Passed Vice Presidents - # 28 - Thomas Marshall

Grave of Thomas Marshall (22 October 2006)

Served under Woodrow Wilson

4 March 1913 – 4 March 1921

Preceded by # 27 – James S. Sherman

Succeeded by # 29 – Calvin Coolidge

Born – 14 March 1854

Died – 1 June 1925 (age 71)

Buried – Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, IN

Date Visited – 22 October 2006

"Once there were two brothers. One ran away to sea; the other was elected vice president of the United States. And nothing was heard of either of them again."
-Vice President Thomas Marshall-

In my limited research on these little-known but potentially important figures in our history, I find no one who is known for his humor as much as Thomas Marshall, Woodrow Wilson’s vice president for both his terms. Marshall was the first vice president since # 6, Daniel Tompkins (under James Monroe, 1817-25), to serve two full terms in that role. Since President Wilson spent much time in Europe working on ending World War I and trying to form the League of Nations, Marshall became the first vice president to chair cabinet meetings in the president’s absence.

 

Thomas Riley Marshall

28th Vice President of the United States

(By Harris & Ewing - This image is available from the

United States Library of Congress)

Marshall was a popular Indiana governor and an ideal swing state running mate for Woodrow Wilson in 1912. However, once in Washington, his progressive thinking and tendency to crack wise caused a rift with the president. In one example, he would greet citizens on White House tours by suggesting they view him as a wild animal and throw peanuts at him. After that, his office was moved out of the White House and his influence was further limited.

Marshall’s wit is best remembered by many for the pithy comment he made after one senator had rambled on with a long list of what the nation needed. He is said to have leaned away from his presiding chair to say (loud enough for others to hear), “What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar.”

Cemetery Sculpture

Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis (22 October 2006)

At the time he presided over the Senate, filibusters could last days or weeks. One dragged on for three months. It was Marshall who wrangled the change that became what we have now…where a three-fifths vote of senators can end the legislative obstruction.

Also, he was at the center of a situation that decades later justified the passage of the 25th Amendment. In 1919, President Wilson suffered a serious stroke that certainly left him incapacitated. While some cabinet members pressed Marshall to assume presidential duties, there were no formal rules for doing so. Besides, the First Lady, Edith Wilson, also disliked Marshall and refused to let him visit the president. Until Wilson’s term ended, she called herself a ‘steward,’ but acted as the president and sheltered her ailing husband from the public. Marshall refused to press the matter and never saw the president until their term ended. When Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the next vice president, Marshall sent him a note offering his “sincere condolences” at being elected vice president.

Marshall retired back to Indiana where he practiced law, wrote books, traveled, and gave speeches. He suffered a massive heart attack while traveling, dying in 1925 at age 71. He then joined two other vice presidents in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.

Vice President Thomas Marshall and wife Lois in Washington, D.C.

(Copied from Lois Marshall Wikipedia page)

Unable to have children, the Marshall’s fostered a chronically-ill baby from poor parents who could not afford the care he needed. The child lived with the Marshalls until he succumbed to his illnesses at age three. He is also interred with the couple in the Crown Hill mausoleum.

John Dillinger’s Grave

Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis (22 October 2006)

Finally, in addition to the high rollers buried in Crown Hill, you will find John Dillinger, the infamous Depression-era gangster. He drove J. Edgar Hoover nuts as the press played up his outlaw exploits like he was Robin Hood. The FBI shot him dead in Chicago when he was just 31.

My ‘degrees-of-separation’ connection with him (flimsy though it is) would be that Beck’s nephew was one of the period-dressed extras in a street scene from the 2009 Hollywood film, ‘Public Enemies,’ where Johnny Depp played Dillinger. The scene was filmed in Oshkosh, Wisconsin where that part of town still looks like it did in the ‘30’s.

This concludes the Indiana portion of the Passed Vice Presidents Grave survey. May Dan Quayle and Mike Pence live long happy lives…away from politics.