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Daniel
D. Tompkins - 6th Vice President
Party: Democrat-Republican
March 4, 1817 - March 3, 1825
Age at Inauguration: 42
Life Span: June 21, 1774 - June 11, 1825 [50]
President: James Monroe |
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- Daniel Tompkins passed the bar at
age 22, and shortly thereafter was named to the New York Supreme
Court
- He was elected governor of New York
in 1807
- As governor he tried to convince a
number or prominent businessmen to fund the United States in
the early days of the War of 1812
- He assured investors of a return on
their money by personally signing notes for their support
- As vice president spent most of his
time in New York attempting to appease creditors
- At the same time the Federalists contended
he spend $120,000 of the money raised for personal use, a charge
he could not disprove simply for lack of bad record keeping
- Tompkins produced a personal audit
that showed the government actual owed him $130,000
- The state of New York sued the vice
president and Congress refused to allocate any return on his
claim
- Although elected to a second term,
he rarely attended Senate functions spending the balance of his
life drunk and depressed in New York
- After his death at age 50, a congressional
inquiry discovered that the government indeed owed Tompkins over
$100,000 in personal loan guarantees
- To this day they have never cleared
his name, nor returned any money to the original lenders
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