Ironically, the quotation we shared from Martin Van Buren yesterday combined with his failure to effectively address the depression that followed the Panic of 1837 led to his defeat in the election of 1840. He lost to William Henry Harrison, a successful frontier general who also had some experience as a territorial governor, Member of Congress, and the U.S. representative to Gran Colombia. At the time of his election, Harrison was the oldest person to be elected President. He contracted pneumonia delivering the longest inaugural address in American history, and died 31 days into his term--the first President to die in office. His Vice President immediately moved into the White House and took the oath of office in order to forestall a Constitutional crisis, setting a precedent that has been followed ever since. The succession of the Vice President was not formally a part of the Constitution until the passage of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment in 1967.
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AuthorAuthor of What Makes a Great President?, Close Encounters With Accountability Citizen-ship, Thy King Dumb Come, & Accountability Citi-zenship, Stephen P. Tryon is a businessman & technologist with extensive experience in e-commerce, a retired Soldier, and former Senate Fellow. Archives
January 2025
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