Deceased US Presidents
By Dr Khalid Siddiqui
Ohio
11a. David Rice Atchison (1849-1849): The outgoing Vice President George M. Dallas, took leave of absence on March 2, 1849. In those days, the vice president presided over Senate sessions, and the Senate would choose a president pro tempore to preside in his place. So, the Senate on March 2, 1849, elected David Rice Atchison as president pro tempore. Two days’ later president James K. Polk completed his term at noon on Sunday March 4, 1849. The incoming President Zachary Taylor and Vice President Millard Fillmore didn’t want to take the oath of office on a Sunday. They were sworn in at noon on Monday March 5, 1849.
In 1849, according to the Presidential Succession Act of 1792, the Senate president pro tempore immediately followed the vice president in the presidential line of succession. It was claimed by some of Atchison's friends and colleagues that from noon March 4 to noon March 5, 1849, Atchison was, by default, acting president of the United States until the incoming president and vice president took oath of office on Monday March 5, 1849. Atchison had said that his presidency had been “the honestest administration this country ever had.”
Historians and scholars, however, dismiss his claim to be the president for one day for several reasons. Firstly, the Senate’s term had also expired at noon on March 4, 1849. So, technically, Atchison was not a Senator from that point on until the new oath was administered at noon on March 5, 1849. Secondly, although an incoming president must take the oath of office before any official acts, the prevailing view is that presidential succession does not depend on the oath. Which means that Taylor became president as soon as Polk left the office. Thirdly, even supposing that an oath was necessary, Atchison himself never took it, so he was no more the president than Taylor. Despite debunking by scholars, the myth of Atchison’s one-day presidency carried on, as is evident by the plaque in front of his grave.
In 1877 the inauguration date again fell on Sunday. To avoid a similar fiasco, the incoming president, Rutherford B. Hayes, took the oath of office in a private ceremony at the White House on Saturday March 3. However, the outgoing president Ulysses S. Grant’s term did not expire until Sunday March 4 at noon. That raised another question: Did the USA have two presidents at the same time for one day?
Since 1937, the inauguration ceremony has been taking place at noon on January 20, the first day of the new term. But in 1957, 1985 and 2013, January 20 it fell on a Sunday. In those years, the presidential oath of office was administered on that day privately and then again in a public ceremony the next day - Monday, January 21.
