Next, the director of the Atchison County historical andety discusses his life explores the question of whether he should be recognized as the nations 12 president. The Kansas City Public Library hosted this event and 2014 and provided the video. Chris taylor passed away in 2019. Mr. Taylor thank you. That was a grand introduction. If you just want the major a cop was means of David Rice Atchison, thank you, it has been a lovely evening. If you want his major accomplishments. Needless to say his administration is a little less impressive than maybe truman or anyone else who was ever president. Atchison isid rice someone you should know about. Inwas a significant player the days leading up to the civil war and the term what we call bleeding kansas. He was one of the people who really began the push to get tried as a state and he to direct it in a certain direction that he felt those beneficial for the union. Was he misguided . Very possibly. Was he successful . Absolutely not. Was but what is important who this person was and why, unfortunately, he disappeared from everything. The library came up with the title, David Rice Atchison, president no one knows. Looking at that, i realized that long ago in another lifetime as a journalist, i wrote a column for the newspaper i worked for entitled the exact same thing. However, in learning more about him, maybe the title should be David Rice Atchison, the man, the senator and the president that no one knows. What i find most interesting about David Rice Atchison and what stirred the creation of our is, besides library his 24 hours of infamous status as president , is that this man who was nearing the pinnacle of his political career, who was considered one of the most able senators and statesmans office time, a man so well respected by his colleagues in the senate he was elected president pro tem of the senate again and again. Mostg him the third powerful man in the country. And on extended occasions when the Vice President or the president had passed away, and no Vice President was in office, he served as defect to Vice President. The press of the time referred to him as Vice President atchison for years and years. A person who is this high ranking, this influential, how could he disappeared . How could he completely follow the map fall off the map . How is someone so smart and capable understanding of the ways to get things done at the highest levels fadeaway could so completely he would be forgotten First Century . For a century . Someone who was so powerful and so able to change the rules of statehood just a try to keep the balance of power does not just evaporate. I think we need to look at who was David Rice Atchison . Likely, because he left public life early. His accomplishments and goals were overshadowed by the civil war and its aftermath. And his moment of infamy was not followed up by greater moments. From view andaded got left out of most of the history books. A fire in 1870 probably added to this. In 1870,burned including his library, his collection of papers, and his manuscript he was working on for his memoirs. Had that not burn, we might know more about him today. He may have not completely disappeared. Atchison has been typically pretrade as this two dimensional figure, slaveholder who holed up in texas after the civil war. The stories about atchison show him as a drunken ruffian, of ill figure out to illegally sway the elections of a young kansas territory and bring slavery into a place it was not desired. And even his 24 hours of highest rank gets twisted into him sleeping off a drunk and missing his big day. I found there is a block out there by a priest that repeats a story about him saying that he had gone out to attend the inaugurals on that saturday night and slept all through sunday. Besides the timeline problems with inaugurals not happening until monday, there is no real evidence David Rice Atchison was a drunk and no evidence he did anything beside go to sleep after working with the senate for 72 hours. The real David Rice Atchison was a very complicated man of exceptional intelligence, excelling and growing into someone who put principles in front of convenience. , who then entered what should have been the most productive period of his life at the same time the United States was being torn apart. As a young man after he passed the bar and began into political life, he took the act of court. Ng the mormons in this was not a popular thing in missouri, but he felt the mormons have the right to a proper defense, and so he put his career on the line as a young lawyer and defended the mormons. In the senate, he did on another somewhat unpopular thing. He defended the rights of the native americans and believed that all the treaties should be upheld that were given them. Of course, at the same time he was taking other actions to open the west that was putting pressure on the same native americans he was defending with one hand. And then he was drawn into the kansas question as i like to call it. Kansas absolutely consumed him. But i will come back to that in a few minutes. David rice atchison has a lot of things going for him through his career, and one of the things i put together is a fact sheet. So that when someone wants to know more about David Rice Atchison, someone wants to do a story, i can give them a fact sheet that gives them a breach synopsis of who this person was and why we should care about who David Rice Atchison was. It starts out with he is the real 12th president of the United States. And i will let you make that decision on your own later tonight. He was born in frogtown, kentucky, on august 11, 1807, and this leads into one of the selfdeprecating humor of atchison. He said i was a big frog in the bubble. He died in Clinton County, missouri january 26,1886. He never married but raised his nephew as his own after his brothers death. He attended pretzel dania university. In levinsohn, kentucky. At the time it was considered the equal of the premier eastern colleges harbor daniel prude and it still exists, the way. Transylvania university is still there. Atchison entered college as a freshman at the age of 14. In 1821. To give you an idea of how smart he was, he was four years advanced for anyone else entering class in transylvania university. He graduated in the class of 1825. His classmates included five future senators, including Jefferson Davis, who had become a lifelong friend. Missouri, hefrom was a democrat and he served 55. M 1843 to 18 president pro tem of the senate from 1846to 1850 and 1852 to 1854. The only time where he did not serve as president pro tem he deferred to the longestserving member of the senate who would later become a Vice President who passed away as Vice President and David Rice Atchison replaced them is acting Vice President. Replaced him as acting Vice President. In 1853 under president fillmore he served as acting Vice President after the death of Vice President taylor. Under president strickland pierce after the death of william king he served as acting Vice President. The Vice President did not have quite as much to do as they do now. They presided over the senate and voted whenever there was a typo that was their only duty whenever there was a tie vote. He refused to give the funds to hire a secretary at the time. As he began his career he served as a circuit judge in missouri. And then served in the missouri legislature. Theas instrumental in purchase that expanded the area of the state of missouri. Time, in his time in the senate, he spearheaded the drive to allow the oregon territory settlement and set up a territorial government. He was one of the main supporters of texas statehood. He took a firm hand upholding the treaty rights of native american tribes during his 10 year as the chair of indian e asirs during his tenur chair of indian affairs. He stood with a Southern States and he became the do factor leader of all the Southern States in the senate. From missouri, that was an unusual position that he left that entire delegation. Considered tolso be the real power who drove the passage of the kansas nebraska act. It is thought that possibly he even wrote the kansas nebraska act. Elsewhere, butit he was the powerbroker behind it, being able to garner all the southern votes to support it. When he retired from political life in 1856, he gave up because of the kansas question. He retired to his farm, and his last political foray came in 1860 when atchison stood as a candidate for missouri governor as a democrat but he failed to gain the nomination. There were other forces at work. He refused to serve the confederacy during the civil war, but he came to the service of the state of missouri, and served among other positions as a general of the militia. He was instrumental in an acting the defensive offensive treaty, which im not sure what that means, but it sounds like a general treaty with the confederacy. Athink they are trying to say defensive treaty but they wanted to say they could be offensive if they wanted to. That was a joke. Uckle] i will come back to the bleeding kansas era. They told me this is not something you have to spend a lot of time about, bleeding kansas. You touched on it and other programs but i think it is crucial to understand what happened to David Rice Atchison. You have to know his involvement. First it starts with the cans and oppressive act the kansas nebraska act. Stephen douglas gets the credit, and atchison said in speeches he was the person behind the kansas nebraska act. Did he write this critical bill or was he the push behind it . He was the person likely driving the Southern States at this point. We can think of as the godfather of kansas. We can think of atchison as the godfather of kansas. Driven by the vision that the fate of kansas was the fate of the union. He spoke of allowing southerners to put is a paid in the wealth of the west. The wayately, he saw the kansas went would tip the power in the union and solidify the union or break it. He fought it all cost to protect the union and the way he saw was the only way to avoid civil war. By protecting southern interests. Was atchison the savior or a demon to kansas . It depends on the view you take, but one thing is certain coming up here. One thing is certain. The future course of the nation before anyone else realized we were on the road to the civil war. This twoe atchison had personality thing going, not because of anything he did, but because he was reported on by different sets of reporters with different agendas at the time. Border ruffianr David Rice Atchison. Or peace broker David Rice Atchison. And the question was did David Rice Atchison fire the first shot or deeply for calm her heads . Excerptsg to read two on different sides of this and you can decide which one makes more sense for that time. I will start off with the story of the peace broker atchison. Told someone else reported, he told them in later years. I made several speeches, half a dozen riding horseback to the different companies. I spoke in the interest of peace. Exerting myself to check not to incite, not to outrage. It was not my wish the hotel should be destroyed. Sheriff jones to spare it. I told him it would satisfy the ends of justice if he should throw a cannonball through it and let the matter rest. But jones was bent on mischief and i could do nothing with him. Sovereignty which was the newspaper of the time in the city of atchison reported on the events this way. Atchison, the man, atchison began by reminding the men that they were there to enforce the law, not violate the law. And should put personal animosity and private passions behind them. The general reminded the policy of the Critical Condition of the country and told them that the eyes of the nation will be riveted on their actions that day. Ed to theirw friends and families to remain temperate and calm in the discharge of their duty. That sounds a good human being talking. The other side, the new york tribune, which had reporters stationed in atchison and northeast kansas throughout this entire time, reported on the same event. And this is the story of border ruffian David Rice Atchison. This day i am my ranger, by god. This day we have entered lawrence and not one abolitionist had dared to fire a gun. Now, we will go in. And test the strength of that damned Free State Hotel and learn the immigrant aid society that cancer shall be ours. Lady should be respected by all gentlemen but by god, what a woman takes on her self the garb by carrying a sharps rifle, then she is no longer a woman. And by god, treat her for what you find your and trample under her foot as you would a snake if a man or woman dare stand before you, blow them to hell with a chunk of light. A chunk of lead. There is a subtle difference between these accounts. So, you have to decide, who was David Rice Atchison . You have two completely different characters being pretrade in the media at the time. Being portrayed in the media at the time. Atchison was consumed by what was happening in kansas. He let himself be drawn into the detriment of Everything Else in his life. Ignored the opportunity to be reelected to the u. S. Senate to try to reconcile how the kansas question was going to be answered. Now, David Rice Atchison was no saint. He was a slave owner, and he was concerned about what would happen to missourians who owned slaves like himself. But he was more concerned about how he might preserve the union if only for a while. Was he shortsighted . Was he kitting himself that kansas allowing the extension of slavery would solve the problem . In both cases, probably yes. But you have to consider that he statet this radical slave wild eyed whiskey breathing he even as we often get the image whiskey breathing heathen. If he only cared about slavery and not the union his record in the senate would be different. And his lifelong friendship with Jefferson Davis would have allowed him to a head would allowed him to have any position in the confederacy he wanted. They differed a great deal and what they felt about what was happening. Jefferson davis was not David Rice Atchisons biggest fan because David Rice Atchison had other agendas. And atchison was probably closer to lincoln in his opinion of preserving the union then of Jefferson Davis or any of the Southern States he was supposedly the leader of the senate. He could have had any position in the confederacy, but when he finally admitted to himself long after many other people around him saw it, that the kansas cause was absolute futility, sometime in 1857 or 1858 he retired. Going to his farm in Clinton County. He would be pulled back to serve with the missouri militia, and he used his contactsd to benefit the state by forging an alliance with the confederacy. Late in the civil war, his path literally disappears as he would do later finally resurfacing, he owned a farm in texas where he stays for a couple of years, wary of returning to his property in missouri. During this time, he writes letters to his brother still in missouri. And you can see there is this duel thing going on the gun. He is concerned about his property and how missourians are being able to keep their property. But he is also writing what to do with the slaves he has with him, his family slaves he has in texas. And he points out that no one desires them and he is afraid to let them go. Because he does not think there is any way they can support themselves at the time, because texas was probably not a very good place to be a freed slave at this time. Are two thingsre going on. He is concerned about the economics of slavery. At the same time, he does have a concern for the people who are freed that he had a responsibility for in some feeling. Once again, we are not putting him in a good light. He was a slave owner. That is an institution that cannot be defended. But he is in an interesting position, he has been straddling line. He has finally given up on politics. And he is kind of at a loss for what it do at this point. He finally does return from texas, but it is kind of an interesting time to see that this person who was so involved in everything is now sitting on the sidelines, just trying to stay out of the way until things settle down. So, you have a picture of who David Rice Atchison is. We come to the question was here wasn y he . In 1849 he was a senator on the rise. He was very well respected. Everyone thought he was probably someone who had a long way to go in his future. In a different time and a where thetime period union did not split itself apart we may be talking about him as someone who was actually a fullterm president at some point. It was certainly mentioned during his career. But, at this point, i am going out the reasons why 424 hours he may or may not have been president of the United States. 424 hours. The congressional globe lay out a series of events that are easy to follow as you make a case fo