President for a Day..?

If the name David R. Atchison doesn't sound familiar, don't worry. It's not one of those memorable names from history class. But he does have a notable honor that has been bestowed upoon him: allegedly, he was President of the United States for one day.

What happened was on March 4, 1849, James Polk's term ended at noon, and Zachary Taylor was to be sworn in as President. March 4 was a Sunday, and Taylor refused to be sworn in until Monday, March 5. Taylor's running mate Millard Fillmore also refused to be sworn in until the next day. With no President or Vice President sworn in, the order of succession of that time then falls to the President pro tempore of the Senate, which was David Atchison. (Now, the Speaker of the House is before the President pro tempore.) So, the story goes that until Taylor took the oath on Monday, Atchison was President for a day.

The truth is much less dramatic. Atchison himself never admitted to being the President for a day, nor did he spread the idea that he was. Even the actual rules of succession dictate that Atchison wasn't actually President. Firstly, Atchison's tenure as President pro tempore of the Senate ended on March 3 when the session adjourned. Secondly, Atchison must take an oath of office, which he didn't do. And thirdly, there was no illness or death which prevented the President or Vice President from serving. Some of these rules were more clarified in the 25th Amendment in 1967, and the 20th Amendment in 1933.

Technically, the situation was nothing more than Taylor's official taking of the job on March 5, but his job actually began on March 4, even if he didn't take the oath of office until March 5. There was nothing official about Atchison's "Presidency", so one can't even call it "being President for a day". This is why you won't see Atchison's name on any lists of Presidents, unless you look in trivia books. Unfortunately, there is no legal basis for Atchison's "Presidency", so I'm sorry to say: Atchison was not President, not technically, not legally, not anything, even though Atchison's gravestone says "President of the United States for one day: March 4, 1849".

One more interesting note about Atchison on the day he was supposedly President: he slept through most of the day. Apparently, he had been up late for several nights, and he was catching up on his sleep. So even if you think of him as President for a day, he ended up sleeping for most of the day.

Bet you didn't know that!