President for a Day?

What would you do if you were president of the United States for a day? Maybe drop some bombs on an ex-girlfriend’s house? The possibilities could be endless with the amount of power that POTUS wields. Ever heard of David Rice Atchison? Not too many Americans have; I’ll admit that I had never heard of the man up until tonight. Atchison’s story is worth telling though, as his chronicle has become a renowned urban legend over the past century. The urban legend states that Atchison was president for exactly one day, March 4, 1849, which would have made him the 12th president instead of Zachary Taylor.

The legend states that Zachary Taylor was set to be inaugurated the 12th president on that very day, March 4, 1849. But the trouble was that Taylor refused to be inaugurated because it was a Sunday, the Sabbath, so the inauguration was moved up a day to March 5, 1849. The trouble with moving up the “big day” was that the 11th president, James K. Polk’s term expired on March 4th. Essentially then it left a 24 hour period in which the U.S. lacked an elected president. What about the vice-president you ask? George Dallas, Polk’s VP had resigned as president of the Senate on March 2nd, which along with the end of Polk’s term, ended his constitutional right to the presidency.

So with the president and vice-president’s legal terms ending on March 4th and Taylor refusing to be sworn in until the next day, someone technically had to be in charge of the executive branch. At the time the line of succession was different. Unlike today, if the president cannot perform his duties and there is no VP, the speaker of the House is next in line for the presidency. But in 1849, the president pro tempore of the Senate was next in line and guess whom it was? That’s right, it was David Rice Atchison. But again, there is more controversy. He was the president pro tempore for the 29th Congress, but Congress had already let out for the session.

But he was elected president pro tempore for the 30th Congress, but he had not been sworn in yet as of March 5, 1849. When asked what he did on that fabled day, Atchison, being the hardworking politician he was had a long night closing out the 29th Congressional session; so he slept all day. But sadly this story is not “that” true. Legally he was not president for a day, but he was president for about 7 minutes. Before Taylor was sworn in, Atchison was sworn in as president pro tempore; so he technically had power for a few minutes. If that happened today, I would wager that the media would collectively have a heart attack and World War III would break out.