Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1896-07-20
PRESIDENT ONE DAY
CURIOUS COMPLICATION WHICH AROSE OVER 4 SUNDAY QUESTION.

March 4. 1s49. Fell on the ssbbath-Pres-
 fdent of the Senate Atehison Was Pres
 ident of the United States for Twenty
 four Hours--will Occur Again In 1891.
 Very few people know that man named Atchison was once president of the United States, but such is the case. While the oath of office was never ad- ministered and he was not officially rec ognized, David R. Atchison was for 24 hours virtually the chief executive of this nation
 March I, 1s49, came on Sunday. a day that the constitution does not recog- nize as legal in the transaction of such official business as administering the oath Of office. On that day at noon Pres ident Folks term of office ended, and President Elect Zachary Taylor could not take his place, or at least did not think he could The prospect of the country being without an official head for the 24 hours or there being doubt about who would be the head created discussion in congress and in the press.
 When General Taylor arrived in Washington & few days before his in- augeration, he was besought to take the oath of office on Sunday, so as to prevent confusion and what some persons be- lieyed to be danger, as those were rather stirring times. During Saturday and Saturday night there were half dozen fights ill congress. The capitol was & camp of violence, but General Taylor held out that he would not become pres ident on Sunday.
 David R. Atehison of Missouri was president pro tempore of the senate, and it was held by congress that the func- tions of president must devolve upon him from Sunday noon till Monday noon, and for these 24 hours he had the distinction of being president of the United States, having all the functions and powers of that office. The oath of the office was not administered to him for the same reason that 1t was not inn mediately administered to General Tay- Tor: but. he being virtually vice presi- dent, it was not considered necessary.
 That President Atchison considered himself president there can be no doubt, for on Monday morning, when the sen- ate reassem0led, he sent to the White House for the seal of the great office and signed one or two official papers as president. These were some small acts in connection with the inauguration that had been neglected by President Polk.
 But there was much fun and good natured badinage indulged in among | Atchison's friends and himself during his short presidential term. He was a l Democrat, while the president-elect was Whig. A majority of the senate was l Democratic, and his friends jokingly | proposed to him to usurp the office by | calling the army to his back and pre- venting Old Ironsides from being sworn in. If any such thing had been seriously contemplated, General Taylor was too much the idol of the army to let it be successful.
 Had General Taylor been an unpopu- lar man and had Atchison had the char acter and ambition of dictator, with a friendly army, congress and timid su- preme court, President Atchison's name would probably not have been so soon forgotten, and the constitutional day of inaugurating the president of the United States would have been changed so that it would never again fall on Sunday. According to an almanac maker of the time the next inauguration to fall on Sunday will be March 4, 1921. There will then be an opportunity for a repetition of the events of 1s49. Phil adelphia Press.