<P> When the Whig Party asked Daniel Webster to run for the vice presidency on Zachary Taylor's ticket, he replied "I do not propose to be buried until I am really dead and in my coffin ." This was the second time Webster declined the office, which William Henry Harrison had first offered to him . Ironically, both of the presidents making the offer to Webster died in office, meaning the three - time presidential candidate could have become president if he had accepted either . Since presidents rarely died in office, however, the better preparation for the presidency was considered to be the office of Secretary of State, in which Webster served under Harrison, Tyler, and later, Taylor's successor, Fillmore . </P> <P> For many years, the vice president was given few responsibilities . Garret Hobart, the first vice president under William McKinley, was one of the very few vice presidents at this time who played an important role in the administration . A close confidant and adviser of the president, Hobart was called "Assistant President ." However, until 1919, vice presidents were not included in meetings of the President's Cabinet . This precedent was broken by President Woodrow Wilson when he asked Thomas R. Marshall to preside over Cabinet meetings while Wilson was in France negotiating the Treaty of Versailles . President Warren G. Harding also invited his vice president, Calvin Coolidge, to meetings . The next vice president, Charles G. Dawes, did not seek to attend Cabinet meetings under President Coolidge, declaring that "the precedent might prove injurious to the country ." Vice President Charles Curtis was also precluded from attending by President Herbert Hoover . </P> <P> In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt raised the stature of the office by renewing the practice of inviting the vice president to cabinet meetings, which every president since has maintained . Roosevelt's first vice president, John Nance Garner, broke with him over the "court - packing issue, early in his second term, and became Roosevelt's leading critic . At the start of that term, on January 20, 1937, Garner had been the first Vice President to be sworn into office on the Capitol steps in the same ceremony with the president; a tradition that continues . Prior to that time, vice presidents were traditionally inaugurated at a separate ceremony in the Senate chamber . Gerald R. Ford and Nelson A. Rockefeller, who were both appointed to the office under the terms of the 25th amendment, were inaugurated in the House and Senate chambers, respectively . </P> <P> Henry Wallace, Roosevelt's Vice President during his third term (1941--1945), was given major responsibilities during World War II . However, after numerous policy disputes between Wallace and other Roosevelt Administration and Democratic Party officials, he was denied renomination to office at the 1944 Democratic National Convention . Harry Truman was selected instead . During his 82 day vice presidency, Truman was not informed about any war or post-war plans, including the Manhattan Project, leading Truman to remark, wryly, that the job of the Vice President was to "go to weddings and funerals ." As a result of this experience, Truman, after succeeding to the presidency upon Roosevelt' s death, recognized the need to keep the Vice President informed on national security issues . Congress made the vice president one of four statutory members of the National Security Council in 1949 . </P>

When did the vice president become part of the cabinet