Back ديفيد أتشيسون Arabic ديفيد اتشيسون ARZ دیوید رایس اچیسون AZB David Rice Atchison German دیوید رایس اچیسون Persian David Rice Atchison French דייוויד רייס אטצ'יסון HE David Rice Atchison Hungarian David Rice Atchison Italian デイヴィッド・ライス・アッチソン Japanese

David Rice Atchison

"President for One Day" and "President for a Day" redirect here. For other uses, see President for One Day (disambiguation).

David Rice Atchison
President pro tempore of the United States Senate
In office
December 20, 1852 – December 4, 1854
Preceded byWilliam R. King
Succeeded byLewis Cass
In office
August 8, 1846 – December 2, 1849
Preceded byAmbrose Hundley Sevier (acting)
Succeeded byWilliam R. King
United States Senator
from Missouri
In office
October 14, 1843 – March 3, 1855
Preceded byLewis F. Linn
Succeeded byJames S. Green
Member of the
Missouri House of Representatives
In office
1834–1841
Personal details
Born(1807-08-11)August 11, 1807
Lexington, Kentucky, U.S.
DiedJanuary 26, 1886(1886-01-26) (aged 78)
Gower, Missouri, U.S.
Resting placeGreenlawn Cemetery, Plattsburg, Missouri, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Alma materTransylvania University
Profession
  • Politician
  • lawyer
Signature
Military service
Allegiance
Branch/serviceUnited States Missouri Volunteer Militia
Missouri Missouri State Guard
Years of service1838 (MVM)
1861–1862 (MSG)
Rank Major-General (MVM)
Brigadier-General (MSG)
Battles/warsMissouri Mormon War

American Civil War

Portrait by George Caleb Bingham
Statue in front of the Clinton County Courthouse, Plattsburg, Missouri

David Rice Atchison (August 11, 1807 – January 26, 1886) was a mid-19th-century Democratic[1] United States Senator from Missouri.[1] He served as president pro tempore of the United States Senate for six years.[2] Atchison served as a major general in the Missouri State Militia in 1838 during Missouri's Mormon War and as a Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War under Major General Sterling Price in the Missouri Home Guard. Some of Atchison's associates claimed that for 24 hours—Sunday, March 4, 1849, through noon on Monday—he may have been acting president of the United States. This belief, however, is dismissed by nearly all scholars.[2][3]

Atchison, owner of many slaves and a plantation, was a prominent pro-slavery activist and Border Ruffian leader, deeply involved with violence against abolitionists and other free-staters during the "Bleeding Kansas" events that preceded admission of the state to the Union.[4][5][6][7]

  1. ^ a b "David Rice Atchison Biography". Who2.com. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
  2. ^ a b "1801: President for a Day – March 4, 1849". United States Senate. May 29, 2014. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
  3. ^ Christopher Klein (February 18, 2013). "The 24-Hour President". The History Channel. Archived from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved June 18, 2013.
  4. ^ McPherson, James M., Battle Cry of Freedom, Penguin Books, 1990, ISBN 978-0-14-012518-4 pp. 145–148
  5. ^ Stampp, Kenneth, America in 1857: a nation on the brink, Oxford University Press US, 1992, ISBN 0-19-507481-5, p. 145
  6. ^ Grimsted, David, American Mobbing, 1828–1861: Toward Civil War, Oxford University Press US, 2003, ISBN 0-19-517281-7, p. 256
  7. ^ Freehling, William W., The Road to Disunion: Secessionists triumphant, 1854–1861, Oxford University Press US, 2007, ISBN 0-19-505815-1, pp. 72–73

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