Zachary Taylor inauguration?

Factual Questions
1

I once heard, or read, that Taylor’s inauguration was postponed by one day because, being a very religious man, he refused to have it on a sunday, 4 Mar. 1849. As a result, a congressman (the house speaker?) was legally declared pres. for that sunday. The story also included the info. that said congressman spent the entire day in his hotel room, perhaps at the Willard?
Anyone else familiar w/ this story? Is it true? Does this change the number of U.S. presidents?

2

You’re speaking of David Rice Atchison, after whom the city that was the eastern terminus of the Santa Fe Railroad was named. It is, however, an urban legend, which the linked Wikipedia article does a good job of clarifying.

The President becomes President by virtue of having been chosen for the job by the Electoral College (with the only-twice-ever-invoked House of Representatives choice as fallback option). He accedes to the office on the official date for the end of one term and the beginning of the next, now January 20 and then March 4.

He may not officially exercise the powers of his office until he has taken the Presidential Oath of Office. But he is President from the moment the clock ticks noon on January 20 – as Taylor was on Sunday, March 4, 1849.

3

Thanks. I tried to search, but came up dry. Still kind of interesting, as a footnote to presidential history. That little tidbit has been rattling around in the recesses of my mind for years. Glad to have it clarified.

4

The Master speaks.

5

Although it was customary for the president to take the oath of office at noon back in Zachary Taylor’s days, nothing in the Constitution or federal law gave an exact time for when one presidency ended and the next began.

6

Atchison himself liked to play along with the joke that he’d been President for a day (though he admitted he spent most of that day in bed, and did absolutely nothing with his supposed Presidential powers).

But Snopes asks a good question- IF Zachary Taylor was not really President simply because he was never sworn in, then how could Atchison have been President? HE was never sworn in, either!