Evening star., 1942-08-16
Capital Side!ights
By VIII P. Kennedy.

There was just one day in the entire
history of this Government-March 4,
l349-when these United States had no
President on duty. Zachary Taylor had
been duly elected President, as successor
to James Knox Polk, but the Inaugural
ton date fell on Sunday and Taylor cid
not take the oath as President unIl
March 5. In the meantime, President
Polk's term, as we'll as that of Vice
President George NJ. Dallas of Pennsyl-
vania, and Senator David r. Atchison
of Missouri, who had been serving as
President pro tempore of the Senate,
expired on March 3. Atchison had been
reelected, and the Senate is con-
tinuing body, but Atchison could not be
reelected President pro tempore until
he had entered upon his new term, and,
in fact, was reelected to that Office on
March 5. for the purpose of administer
ing the oath of office to the Senator's
elect. Believe it or not" Robert l.. Rip
ley has claimed that Atchison was
President of the United States (for that
one day. and slept through his term Of
office" He affirmed that Atchison "be-
came the Chief Magistrate of the Ma
ton between the time of Folks retire
ment and Taylor's Inauguration, and
says that as this period came imme-
diately after very trying session in the
Senate, Senator Atchison always said
that he had slept all during his term as
President" That occurred in 1849. Un-
der the old law of 1892 succession to the
presidency ran to the President of the
Senate and next to the Speaker of the
House, In the event that there was no
President or Vice President. That sue
cession was dictated by the fact that
Congress did not wish Thomas jefferson,
who was Secretary Of State, to be in
line to take over the Office of President.
Then in 1886 the present Presidential
Succession Act was passed. Vice Presi-
dent Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana
had died on November 25, 1885; Senator
George F. Edmunds of Vermont had
been reelected President pro tempore
of the Senate on January IA, 1884. To
prevent him as Republican from sue
ceeding to the presidency in the event
of Grover Clevelands demise the law
was passed. setting up the succession to
the Secretary of State and down through
the cabinet. 1t was always contended
that succession through the speaker
ship was the most truly democratic Or
der, since the Speaker. even more than
the President, who is chosen by the elec-
toral college or the House, is the most
direct choice of all the people-elected
to the House by the voters of his own dis
trict in the first instance and then
elected Speaker by all the Representa-
tives in turn had been elected by all the
people.
The president of the American Bar
Association recently paid extraordinary
tribute to the vision of Representative
Hatton w. Summers, chairman of the
House Judiciary Committee. He said:
There are some Americans who have
had vision enough to see the course,
and patriotism and courage enough to
announce what that course was. One
of the greatest of these was Texan, a
great American, Hatton Summers. It
was he who was largely responsible for
the action OF the American Bar Asso-
citation in dedicating all it's resources
and all its personnel to aiding the Ma
tion's war effort. We shall be very
grateful to him, and in my Judgment the
American people owe him a debt OF
gratitude"