Johnson captured the nation’s attention after he killed Shawnee chief Tecumseh during the Battle of Thames in 1813 (he later campaigned for vice president on this achievement with the campaign slogan “Rumpsey Dumpsey, Colonel Johnson Killed Tecumseh”). The country’s adoration did not last. Later dubbed “the most vulgar man of all vulgar men” by a Senate aide, Johnson scandalized his colleagues by taking one of his slaves as his common-law wife; as a result, he barely garnered enough support to serve in Martin van Buren’s administration. Also while in office, he proposed an expedition to the North Pole so Americans could drill to the center of the Earth, believing the planet was hollow (his resolution was defeated).
Or how about Thomas Marshall, who was not impressed by the Vice Presidency. During his inaugural speech, he promised to “acknowledge the insignificant influence of the office” and accept his second-class role “in a good-natured way.” As President Woodrow Wilson’s number two, he frequently complained about his “nameless, unremembered” duties and once told a bodyguard that his job was pointless because no one ever shoots a Vice President. The fact that Wilson disliked him personally probably didn’t improve his attitude either.
Marshall’s lack of enthusiasm showed in his job. He stopped going to cabinet meetings after his first session, and he asked to switch offices to some place where he could put up his feet and smoke. And yet, Wilson kept him on as Vice President during his second term, asking Marshall to head the cabinet while he traveled to Europe at the end of World War I to lobby for the League of Nations. (Marshall accepted, but warned Wilson that he wouldn’t be responsible for anything that happened while he was away.)
After Wilson was incapacitated by a stroke in October 1919, Marshall refused to take his place, worrying that if Wilson recovered and demanded the Presidency back, the country could erupt into a civil war. And of course, he wasn’t very enthusiastic about the job. When Calvin Coolidge was elected as the next Vice President, he received a note from Marshall that read, “Please accept my sincere sympathies.”
And finally we examine Henry Wallace, (His photo is listed above) who was once described by a colleague as “a person answering calls the rest of us don’t hear.” In a act of divine providence, Wallace was replaced by FDR for Harry S. Truman after Wallace couldn’t elicit goodwill from his colleagues, many of whom found his mystical approach toward religion — he dabbled in ideologies ranging from Catholicism to Zoroastrianism — a bit unsettling.
But perhaps his worst failing was his infatuation with Soviet communism and Stalin's ideology. He described Russia after a organized 1944 tour of Stalin's as, "a testament to Soviet economic, social, and artistic accomplishment." Historian Benn Stell described Wallace infatuation with Russia this way, "No one can fool one unwilling to be fooled, his perception of Russia was merely projected predisposition."
In a act of divine providence, Wallace was replaced by FDR for Harry S. Truman after Wallace refused to renounce his support and admiration for Stalin's empire. Shortly before dying the following year, Wallace was named Secretary of Commerce, where after FDR's death, he feuded bitterly with Truman.Truman fired Wallace in 1946 for his pro-Soviet views which earned Wallace a reputation among his detractors as a “Stalinist stooge.” Alienated but undeterred, he mounted a run for the presidency in 1947. One writer later termed his candidacy “the closest the Soviet Union ever came to actually choosing a president of the United States.” Toward the end of his life, when it no longer mattered, Wallace had second thoughts about Stalinism.
