| 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.