Grave Matters: President for a Day (Not)

Portrait of David Atchison by
George Caleb Bingham

Every election cycle, some smug smart-aleck is going to ask if you know who the US president with the shortest term in office. They will probably want the answer: David Rice Atchison, who was President of the United States for one day on 04 March 1849. How did this go down? Zachary Taylor won the 1848 Presidential election, and his inauguration was to take place on 04 March 1849 (because the US Constitution took effect on 04 March 1789). According to the story, President-elect Zachary Taylor refused to be sworn-in on Sunday for religious reasons, and he and Vice-President elect Millard Fillmore were inaugurated on 05 March. Since President Polk's term ended on 04 March, many people think that there was an interregnum during which there was either no official President or no government. Without an inaugurated President or Vice-President, the thought is that the job of "acting President" falls to the next person in line, in this case President pro tempore of the Senate - David Rice Atchison, Senator from Missouri.

Atchison foot marker

I really hate to throw a wet blanket on a great party, but that is really a stretch. The Constitution does not state the the president-elect had to take the oath of office on 04 March to be considered President, just that they take the oath before they perform the official duties of the office. Zachary Taylor became president on 04 March, but was not required to take the oath on that day since no official business was conducted. In fact, that is the real reason that Taylor's swearing-in was delayed; the government was closed for business on Sundays.

David Rice Atchison headstone

This was not the first time that the official Inauguration Day should have been a Sunday. In 1821, March 04 was a Sunday at the start of James Monroe's second term, and the inauguration was held the next day. No controversy arose since Monroe effectively succeeded himself.  The Consitution does not distinguish between a first term and subsequent terms, in which case Monroe ceased to be President on 04 March and the Senate President pro tempore would have been acting president until March 05 by the "President Atchison" argument. Monroe was comfortable postponing taking the oath of office after consulting with Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, who saw no legal impediment. Inauguration Day fell on Sunday, 04 March 1877 at Rutherford B. Hayes' term, but he avoided the interregnum issue by taking the oath privately on Saturday 03 March and publicly on 05 March.  Woodrow Wilson took the oath privately on Sunday, 04 March 1917 and publicly on the 5th.

Since the adoption of the 20th Amendment, which changed Inauguration Day to 20 January, Presidents Eisenhower, Reagan and Obama have been publicly sworn in on Monday, 21 January because Sundays are not federal office days. No problems were perceived with these modern delayed swearing-ins because they occurred at the second term for each AND these Presidents avoided the issue altogether by following Wilson's precedent and taking the oath of office privately on Sunday and again publicly on Monday.

David Rice Atchison was not "President for a Day" by any realistic stretch of the law. Even Atchison did not consider himself to have been president, when asked about it in 1882: "It was in this way: Polk went out of office on the 3d of March 1849, on Saturday at 12 noon. The next day, the 4th, occurring on Sunday, Gen. Taylor was not inaugurated. He was not inaugurated till Monday, the 5th, at 12 noon. It was then canvassed among Senators whether there was an interregnum (a time during which a country lacks a government). It was plain that there was either an interregnum or I was the President of the United States being chairman of the Senate, having succeeded Judge Magnum of North Carolina. The judge waked me up at 3 o'clock in the morning and said jocularly that as I was President of the United States he wanted me to appoint him as secretary of state. I made no pretense to the office, but if I was entitled in it I had one boast to make, that not a woman or a child shed a tear on account of my removing any one from office during my incumbency of the place. A great many such questions are liable to arise under our form of government".

What a bummer for Missouri tourism, right? Eh...why let facts get in the way of a good story? There are still plenty of documents bragging on the "President for a Day" and the "First President from Missouri". Personally, I find satisfaction in debunking the myth because this trivial designation really takes away from Atchison's true impact on American history. He is memorialized in at least three place names: Atchison, KS; Atchison County, KS; and Atchison County, MO.  In my estimation, David Rice Atchison carries more responsibility for starting the American Civil War than any one other person.

Antebellum Atchison

David Rice Atchison 1850

David Rice Atchison was born in Frogtown, Kentucky on 11 August 1807.  He attended college at Transylvania University in Lexington and counted among his classmates Jefferson Davis, later President of the Confederacy.  He began reading law and was admitted to the Kentucky Bar in 1829.

Atchison's association with Missouri began in 1830 when he moved to Liberty in Clay County and took up law practice there.  The practice flourished and he counted among his clients Joseph Smith, prophet and founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS).  Atchison represented Smith and the LDS in disputes with non-LDS landowners in Caldwell (Far West) and Daviess (Adam-ondi-Ahman) counties.

David Atchison's first foray into politics was his election to the Missouri State House of Representatives in 1834, an office he was re-elected to in 1838.  During this time, Atchison served on a commission that pushed for the Platte Purchase, which was completed in 1836.  The land to the west of a line due north of the mouth of the Kansas (Kaw) River and east of the Missouri River was reserved for American Indian use.  The addition of this land to Missouri made it the largest state (by area) in the United States at the time.  The extension of slavery into this new area was also a violation of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which blocked the extension of slavery in lands gained by the Louisiana Purchase north of 36 degrees 30 minutes north, except for the boundaries of Missouri as defined in 1820.  This would not be the last time that Atchison's actions attacked the Missouri Compromise.

1838 Mormon War Conflict Site map by John Hamer

During 1838, the conflict between the LDS Church (Mormons) and non-Mormons came to a head.  The church was a victim of its own success.  As converts to the LDS church grew, they gathered together into settlements and controlled the politics of the area by voting in blocs.  Resentment from non-Mormon settlers led to the expulsion of the church from Jackson County in 1833.  As the LDS members moved into Clay County, Atchison's law partner, Alexander Doniphan, pushed forward a law establishing Caldwell County as a place for Mormon settlement in 1836.  In 1837, in the wake of a bank failure scandal in Kirtland, OH the church moved its headquarters to Far West, MO.  The sudden influx of church members resulted in the establishment of new settlements in Daviess and Carroll Counties.

Needless to say, this caused hurt feelings among settlers who felt that they were being invaded by people who had been given their own place.  In a country where Whigs and Democrats were evenly balanced, the Mormon influx changed the political landscape.  Long story short, the conflicts prompted Governor Lilburn Boggs to issue Missouri Executive Order 44 ("Extermination Order") which said "the Mormons must be treated as enemies and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary".  During this conflict Atchison and Doniphan both were appointed generals in the state militia and were among the leaders attempting to suppress violence done by non-Mormons and Mormons to each other.

After he had served out his terms in the Missouri legislature, Atchison was named a circuit judge in Platte County in 1841.  Late in 1843, Atchison became a US Senator, the first from western Missouri, when he was appointed to fill the vacancy created by the death of Lewis Linn.  David Atchison had tremendous skill as a politician, and Atchison was elected President pro tempore of the US Senate on 13 different occasions from 1846-1854 to preside over the Senate when the vice-president was absent.  From 20 December 1852 - 04 December 1854, Atchison was effectively the acting vice-president, since there was no sitting vice-president at the time.  Millard Fillmore had become president at the death of Zachary Taylor, so there was no vice-president from 09 July 1850 until 04 March 1853.  Franklin Pierce was elected president in 1852 with William R. King as vice-president.  King was ill with tuberculosis and in Cuba when he took the oath of office on 24 March 1853.  King died on 18 April 1853 without ever executing duties as vice-president, leaving the position vacant until the next election, so any Senate President pro tempore serving 18 April 1853 - 03 March 1857 was essentially the acting vice-president.

Was David Rice Atchison a  President of the US? No.  A Vice-President of the US? Maybe.  Missouri State Representative, Major General in Missouri Militia, US Senator, US Senate President pro tempore?  Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes.  How did this guy light the fire that started the US Civil War?  Stay tuned to this BatChannel for more.

Getting There

Well, dead guys don't run fast, so it is easy enough to track them down.  MO-116 runs right through Plattsburg, and is easily reached from US-169, I-35 or MO-13.  In Plattsburg, turn south on County Highway C.  Several adjoining cemeteries can be found on the south side of town.  Follow the signs to the Atchison grave.

Waypoint:  Latitude: 39.5580724 N; Longitude:  94.4458898 W