Simply as you’ll be able to’t unpet a canine, you’ll be able to’t unsing the praises of David Rice Atkinson, basically as a result of no praises had been sung of him.
He’s the person who has the glory of being the so-called “President of the US For A Day” – serving from midday on Sunday, March 4, 1849 via midday on Monday March 5, 1849. In honor of Presidents Day, let’s check out the unremarkable guy who was the 11-1/2 President.
David Rice Atchison was once born on August 11, 1807 in Frogtown, Kentucky, a the town named for an abundance of frogs in a close-by movement. The city’s identify was once later modified to the extra smart Kirklevington (the names Monkey’s Eyebrow, Booger Department and Beaverlick having been already taken via different Kentucky cities).
Atchison went to university at Transylvania College, which was once now not in Romania however in Lexington, Kentucky. It didn’t have the rest to do with vampires however Atchison went there to be a legal professional so it did have one thing to do with evil bloodsuckers.
He entered politics and in 1843 was once appointed to the United States Senate to fill a emptiness left via the loss of life of the former Senator. It appears the Charter calls for sitting Senators to be alive, even if from paying attention to lots of them talk, it’s obtrusive that they are able to be spineless and brain-free.
In 1849, Atchison was once elected to a complete time period and selected to be President professional tempore of the Senate as a result of he was once standard together with his Democratic colleagues, particularly junior Senator Dianne Feinstein.
Being President pro-tempore of the Senate intended he was once in control of the Senate when the Vice President was once travelling or being chased into the bowels of the Capitol via a mob that sought after to hold him. And being President professional tempore that made him 2nd in line for presidential succession after the VP – and the following to be hanged.
Within the election of 1848, Zachary Taylor gained the Presidential election with Millard Fillmore as his working mate – two males whose faces won’t ever be on cash until they’re Chuck E. Cheese tokens.
Again then, new Presidents had been inaugurated on March 4. Lately Presidents are sworn in on January 20 and via March 4, they’re generally being sworn at.
In 1849, the March 4 Inauguration Day fell on a Sunday and the slave-owning, Indian-fighting Zachary Taylor was once a non secular guy who wouldn’t take workplace at the Sabbath, which is what Sunday was once known as earlier than there was once soccer. So his inauguration was once scheduled for Monday, March 5.
However there was once an issue. The time period of the present president James Polk and his Vice President, whose identify nobody recollects anyway, ended at midday on March 4. So till Zachary Taylor was once sworn in the following day, some folks (most commonly buddies of his) concept David Rice Atchison — the President professional tempore — was once in price.
Whether or not he was once or now not, throughout the 24-hours he held the publish, he didn’t get started any wars, didn’t elevate any taxes, didn’t inform any individual to drink bleach, and didn’t have a son with a problematic computer.
However may David Rice Atchison have actually been elected president someday in his existence? Let’s have a look at his {qualifications}.
But even so being President professional tempore of the senate, he was once additionally professional one thing else – slavery. He owned a whole lot of slaves and did his absolute best to show the then-territory of Kansas right into a slave state. To that finish, he led 5,000 closely armed males into Kansas on March 30, 1855, the state’s election day. They had been known as the “Border Ruffians” or in modern day English, “Proud Boys.” They seized regulate of all polling puts at gunpoint, forged tens of hundreds of fraudulent votes for pro-slavery applicants, and elected a pro-slavery legislature.
So via these days’s requirements, sure, he did have what it takes to run for the absolute best workplace.
And if truth be told, he did glide his identify as a Presidential candidate – however that was once shot down like a Chinese language balloon. Why? As a result of some risk free statements he made urging his fans to “draw blood” and kill the entire abolitionists. He stated his remarks had been taken out of context. He was once actually urging his fans to “draw blood” from the anti-slavery faction so it might be checked for life-threatening ldl cholesterol and thus he was once appearing a public provider.
When the Civil Conflict broke out, Atchison volunteered to struggle for the Accomplice aspect and was once appointed Brigadier Common in 1861. The following 12 months, on the other hand, he resigned his fee over a confrontation with the Military. He sought after to be known as “Stonewall Rice Atchison” however they had been calling him “Minute Rice Atchison” as an alternative.
David Rice Atchison died on January 26, 1886 and then his political existence slowed to a move slowly. Lately, his reminiscence lives on at his Presidential Library – which is situated in a Qwik-Mart in Balderdash, Kansas. You’ll in finding his respectable papers within the fourth pocket of the second one tier of the map rack close to the salty snack aisle.
