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| Spiro
Agnew, U.S. vice president |
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Announces
resignation |
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| "The government
at Washington does live. It lives in the pages of our Constitution and
in the hearts of our citizens, and there it will always be safe." (Washington,
D.C., October 10, 1973) |
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| On October 10,
1973, less than a year before Richard M. Nixon's resignation as president
of the United States, Spiro Agnew became the first U.S. vice president
to resign in disgrace. The same day, he pleaded no contest to a charge
of federal income tax evasion in exchange for the dropping of charges of
political corruption. He was subsequently fined $10,000, sentenced to three
years probation, and disbarred by the Maryland court of appeals. Admitted
to the bar in 1949, Agnew entered politics as a Republican, and in 1961,
was elected chief executive of Baltimore County. In 1967, he became governor
of Maryland, an office he held until his nomination as the Republican vice
presidential candidate in 1968. During Nixon's successful campaign, Agnew
campaigned on a tough law-and-order platform, and after becoming vice president
frequently attacked opponents of the Vietnam War and liberals as being
disloyal and un-American. Reelected with Nixon in 1972, Agnew was forced
to resign on October 10, 1973, after the U.S. Justice Department uncovered
widespread evidence of his political corruption, including shocking allegations
that his practice of accepting bribes had continued into his tenure as
U.S. vice president. Representative Gerald R. Ford of Michigan was sworn
in as Nixon's new vice president on December 6, and became president of
the United States on August 9, 1974, after the escalating Watergate affair
forced President Nixon's resignation. |
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