President For A Day

Here is a little bit about the reference I made in my "N Factor" editorial regarding a President for one day.

His name was David Rice Atchinson. He was President of the United States for a day.

Atchinson was never elected President of the US. He succeeded to the office by accident - and is renowned for having served as President for one day.

The facts are these: Atchinson had been elected president pro tempore of the US Senate 15 times and was president pro tempore in March 1849. President James K. Polk spent his last day as President on March 3, 1849 and as midnight tolled and Sunday March 4th began, Polk was out of office. Meanwhile, his successor, General Zachary Taylor, a staunch Episcopalian, refused to be sworn in on March 4th because it was Sunday, and preferred to celebrate his inauguration on Monday, March 5th. The United States was faced with a full day gap between Presidents. According to the law, when the presidential and vice-presidential offices are not filled, the president Pro tempore of the Senate automatically becomes President of the U.S. Since Senator Atchinson of Missouri was president pro tempore of the Senate, he automatically became President of the United States for the single day of March 4th, 1849.

Detractors claim that he was never elected - true - and that he never took an oath. The Constitution does not set time limits on taking the oath. Nevertheless, the Biographical Congressional Directory published in Washington, D.C. in 1913, called Atchinson the "legal president of the United States for one day."

In 1928 the governor of Missouri and other state dignitaries went to Plattsburgh to dedicate a statue to Atchinson and his brief term as chief executive of our nation.