![]() ![]() Kefauver died in August 1963 after suffering a heart attack on the Senate floor. ![]() The influential Senator Estes Kefauver had started the amendment effort during the Eisenhower era, and he renewed it in 1963. This became a bigger issue with the realities of the Cold War and with President Dwight Eisenhower’s illnesses in the 1950s. The Tyler Precedent stood fast in these transition periods.įurthermore, there was no constitutional way to replace a Vice President who had vacated office or to handle a situation where a President became incapacitated while in office.īy 1963, Congress was debating an attempt to amend the Constitution to clear up all succession matters and add a procedure for dealing with a leader who became unable to perform the office’s duties temporarily or permanently. In the following years, presidential successions happened after the deaths of six presidents, and there were two cases where the offices of President and Vice President almost became vacant at the same time. Tyler settled the debate by asking a local judge to administer the presidential oath, and he fought all attempts by his many political foes to treat him as anything but the legitimate President of the United States. There was a debate in Congress about what powers Tyler had and what he should be called (Acting President, President or Vice President). Vice President John Tyler, in a bold move, settled the political debate about succession. This oversight became apparent in 1841, when the newly elected President, William Henry Harrison, died about a month after becoming President. Technically, the Constitution never spelled out how a Vice President would become President if a President died, resigned or was unable to perform the office’s duty. Hughes as he took the oath at Love Field in Dallas in a now-iconic photograph.īut Kennedy’s sudden passing accelerated an argument about a constitutional change that had been in the works in Congress in 1963. Johnson stood by his wife, Jackie Kennedy, and Judge Sarah T. Vice President Lyndon Johnson was in the same motorcade as Kennedy, and there were early, erroneous reports that Johnson was also wounded.Īs the country came to grips with the assassination, Johnson made sure the moment when he took the oath of office, about two hours after Kennedy’s death, was documented, so the nation knew a constitutional change of office had taken place. Kennedy’s assassination created moments of chaos in the federal government that afternoon. Kennedy’s death on November 22, 1963, traumatized a nation and led a united Congress to make a constitutional change, in the form of the 25 th amendment. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |