Best VP To Be President, Pre-20th century

Which of these OTL vice presidents would be the best president?

  • George Clinton

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Elbridge Gerry

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Daniel D Tompkins

    Votes: 1 5.3%
  • John C Calhoun

    Votes: 1 5.3%
  • Richard M Johnson

    Votes: 1 5.3%
  • George M Dallas

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • William R King

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • John C Breckinridge

    Votes: 3 15.8%
  • Hannibal Hamlin

    Votes: 11 57.9%
  • Schuyler Colfax

    Votes: 2 10.5%
  • Henry Wilson

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • William A Wheeler

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Thomas Hendricks

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Levi P Morton

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Adlai Stevenson I

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Garret Hobart

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    19
A sort of spiritual antithesis to an old thread on the After 1900 page. Basically, if we exclude vice presidents who became president either by vote or accident, which vice president before the Election of 1900 do you think would've made the best president on their own accord and why? And who do you think who might be a good runner up on this list? Cast your votes and state your reasoning, I'm interesting if someone saddled with the vice presidency would've been an excellent president. Note that some of these examples could have their deaths butterflied, so an early VP death isn't to be thrown against them(or they get the presidency before that can be an issue)
 
I chose Hannibal Hamlin owing that he was a better VP than Johnson as he was a more radical reconstruction supporter and would be more in balance with Lincoln's ideals
 
I chose Hannibal Hamlin owing that he was a better VP than Johnson as he was a more radical reconstruction supporter and would be more in balance with Lincoln's ideals

Good choice President! Indeed if I were somehow able to pose a question to Honest Abe, it’d be “Hamlin was a perfectly good Vice President- why did you have to dump him & replace him with that so-&-so Johnson?”
 
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Good choice President! Indeed if I were somehow able to pose a question to Honest Abe, it’d be “Hamlin was a perfectly good Vice President- why did you have to dump him & replace him with that so-&-so Johnson?”
The warning signs were there when he was drunk at his own vice presidential inauguration.
 
Good choice President! Indeed if I were somehow able to pose a question to Honest Abe, it’d be “Hamlin was a perfectly good Vice President- why did you have to dump him & replace him with that so-&-so Johnson?”

To appeal to the War Democrats Lincoln ran under the National Union Party. Johnson, of Kentucky, was the only Senator from a seceding state to stay loyal to the Union. Replacing Hamlin, from Maine, with Johnson was an attempt to woo the border states.
 
I'm seeing a lot for Hamlin. I don't disagree that he'd be a good accidental president(granted, he wouldn't have much competition until Arthur), but I'm mainly concerned with who'd be a good president had they been elected on their own terms(regardless of how likely that is)
 
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