The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-04-04
PRESIDENT FOR
ONE DAY ONLY
From the Washington Times.

In repeating the names of the presidents
from George Washington to william Nc.
Kinley, no one would ever mention that of
David Rice Atchison.
who in the world might he be?" people
would ask at hearing his name, and one
would mstrust that he actually was a
president of the United States, for very
few people know the story of the shortest
term on record in the highest office in the
gift of the American people, which extend
ed from March 4. 1S49, to March 8, 1S49.
David Rice Atchison was a Kentuckian.
It was right that a president should come
from this state of beautiful women, this
state where horses are more than ordinary,
and where the meadow-grass is blue. I'm
IKE the usual kentuckian, Atchison was q
very temperate man. His father, William
Atchison, was well-to-do farming gentle
man in Fayette county, and consequently
was perfectly able TO educate his son, who
graduated when IS from Pennsylvania uni
versity, at Lexington, in 1925. He after
ward studied law With Judge Jesse Bledsoe,
and also with William T. Barry, who was
postmaster-general under Andrew jackson,
and the first man to hold the portfolio.
Along with the number of Kentucky FAM
lilies who went westward, Atchison, to sat-
15fy his restless, rowing disposition, emil
grated to Missouri in 1880, and settled in
the, at that time sparsely populated part
of western Missouri, In Liberty In Clay
county. Here he began to practice law and
to go into politics. In the summer of 1885
Atchison was among those who memorial
lied congress, when the project of the IA
nous platte Purchase" was begun. It
was chiefly through Thomas H Benton, q
senator. that the purchase was made a
year later. After this beginning in politics
Atchison became more and more prominent
and was twice the representative of Clay
county in tho state legislature. Owing to
Atchison's ability as a lawyer and his per-
sonal worth, he became judge of the cir
cult court of Platte county district during
the governorship of Thomas Reynolds
Atchison's appointment as Judge made
him so well known that he was nominated
to complete the unexpired term of Senator
Linn, who died in October, 1S43. Governor
Reynolds did an unfortunate thing in pro-
posing Atchison for this senatorship, for
among Reynolds strongest friends. both
political and personal, Atchison was very
unpopular. But bitter as was their hatred,
they were unable to defeat him.
From that time on Governor Reynolds
troubles grew from bad to worse. His
closest followers shamelessly deserted him.
and rebelled against him. And though
Reynolds was a very able and experienced
public man he was peculiarly sensitive, and
this criticism and rebellion fretted him
sorely. On one of his especially melan-
cholv days he committed suicide and that
day was February g. lS44.
So Atchison entered the senate in the
face of many political enemies with no
Reynolds to protect and encourage him.
But in November at the meeting of the
thirteenth general assembly he won the
fight and was returned to the senate
Atchison was a great deal of a junior sem
ator from Missouri, for Colonel Thomas H.
Benton had been in the senate for upward
of twenty-five years and was counted one
of the ableSt statesmen in that august
body. He felt his inferior ability through
out the years of service that followed and
finally in 1SiS he and Benton came to open
warfare and both retired from the senate.
1t was during his service in the senate
however, that he was made an unusually
striking figure in American history. He
was once elected president pro tenn. of the
senate, and very often presided over its
elaboration. March 4, 1919, happened to be
a Sunday, and so President Polk was sup
posed to walk out of office on that day.
Gen. Zachary Taylor, out of respect for
the prevailing religious scruples, put off
the Inauguration until Monday. This pro-
ceeding, of course, left twenty-four hours
for the country to be without president.
As the yice-president stepped out of office
along with the president, the right of au-
thority in the hands of the president
pro tenn of the senate.
Strange to say, David Rice Atchison, of
Missouri, who happened to hold that office,
did not fully appreciate this great honor.
On Saturday, the last day of congress, he
presided over the senate during a long
and stormy debate. The clock was set
back again and again, and it was nearly
daybreak of Sunday before the senate adj
journed.
Unusually tired and worried Senator
Atchison went home and to bed. He slept
until very late in the evening and arose
only to eat meal and go back to bed
again. By the time he had arisen again
General Taylor had become President Tay-
lor, and Atchison, president pro tenn of the
senate, was president of the United States
no longer. He even forgot afterwards that
he had been president and it proved a lucky
thing that no duties were required of him
in that brief incumbency. After he left the
senate he went to his farm, an immense
one in Clinton county, Missouri. He lived
a long and quiet uneventful life after this
though he was always highly regarded by
the citizens. Atchison county, Missouri, and
Atchison city, Kansas, are both named in
honor of this one-day president. He died
in 1856.