Publication information
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Source: Harper’s Weekly
Source type: magazine
Document type: article
Document title: “Succession to the Presidential Chair”
Author(s): anonymous
Date of publication: 21 September 1901
Volume number: 45
Issue number: 2335
Pagination: 946

 
Citation
“Succession to the Presidential Chair.” Harper’s Weekly 21 Sept. 1901 v45n2335: p. 946.
 
Transcription
full text
 
Keywords
presidential succession.
 
Named persons
Lyman J. Gage; John Hay; Ethan A. Hitchcock; Philander C. Knox; John D. Long; Theodore Roosevelt; Charles Emory Smith; James Wilson.
 
Document

 

Succession to the Presidential Chair

THE old order of succession to the Presidency was changed in 1888. Up to that time the order had been from President to Vice-President, and then to Speaker. By the act of 1888, the succession would now follow in this order: First, Vice-President Roosevelt; in case of his death or disability, Secretary Hay would succeed; and then, on the death or disability of that incumbent, there would follow, after Secretary Hay, Secretary Gage; then Attorney-General Knox; then Secretary Long; then Postmaster-General Smith; then Secretary Hitchcock; and finally Secretary Wilson. The new order insures the succession of a member of the President’s party. Under the old order, the Speaker being often a member of the opposite party, the will of the people, as expressed at the Presidential election, might have been defeated by his succession.

 

 


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