Daniel D. Tompkins - Vice President

Vice President

Tompkins was elected Vice President on the ticket with James Monroe in 1816, and was reelected in 1820, serving from March 4, 1817, to March 4, 1825. In 1820, while serving as Vice President, he ran for Governor of New York against incumbent DeWitt Clinton. The election was held in April 1820; Tompkins lost. He received 45,900 votes while Clinton received 47,447. In 1821, he was a delegate to the New York State Constitutional Convention, serving as its president.

While Governor of New York, Tompkins personally borrowed money with his own property as collateral when the New York state legislature would not approve the necessary funds for the War of 1812. After the war, neither the state nor the Federal government reimbursed him so he could repay his loans. Years of litigation did not end until 1824, at which point the State of New York and the Federal government owed Tompkins $90,000, a significant sum in those days. His financial problems took a toll on his health, with Tompkins falling into alcoholism, and as Vice President he at times presided over the Senate while drunk. He died in Tompkinsville three months after retiring as Vice President and was interred in the Minthorne vault in the west yard of St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, New York City. Tompkins had the shortest post-vice presidency of any person who survived the office: 99 days (March 4, 1825–June 11, 1825).

Tompkins would be the last Vice President to be elected to two terms with the same President until Thomas R. Marshall was elected Vice President, first in 1912 with Woodrow Wilson and again in 1916. Tompkins' immediate successor, John C. Calhoun served two consecutive terms but under different presidents (John Quincy Adams in 1824 and Andrew Jackson in 1828), and resigned the office before completing his second term.