According to Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the United States Constitution,
In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President
When Tippecanoe died, uh, I mean President Harrison, there was some question as to whether Vice-President John Tyler was to become president or whether he was merely given the powers and duties. Harrison’s cabinet met after his death and was determined that Tyler would only assume the duties, but Tyler had other ideas.
Tyler got himself sworn into office immediately and moved into the White House, thus establishing the precedent once and for all that when the president kicks the bucket, buys the farm, goes kaput, his vice-president becomes the president, no questions asked. This wasn’t formally enshrined into law until the 25th Amendment was adopted in 1967 in the wake of you-know-who’s assassination. Congress can be pretty slow about some things. (Some things?)
Other than establishing that precedent for an orderly transition of power, Tyler was crap. I mean just look at him. Among other things he was a Southern sympathizer.
