By Dan O'Donnell
Jan 21, 2021
The beginning of presidential terms is marked with pomp and ceremony celebrating a new chapter in America's story, but what happens when no one is quite sure when, exactly, the page is supposed to be turned--what if, in other words, one chapter ends before another begins. Does America go leaderless, if only for the briefest of moments?
This is the Forgotten History of the President for a Day.
The presidential election of 1848 was a bitterly contested one, as Zachary Taylor, a hero of the Mexican-American War, narrowly defeated Democrat Lewis Cass. Incumbent Democrat James K. Polk had decided not to seek re-election, and Taylor’s Whig Party was set to assume control of the White House for the first time since William Henry Harrison’s 31-day term in 1841, the shortest in American history.