Vice-president Wheeler: a hypochondriac known for his honesty and integrity

MALONE, N.Y.–Alison is in a good mood as we head towards Cornwall, Ont., and the American border–until I tell her that we have to make a stop in Malone, N.Y. "And why? Let me guess, there's a dead president buried there and you're going to make me go to a museum." I look my wife of 10 years straight in the eye–the woman I made marry me on Sir John A. Macdonald's birthday, the woman I took to the grave of Arthur Meighen while we were dating, and the Warren Harding mausoleum in Marion, Ohio, while we were engaged–and answer: "I swear to you that no president is buried in Malone, not even one," I say. "Would I do that to you on Thanksgiving? Come on. It's someone else we're going to visit and he wasn't even a president." I look straight on ahead and keep driving, not once mentioning the name of William Wheeler to my beloved. She's on a need-to-know basis and we haven't hit Malone–an upstate New York town of 6,000–yet. I'll tell her when the time comes, though I maintain to myself that I am technically correct. No president, live or dead, hails from Malone. What Alison is completely unaware of is a book I picked up over the summer, Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb: A Tour of Presidential Gravesites, by Brian Lamb and the staff of C-SPAN. Through many a weekend in August I was unable to put it down, imagining further trips with my wife to presidential libraries and graves for the rest of our lives. (I am, after all, a true romantic). Like any couple, however, our travel budget is limited so I've been forced to down-scale in order to continue feeding my political travel addiction. But, I've had the dead president itch all summer just the same. Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb provides me with a lifeline. In an appendix, the authors tell us where U.S. vice-presidents are buried. I grow excited as I look through the list. I've hit the almost-presidential mother lode. For whatever reason New York state is the home of the lion's share of often obscure U.S. vice-presidents. By the time I finish the book I realize that I'm probably the only guy in Kingston who realizes that my town is located within a day's drive of 10 dead U.S. vice-presidents! In order of their service: George Clinton (who served with Jefferson and Madison), Daniel Tompkins (served with Monroe), Martin Van Buren (Jackson), Millard Fillmore (Tyler), William Wheeler (Hayes), Chester A. Arthur (Garfield), Levi P. Morton (Benjamin Harrison), Teddy Roosevelt (McKinley), James Sherman (Taft), and, last but not least, Nelson Rockefeller (Ford). I note that three of the 10–Filmore, Chester Arthur and Roosevelt–became president upon the deaths of their bosses, with both Chet Arthur and Teddy Roosevelt assuming office after their presidents were shot. This might have something to do with the fact that we now rarely get a presidential running mate from New York. But I digress. Looking at the map, I see that Wheeler is the best vice-president on my list to inaugurate and test out my newfound obsession. He's the closest, less than a four-hour drive away. To Malone it is, after I look up everything I can on the man from Malone who served with president Rutherford B. Hayes from 1877 to 1881. When I finally fess up to Alison that we have to visit William Wheeler's grave before heading into Vermont on this fateful day, her answer comes quick. "Who the hell is William Wheeler?" she asks. Thanks to the good offices of the U.S. Senate Historical Office (House Speaker Peter Milliken and Senate Speaker Noel Kinsella take note), whom I contacted via email and who responded by sending me a detailed article on Wheeler, I proudly tell Alison that she shouldn't be embarrassed at her lack of knowledge in this area. In 1876, when he heard from a journalist that a man named Wheeler might be his running mate after the Republican convention, Ohio governor Hayes sent a note to his wife. "I am ashamed to say, who is Wheeler?" he asked. By this point, Wheeler, a hypochondriac, was a veteran member of the U.S. House of Representatives known for his honesty and integrity. Another tidbit my friends in the U.S. Senate Historical Office share with me attests to this. It seems that legendary New York machine boss Senator Roscoe Conkling once sought the pride of Malone's support. "Wheeler," he said, "if you act with us, there is nothing in the gift of the state of New York to which you may not reasonably aspire." Wheeler's answer? "Mr. Conkling, there is nothing in the gift of the State of New York which will compensate me for the forfeiture of my self-respect," my boy replied. I like him already. "Among the stranger individuals to occupy the vice-presidency, William Almon Wheeler seems to have been scarred by his father's ill health, which left him neurotically obsessed with his own well-being," the U.S. Senate article reports. I later discover that Wheeler, though he accepted the No. 2 spot on the Hayes ticket, soon informed the soon-to-be president that he was too ill to campaign! Wheeler was sworn into office in 1877, quickly dropping off the radar screen, as vice-presidents mostly did back then. "I hear the minister praying for the president, his cabinet, both Houses of Congress, the Supreme Court, and legislatures of all the states and every individual heathen and find myself wholly left out," he said, describing his feelings upon attending church in Washington as vice president. It is said that he looked forward to Sunday night hymn-singing sessions with the tea-sipping president and first lady over at the White House during his single term. When Hayes left the White House–voluntarily mind you–Wheeler went home to Malone. An unnamed New York Times obituary writer captured the sadness of Wheeler's lot in life upon the former vice president's death there, in 1887, six years after he left Washington. "Mr. Wheeler had no near relative in the world to minister to him during his illness or to watch by his side ... when the final summons came," the paper reported. "His desolated home gave him so much sadness during the monotonous round of the vice-presidency as to disincline him from public life thereafter.... He wanted to pass his declining years quietly in the home of his youth and that wish was respected by the townspeople whom he had honoured by such long service." Soon we leave Main Street, turning up Raymond Street to Morningside Cemetery. Our American neighbours have taken the time to place signs directing visitors the grave of their hometown boy who became vice-president. (Our only suggestion to the town fathers and mothers in Malone is that they place another sign on the main street, alerting drivers to the Wheeler grave). An American flag has been placed at the foot of Wheeler's monument–which needs to be righted before it falls on someone someday–in honour of the lonely and sickly man from the 19th century to who we have come from Canada to pay our respects. We note the relative youth of Wheeler and his wife and their family in death. We spend about 30 minutes in the cemetery, the sun breaks through for a brief period and Alison and I walk among the memorials for a while, learning about America in the 19th century along the way. Thanks to William Wheeler. Arthur Milnes, who spent the last four years as former prime minister Brian Mulroney's researcher on the latter's Memoirs, lives in Kingston and has been contributing to The Hill Times for more than a decade. The Hill Times

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