Historical Tidbits

Earlier this week I put up a post in which the introductory historical note was better received than the subject of the post itself. It occured to me therefore that it might be a good idea for me to make a series of posts on various historical tidbits. Being both a student of history and a fan of the ‘what if’ genre I think it might be of interest to some of our readers.

Frequency will of course depend on the general desire for the posts.

Today we are taking a trip back to January 1853 and a southbound train heading for Washington DC. In that era train wrecks were quite common and on this particular date the train did derail and several people were killed. Early newspaper reports indicated that among the casualties was the President Elect of the United States, Franklin Pierce.

As it turns out it was the son of the President Elect who had been killed, not Pierce. But it was quite a close call and but for a little shift in timing he certainly would have died and that would have brought into play an interesting series of events.

The immediate successor would have been Vice President Elect William King of Alabama. King holds a unique place in  US History as the only President or Vice President to take the oath of office outside the country. In March 1853 he was in Cuba trying to recover from tuberculosis and a special act of Congress allowed him to take the oath there.

His efforts failed and he died on April 18, 1853.

Now here is where things get interesting. In addition to being the second death in a space of 4 months it also might have sparked a bit of a political crisis. Under the law at the time the next in line to office was the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, then the Speaker of the House. After this the law called for a new election and had no provisions for an acting President during the interim.

In 1853 the President Pro Tempore was David Atchison, a pro slavery Senator from Missouri while the Speaker of the House was a more moderate Linn Boyd from Kentucky. Given the tensions over the slavery issue during the 1850s it is possible that some in the Senate would have been reluctant to elect Atchison to what would have, in effect, been acting President (given King’s illness).

If some tried to block Atchison from being elected in the Senate, it is also possible that some in the House could have worked to block Boyd. Democrats held huge majorities in both houses but there was a deep split betwen southern and northern members.

Obviously the most likely path would have been President Atchison, but the potential for a major political struggle was also quite high. This is especially true given the option of a new election and the idea in the minds of some leading Democrats that they could win such a vote.

And you thought 2000 was the first time we had a big battle.