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Over the years, the US has had a lot of presidents: Democratic presidents, Republican presidents,
Whig presidents, presidents that wear wigs, fat presidents, really fat presidents, white
presidents, black presidents—well, black president—the list goes on and on.
You’ve probably heard of most of these guys—if you were a good student, you may remember
their faces from your high school history class; if you were a bad student, you may
remember their faces from the money you used to buy exam keys.
Either way, though, you probably haven’t heard of David Rice Atchison, the man who,
from noon on March 4, 1849, to noon on March 5, 1849, might have been the 12th President
of the United States.
These days, as prescribed in the 20th Amendment, US Presidents are always inaugurated at noon
on January 20th, because inaugurations are outdoor events and January in Washington DC
is notoriously temperate.
Before 1937, though, US Presidents were traditionally inaugurated at noon on March 4, and that’s
the day that 11th President and off-brand Count Dracula James K Polk, had been inaugurated—noon
on March 4, 1845, which meant that his four-year term—as laid out by Article II Section 1
of the Constitution—expired at noon on March 4, 1849.
Normally, that’s when his successor, war hero and Bernie Sanders’ hair inspiration,
Zachary Taylor, would have been sworn in, but March 4, 1849 was a Sunday, and Zachary
Taylor refused to have his inauguration on the Sabbath, and so, it was postponed until
noon on March 5, 1849.
This raises the question: if James K Polk stopped being President at noon on March 4,
1849, and Zachary Taylor didn’t get sworn in as president until noon on March 5, 1849,
who was President during the intervening 24 hours?
Was it the previous vice president?
Was it the Speaker of the House?
Was it whoever could sneak past the three-headed Uncle Sam that guards the Oval Office?
The answer, according to some people, is that it was this man: David Rice Atchison, or as
I like to call him, sad, old-timey John Cusack.
You see, before the 20th Amendment, which laid out the modern line of Presidential succession,
it was Congress’ job—under Article II Section 1—to determine who would fill presidential
vacancies after the vice president, and they did just that with the 1792 Presidential Succession
Act, which decreed that, after the VP, the next person in line for the presidency would
be the president pro-tempore of the Senate, which is a job that’s mostly not real but
that has a cool name, kind of like, “lifestyle guru,” or, “YouTube creator.”
And so, the logic goes, seeing as the Senate had named David Rice Atchison president pro-tempore
before they’d last adjourned, that would mean that after Polk’s term ended, because
neither president-elect Zachary Taylor nor vice president-elect Millard Filmore had been
inaugurated, Atchison was the de-facto President for one day, and just think, he got through
his entire term without tweeting.
Now, the veracity of this claim is disputed to say the least.
According to many historians, there are several reasons why the Atchison presidency is about
as real as a narwhal in Australia—I mean, that’s like, double not real.
First, Congress may not have actually had the authority to name a new president under
the given circumstances.
Under Article II Section 1, “Congress may by law for the case of removal, death, resignation
or inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what officer shall then
act as President,” however, neither Zachary Taylor nor his vice president, Millard Fillmore,
had been removed, died, or resigned, nor were they, “unable to serve.”
So, if Congress had no power to name a new president, the 1792 Presidential Succession
Act would be irrelevant, and so would Atchison.
Second, there’s the fact that Atchison never took the presidential oath of office.
If Taylor couldn’t be President because he hadn’t been sworn in yet, how could Atchison
be president, given that he hadn’t been sworn in either?
That would be a double standard, and if there’s one thing I know about American politics,
it’s that there are never double standards.
Finally, perhaps the biggest problem, Atchison was probably not actually the president pro-tempore
of the Senate on March 4, 1849.
While he had been elected to that position by the 30th Congress, the 30th Congress had
ended on March 3, 1849.
The 31st Congress would later re-elect Atchison as president pro-tempore on March 5th, 1849
but in between the 30th Congress adjourning on March 3rd, and the 31st Congress re-electing
Atchison on March 5th there was not an official president pro-tempore of the Senate.
The position was, much like the Oval Office on a nice golfing day, empty.
So you may be wondering, if Atchison wasn’t president, who was?
The answer is, it was probably Zachary Taylor, even though he hadn’t been inaugurated yet.
The reason is, the Constitution doesn’t say that the President has to take the oath
of office in order to actually become President, just to, “execute the duties of his office.”
So, even though Zachary Taylor couldn’t yet execute the duties of his office, most
historians say he was still president.
After all, you can still hold a job even if you don’t have the ability to actually perform
the job the way you’re supposed to—for proof, just look at the DMV.
But even though Taylor was probably President that day and Atchison probably wasn’t, we
can’t know for sure, because the laws back then just weren’t clear enough.
That’s part of why we had the 20th amendment—to help clarify how it all worked—and so, if
you look, you’ll find references to the Atchison presidency all over: the US Senate
website, a statue in Plattsburg, Missouri, an unofficial Presidential library—even
a plaque at Atchison’s grave, reading, “David Rice Atchison, President of the United States
for One Day.”
If you want to learn more about presidents and presidential history, you should be using
Audible.
They have a ton of great audiobooks, but I would especially recommend Washington: A Life
by Ron Chernow, without a doubt one of the best presidential biographies ever written.
Chernow also wrote the Alexander Hamilton biography that inspired the musical Hamilton—and,
by the way, that’s also on Audible.
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