Why was the Twenty-fifth Amendment passed president of the US?

Answer 1

The first time a U.S. President died in office, there was a lot of controversy regarding the Vice President's new status, since the Constitution was not clear on that point. Many believed that the Vice President would be Acting President only until another President could be elected. But after Pres. William Henry Harrison died one month after his inauguration in 1841, Vice Pres. John Tyler insisted that he was as much a full President for the rest of the term as if he had won a presidential election. He even went as far as to refuse any mail addressed to "Vice President John Tyler". Nobody challenged his assertion, which became known as "Tyler's Precedent". Since then, every time a President died in office, the Vice President followed the precedent set by John Tyler. Finally, after John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Congress proposed putting Tyler's Precedent into writing in the U.S. Constitution. It is part of the 25th Amendment, which was ratified on February 10, 1967.

The Constitution in its original form provided no instructions regarding mid-term vacancies in the office of the Vice President. As a result, every time the office was vacated due to the death of a President or the death or resignation of a Vice President, it just remained vacant until the next Inauguration Day. By 1966, the sum of all of the vice presidential vacancies to that point totaled about 37.27 years. The 25th Amendment includes instructions for filling mid-term vacancies in the Vice Presidency.

There had been several times through U.S. history when the President was too ill to perform the duties of the President. No effort was made in most of those times to recognize the Vice President as temporary Acting President. The subject came up after Pres. Garfield was shot in 1881, but Vice Pres. Arthur refused too assume the presidency as long as the President still drew breath. The 25th Amendment provides instructions by which the President can temporarily transfer the power and duties of the President to the Vice President. Since the amendment's ratification, Presidents made such temporary transfers of power whenever they had to be anesthetized for a scheduled operation.

The 25th Amendment also provides instructions for the removal from office of a President who is no longer able to perform his/her duties as well as instructions by which the President may appeal.

Answer 2

So that the Vice President could choose a new Vice President to take his or her place if he or she became President.