in my book i make the argument that the rights of the american vice presidency really began in what i described as the rise of the modern vice presidency. everything else i consider the premodern vice presidency, and i trace the modern vice presidency toward harding decision to invite calvin coolidge to be a member of the cabinet and to sit with the cabinet. no president had done that before. not that there were not vice presidency meetings occasionally like it would be with other cabinet members but to be a a formal member of the cabinet, he invited coolidge to that. so i described that is being a very pivotal moment in terms of the vice presidency as an

institution in furthering its attachment as an executive institution. the origins are first of all it was an afterthought at the federal convention. alexander hamilton proposed having a vice president turkey was basing it on lieutenant governors, because lieutenant governors in the colonies and for states and whatnot. so this idea that you had a backup to the governor in that case, and, in fact, the original proposal for a vice president was to call them governor. and someone had suggested that aas a title for the vice president. so then in the federal convention moving forward, again it was proposed very late in the game, and it was proposed really not to be a functioning physician but just as a backup to the president if something were to happen to the president. and even there the framers were very ambiguous about how they're going to go about work with

succession. it wasn't really precise pic and so when you get the first presidential, excuse me, vice presidential, or vice president succeeding to the president, in case of john tyler, there was a lot of debate and concern amongst the political elites at the time like was this even out it was intended to be, right? there were a lot of people who question his legitimacy, by teachers, john tyler steamrolled through and took the presidency. and that began, that set the precedent for vice presidents becoming president. the duties of the vice president have remained the same from the outset. the constitutional duties for the vice president are simply to preside over the senate. they are the president of the senate, and to cast a vote on it meant -- only in event of a tie. very early vice president helped with committee selection,, members and what members would

end up on different committees. however, obviously in the senate. however, that practice stopped very early on actually. the duties that the vice president has constitutionally remained the same. the institution though has gained and has come has gained more expensive powers and responsibilities, though none of them are delineated in the constitution whatsoever. there are certain things though, and the chile because vice president have benefited when it benefited from presidents george generous for them and give them responsibilities and give them agencies to task and whatnot. in terms of relationships with presidents and vice presidents there's a number of them historically that relationships are not well known, and it's very telling though that there's of these vice president who think of as insignificant,

unknown, whatever the case may be, and yet it turns out that they actually did have a relationship with the president that was meaningful and it mattered. one of my favorite examples of that is hannibal hamlin again who when serving with lincoln in the first term of the lincoln administration, first administration, he was a close confidant of lincoln. they met often to talk policy and politics, and hamlin also pushed lincoln well before he actually did it, but he pushed and issued the emancipation proclamation, and he encouraged him on a number of times in meetings and told him straight up he needed to do this, this is something lincoln should do. and so when lincoln did eventually compose emancipation proclamation, the first person he brought to see the document and read the document was

hamlin. and they met and read over it together, and hamlin, according again to his grandson, hamlin made like three suggestion for change in wording and whatnot of lincoln, and lincoln took out of through those into consideration, or made those changes. and again that's one of the relationships where very few people if anybody knows about that, but historically you look back and it's like that's pretty significant where you had a vice president pushing a president to issue such a momentous document. the institution as it's grown, and it has grown considerably, we still have never seen a change in the basic fundamental constitutional role of vice president. one of the comment on the role and casting vote, that makes the

vice president for unique in our system and that the vice president is attached to the executive, doesn't have executive authority or responsibility but is attached to the executive branch and is also attached to the legislative branch. no other political position in the user system is that the case. that's very unique. you can go to countries like, if you were to go to great britain, the prime minister, the numbers of the cabinet also remain in parliament while they're in an executive cabinet. that's not the case in our system for any position whatsoever. if you're elected vice president or president and you're a senator, he hath to resign. you have to get out. you can't be in another branch of government so that makes the presidency burgundy, even though they are again limited powers. most significant early vice president in terms of the institution i would suggest would be henry wallace here henry wallace was franklin roosevelt second vice president.

he was elected with him in 1940. he had impact in a couple of different ways. first was that roosevelt for the first time for presidential nominee insisted on henry wallace as his running mate when he was running on his third term in 1940, and he said he wouldn't run for a third term if he didn't get wallace as his running mate. that was significant to the institution of the vice presidency and the presidency because it established presidential nominees choosing a vice presidential nominee. never before had that occurred into 1940, and now that is, the precedent was set. so because of fdr, wallace can be included in terms of the institution as that was significant, because him as an individual or roosevelt was so adamant about this and he wasn't going to take someone that the party gave to him as a running mate. wallace also, in terms of

significance, he's known but he is not that well known. there are people who know of you. he ran for president after he was vice president as an independent against harry truman, and he did horribly. he is kind of note today more for that than anything else, but wallace began several of what i say the vice president as chief administrator. roosevelt put wallace in a number of positions, war related efforts, during world war ii where he headed departments similar to a cabinet secretary, and they were specific war related, war analysis, war procurement, all these different things for the war, that he chose wallace to be in charge of it as his vice president. >> we who are in a formal or informal way represent most of the free peoples of the world are met here tonight in the

interest of the millions in all the nation's who have freedom in their souls. let those millions in the other countries know -- >> wallace also continue to be a cabinet meetings, then one of the more significant historical factors about wallace, which speaks a great deal about wallace but also about his relationship with fdr is that when fdr created a group of five to develop the atomic bomb, wallace was included in that and that was in stark contrast to his third of vice president harry truman who was only vice president about three months, but in that time and during the campaign and the lead up to it in the six, eight months of that roosevelt and truman had contact with him, roosevelt never felt the need to tell truman about the atomic bomb and the development of the atomic bomb, which that they can't a huge

shock to truman once he became president. because of trumans ignorance about the atomic weapons, truman felt that it was really important that the vice president be included in national security decisions and whatnot. so truman pushed for, i think it was in 1947, national security act, which made the vice president a statutory member of the national security council. so that again, just like being included in the cabinet, there is a case we had a statutory law, you know, making the vice president a member of the most important security council in terms of national security. getting back to this idea that the vice presidency really as a institution, including the individual who occupies the

institution, has become indispensable to believe the american government. wwe're going to see lesser and more involvement, you know, depending on the relationship. i think the current administration i would imagine the vice president is sort of on the out skirts of that inner circle. however, the vice presidency as an institution, by this cumulative effect over the years, will continue to have some major responsibilities and major influence in things. maybe not as much as an al gore and bill clinton or a dick cheney and george w. bush or something, but it will come just by the virtue of the institution. the modern vice president today tells us that it has become an indispensable part of the

executive government. clearly in the past that was not the case. even when you had these exceptions and certain candidates, excuse me, certain president and vice president when you have these relationships that i've been talking about where they were significant and meaningful, the institution itself was not indispensable. today i would argue that it an indispensable institution because, number one, the presidency is clearly almost too much for one individual. so we need that sort of a collegial executive where the vice president can be an integral part of the administration, and also always on the off chance that they may become president. so it's important that they are integral to the administration at all times.