No one has yet given any careful attention to the vice-presidency on its historical bearings. Indeed, if one may judge by the opinions if writers who have touched upon the theme, it would seem to be hardly worth consideration. Within recent years there has been a good deal of free discussion of the vice-presidential office, chiefly, it would appear for the purpose of trying to supply the second officer of the national government with something to do. The ideal of the office as a sinecure is not only widespread but old. The office, it is said, offers nothing attractive to men of first-rate capacity. At this point, some one is sure to recall John Adams's reflection of December, 1793, when he wrote that “my country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived. And as I can do neither good nor evil, I must be borne away by others and meet the common fate.” It may be desirable at the outset to call attention to several other well-known opinions.