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Document 41495

DAVID R. ATCHISON and THOMAS H. BENTON
The 12th U.S. President?
Signature: "David R. Atchison", 1p, 4x2¾. Also signed: "Thomas H. Benton/U.S. Senate/Mri." Penned in unknown hand at top: "Missouri." In indelible purple pencil beneath Atchison's signature in unidentified hand: "Pres't for one day 3/4/49 Sunday" and, to the left of "U.S. Senate", the words: "30 yrs in". Atchison served as U.S. Senator from Missouri from 1843-1855. Polk's term as 11th U.S. President had ended at the stroke of midnight, March 3, 1849. President-elect Zachary Taylor refused to take the oath of office on his Sabbath, Sunday, March 4, 1849. He took the presidential oath on Monday, March 5, 1849, the same day Vice President-elect Millard Fillmore was sworn in. When Polk's Vice President, George M. Dallas, resigned as President of the Senate on Friday, March 2, 1849, Missouri Senator David R. Atchison was elected President Pro Tempore of the U.S. Senate, a position he had held since 1846. Since Article II of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to declare "what Officer shall then act as President" in case of the "Inability, both of the President and the Vice President", and since the President Pro Tempore of the Senate was next in line to the Presidency, there are historians who insist that Atchison was U.S. President for one day, March 4, 1849. BENTON was one of Missouri's first two Senators serving from 1821-1851, a then-record 30 years in the Senate. Atchison's signature is rare in full as he usually signed "D.R. Atchison". Nailhead-size stain at lower blank left edge. Fine condition.

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