# President Atchison **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 1, 2004, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-atchison/231813 "2004-03-01T00:19:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![saluki\_fan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@saluki\_fan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saluki_fan)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-atchison/231813/1 "2004-03-01T00:19:30Z")
Was there once a man named Atchison voted president, but died before he was sworn in as president. By the way I think his last name was Atchison. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-atchison/231813/2 "2004-03-01T00:36:56Z")
Not exactly: [http://www.house.state.mo.us/Famous/Atchison.htm](http://www.house.state.mo.us/Famous/Atchison.htm) > [@](#): > > David Rice Atchison has the singular honor of having served as U.S. President for one day when General Zachary Taylor refused to be inaugurated on March 4, 1849, because it was a Sunday. Most less partisan historians don’t consider him as actually having been president. The swearing-in ceremony is purely symbolic and has no legal standing. Taylor was president even on that Sunday, whether he had the ceremony or not. But it makes for a fun factoid. P.S. The rest of the statement of that page that “By right of succession, he also was U.S. Vice President from April 18, 1853, until December 4, 1854, by virtue of the death of President Franklin Pierce’s vice president, William R. King.” is even more nonsense. There was no such succession act in place and no dead vice president was ever replaced, nor was any President Pro Tem of the Senate ever thought to be Vice president. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-atchison/231813/3 "2004-03-01T00:43:07Z")
[Cecil covered this](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_133.html) There was also a letter than indicated that Atchison was not technically President because on that day he was not technically President Pro Tem of the Senate. [Snopes](http://www.snopes.com/history/american/atchison.htm) has an in-depth discussion.