Video: 'Vice President Daniel D. Tompkins: Our Vices #6'

(Saturday, June 11, 1825) — Daniel D. Tompkins, the sixth Vice President of the United States (1817-1825, under President James Monroe), died today in Tompkinsville, a neighborhood in northeastern Staten Island in New York City, just 99 days after leaving office. He was 50.

When Tompkins became Vice President, he was in poor health, due to a fall from a horse on November 3, 1814. His finances were also quite poor due to his unreimbursed war expenses. He also slipped into alcoholism.

With poor physical and financial health, Tompkins spent much of his vice presidency outside of Washington, D.C., and made for a poor presiding officer of the Senate while it debated the Missouri Compromise in 1820.

In April 1820, while serving as Vice President, he ran for Governor of New York against incumbent DeWitt Clinton. Tompkins lost, 45,900 votes to 47,447. He was a delegate to the 1821 New York State Constitutional Convention, serving as its president.

In 1823, Tompkins finally won compensation from the federal government, but he continued to drink heavily and was unable to resolve his business affairs.