What happened in 1841 after President William Henry Harrison died in office and has continued to be the practice for filling a presidential vacancy ever since?
1 Answer
The Vice-President becomes the President for the remainder of the office's term.
Explanation:
US President William Henry Harrison became the ninth President in 1841. He was in office for roughly a month (30 days) before he died in April 1841 of illness - and many of those he was incapacitated and delusional from the medical treatments he was given.
This was the first time in the USA's short history that a President had died, and so people looked to the wording of the US Constitution to see what should happen. And when they looked, the wording was less than clear.
Article 2 of the Constitution deals with the Executive Branch (i.e. the President) and it says, in part that In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President ... and [the Vice President] shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.
But what does that mean? Should a Vice-President serve out the remaining term of the President? Or should a Vice-President be a temporary President while an emergency election is held? No one knew for sure.
Harrison's cabinet (the different Secretaries - State, Treasury, Defence, and the rest) consulted with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and concluded that the Vice-President, upon taking the Oath of Office, would in fact be President for the remainder of the original term. And that is what happened - John Tyler, Harrison's Vice-President, was sworn in as President and after a brief debate in Congress, a resolution was passed to allow Tyler to serve the remainder of the term.
Things continued to be on an uncertain footing (while there was now a precedent on how to proceed, it wasn't codified) until the passage of the 25th Amendment (following the assassination of John F. Kennedy) in 1967.
