V.P. Trivia

Mental Floss has published a story about odd Vice Presidents.

According to Mental Floss, in the words of Vice President John Nance Garner, the vice presidency "isn't worth a pitcher of warm piss."


Vice President Aaron Burr is best known for shooting and killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804.


Henry Wallace was Franklin Roosevelt's second V.P.. He was a dedicated devotee of Eastern mysticism. While serving as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture in the 1930s, he allegedly sent his guru to Mongolia under the pretense of collecting grasses that could withstand drought. In reality, Wallace was diverting funds to help his guru hunt for evidence that Christ had visited Asia.


As vice president, Wallace made many international goodwill trips. He is best known for traveling to the Soviet Union, where he experienced a political transformation .The result was that he became a communist. Wallace unsuccessfully ran for president in 1948 on the Progressive Party ticket. He espoused Marxist-like views, such as describing corporations as "midget Hitlers" attempting to crush the labor class.

Richard M. Johnson, Martin Van Buren's V.P. was a war hero and a Kentucky senator. He dressed like a farmhand, cursed like a sailor, and made no secret of his three black mistresses, who were also his slaves.

One mistress bore him two daughters before she passed away. The second tried to run off with a Native American chief, but Johnson captured and resold her. The third was the second one's sister.

Aaron Burr, Thomas Jefferson's V.P, was best known for shooting and killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804. After the incident, Burr went back to presiding over the Senate. From there, he plotted a treasonous conspiracy to become emperor of the western United States and Mexico.


Andrew Johnson , Abraham Lincoln's 4th V.P.,took his 1865 vice-presidential oath drunk.
The South surrendered six days before Lincoln's assassination, leaving Johnson to handle Reconstruction. Congress moved to impeach him. however, Johnson avoided being booted out of office by just one vote.


John C. Breckenridge, James Buchanan's V.P., was the became the youngest vice president in history at age 36 . He was charged with treason. In September 1861, only a few months after his vice presidential term had ended, Union and Confederate forces invaded his home state of Kentucky. Breckenridge cast his lot with the Confederates, and the federal government promptly indicted him.