branch death_date allegiance birth_date signature term_end alma_mater death_place profession battles term_start order rank image name predecessor birth_place jr/sr party state successor article_title
flag guard of the missouri state guard.svg 23px missouri state 26 january 1886 confederate guard.svg 23px missouri states of america flag of the missouri state 11 august 1807 david rice atchison signature.svg march 4 , 1854 3 , 1855 december 2 , 1849 december transylvania university gower , missouri lawyer , politician , farmer , soldier american civil war october 20 , 1852 14 , 1843 august 8 , 1846 december president pro tempore of the united states senate 25px general david rice atchison by mathew brady march 1849.jpg david rice atchison lewis linn ambrose hundley sevier william r. king lexington , kentucky united states senator democratic missouri james green william r. king lewis cass david rice atchison

david rice atchison

david rice atchison -lrb- august 11 , 1807january 26 , 1886 -rrb- was a mid-19th century democratic united states senator from missouri .
he served as president pro tempore of the united states senate for six years .
he is best known for the claim that for one day -lrb- march 4 , 1849 -rrb- he may have been acting president of the united states .
this belief , however , is dismissed by nearly all historians , scholars , and biographers .
atchison , owner of many slaves and a plantation , was a prominent pro-slavery activist and border ruffian leader , deeply involved with violence against abolitionists and other free-staters during the `` bleeding kansas '' events .
