Spiro agnew resigned why

By Jeffrey Frank. The Constitution offers two main paths for removing a President from office. How feasible are they? Jeffrey Frank , a senior editor at The New Yorker from to , is a regular contributor to newyorker.

The Daily The best of The New Yorker , every day, in your in-box, plus occasional alerts when we publish major stories. Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. Porgy and Bess began its journey to the Broadway stage in , when George Gershwin wrote a letter late one night to the author of a book he was reading proposing that the two of them collaborate He was permanently appointed to the post in April On October 10, , the U.

Known as the Naval School until , the curriculum included mathematics and navigation, gunnery and steam, chemistry, English, natural philosophy, and French. On October 10, , the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro reaches a dramatic climax when U. Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. World War II. Art, Literature, and Film History. Washington, Oct, Spiro T. Agnew resigned as Vice President of the United States today under an agreement with the Department of Justice to admit evasion of Federal income taxes and avoid imprisonment.

The stunning development, ending a Federal grand jury investigation of Mr. Agnew in Baltimore and probably terminating his political career, shocked his closest associates and precipitated an immediate search by President Nixon for a successor.

Agnew declared in a formal statement delivered at P. Minutes later, Mr. Such a plea, while not an admission of guilt, subjects a defendant to a judgment of conviction on the charge. Judge Hoffman sentenced Mr.

The judge declared from the bench that he would have sent Mr. Agnew to prison had not Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson personally interceded, arguing that "leniency is justified. In his dramatic courtroom statement, Mr. Agnew declared that he was innocent of any other wrongdoing but that it would "seriously prejudice the national interest" to involve himself in a protracted struggle before the courts or Congress.

Agnew also cited the national interest in a letter to President Nixon saying that he was resigning. Agnew in a "Dear Ted" letter made public by the White House. The letter hailed Mr. Agnew for "courage and candor," praised his patriotism and dedication, and expressed Mr. Nixon's "great sense of personal loss.

The resignation automatically set in motion, for the first time, the provisions of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, under which the Republican President must nominate a successor who will be subject to confirmation by a majority vote in both houses of congress, where Democrats predominate. Until a successor is confirmed and sworn in, the Speaker of the House, Carl Albert Democrat of Oklahoma, will be first in line of succession to the Presidency. Agnew's sudden resignation came only 11 days after he made an emotional declaration to a Los Angeles audience: "I will not resign if indicted!

I will not resign if indicted! The first occasion was in , when John C. Calhoun stepped down after he was chosen to fill a Senate seat from South Carolina. Agnew's decision appeared to have been based on personal, rather than political or historic, considerations. Close and authoritative associates of Mr. Agnew said that, contrary to official White House denials, Mr.

Nixon at least twice asked him to resign after it was disclosed on Aug. The requests were said to have been spurned by Mr. Agnew until sometime in the last week. According to some associates, Mr. Agnew was advised by his defense attorneys that the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service had obtained "incontrovertible evidence" of unreported income while he held office in Maryland.

Even so, the Vice President's closest associates had expected him to fight the accusations or at least to continue to seek a forum to try, as he did in his courtroom statement today, to place the accusations within the context of "a long-established pattern of political fund raising" in his home state.

Yesterday, the defense attorneys and officials at the Justice Department reportedly reached agreement on the plan under which Mr. Agnew would resign, plead no contest to the single tax-evasion charge and accept the department's pledge to seek a light sentence. According to the sources, Mr.