To direct it in a certain direction that he felt was beneficial for the union. Was he misguided . Very possibly . Was he successful . Absolutely not. But what is important was who this person was and why, unfortunately, he disappeared from everything. The library came up for a title of this program, David Rice Atchison, the president no one knows. And i realized that long ago in another lifetime as a journalist, i actually wrote a curriculum 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. [ laughter ] what i find most interesting about David Rice Atchison and what stirred the creation of our president ial library is besides 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 of his time, a man so well respected by his colleagues in the senate he was elected president protem again and again. And at least on two extended occasions, when the Vice President or the president has passed away and no Vice President was in office, he served as de facto Vice President and the press at the time referred to him as Vice President atchison for years and years during his tenure in the senate. How could a person who is this high ranking, this influential, how could he disappear and completely fall off the map . How could someone who is so smart, capable, understanding of the ways to get things done at the highest levels fade away so completely that he would be forgotten for nearly a century . Someone who was so powerful and so able to change the rules of statehood just to 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 goals were overshadowed by the civil war and its aftermath and his moment of infamy was not followed up by greater moments. Atchison has faded from view and gotten left out of most of the history books. A fire in 1870, probably added to this. His home burned in 1870, including his library, his large collection of papers and his manuscript he was working on for his memoirs. Had that not burned, we might know more about him today. David rice atchison has been typically portrayed as this two dimensional figure without much redeeming value. An ugly slave holder who holed up in texas after the civil war. The most repeated stories about David Rice Atchison show him as a drunken, a vile figure out to 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. In preparing for this, i found theres a blog out there by a priest which 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, theres no evidence that David Rice Atchison was a drunk and no evidence that he did anything besides go to sleep after working with the senate for nearly 72 hours. The real David Rice Atchison was a very complicated man of exceptional intelligence, excelling 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 defending the mormons in court. This was certainly not a popular thing in missouri. But he felt the mormons had a right to a proper defense. He put his career on the line as a young lawyer and defended the mormons. In the senate, he did another somewhat unpopular thing, he defended the rights of native americans and believed all the treaties should be upheld. At the same time he was taking other actions to open the west that was putting pressure on those 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 ill come back to that in just 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 little fact sheet. When someone comes in and wants to know more about daift rice atchison, i can give them a fact sheet on who this person was and why we should care who David Rice Atchison was. It starts out, that hes the real 12th president of the United States and ill let you make that decision on your own a little bit later tonight. He was born in kentucky on august 11th, 1807 and this leads into one of the selfdeprecating humor of David Rice Atchison. He always said, i was always a big frog in the puddle. He died in clinton county, missouri, january 26, 1886. He never married but raised his nephew as his owner after his brothers death. He attended transylvania university. It still exists, by the way. He entered college as a freshman m at the age of 14. Give you an idea of how smart he was, he was four years advanced than anyone else entering class at transylvania university. His classmates included five future senators including Jefferson Davis who had become a lifelong friend. As a senator from missouri he was a democrat and he served from 1843 until 1855. President of the senate 1852 to 1854. The only time there was a twoyear gap, he deferred to the longestserving member of the senate at the time who became a Vice President who passed away as Vice President and david ice atchison replaced him as acting Vice President. In 1853 to 1854, he served as acting Vice President , like i said, after the death of president taylor. In 1853 to 54 he once again served as acting Vice President. Of course the Vice President didnt have quite as much to do as they do now. They literally presided over the senate and voted whenever there was a tie vote and that was their only duty and the senate often refused to give the Vice President the funds to hire a secretary even at that time. As he began his career, he served as a circuit judge in missouri and served in the missouri legislature. He was instrumental in the plat purchase that expanded the area of the state of missouri. As time his time in the senate, he spearheaded the drive to allow the oregon territory settlement and set up a government. He was one of the main supporters of texas statehood. He upheld the treaty rights of native american tribes during his tenure on the committee of indian affairs. He opposed the abolition movement. He stood with the Southern States who feared this trend would break the union and he became the de facto leader of all the Southern States in the senate. Being from missouri, that was kind of an unusual position that he led that entire delegation. Atchison was considered to be the real power who drove the package of the kansas nebraska act. Its thought that possible he even wrote the kansas nebraska act. Giving the credit elsewhere, but he was the power broker behind it being able to garner all of the southern votes. When he retired from political life, he gave up because of the kansas question. He retired to his farm and his last political act came in 1860. He failed to gain the nomination of governor. He refused to serve the confederacy during the civil war but came to the service of a state of missouri and served among other positions as a general in the missouri militia. He was instrumental in enacting a defensive offensive treaty, which im not sure what that means. It sounds like a general treaty, with the confederacy. So ill come back now to the bleeding kansas era. And im not going to spend a lot of time on that. They told me this isnt something you have to spend a lot of time about bleeding kansas. Youve touched on it in other programs. But i think its crucial to understand what happened to David Rice Atchison. You have to know his involvement. First it starts with the kansas nebraska act. While Steven Douglas gets the credit, atchison said that he was the person behind the kansas nebraska act. Did he write this bill or was he the push behind it . He was the person likely driving the Southern States at this point. We can think of atchison as the godfather of kansas in this regard, driven by his vision that the fate of kansas was the fate of the union. In public, he spoke of allowing missourians and southerners to participate in the wealth of the west but privately he saw the way kansas went would tip the power in the union and even solidify the union or break it. He fought at all costs to protect the union and the way he saw was the only way to avoid civil war. By protecting southern interests. Was atchison a savior or a demon to kansas . It depends on the view you take. But one thing is certain one thing is certain, he saw the future course of the nation before anyone else realized that we were already on the road to the civil war. David rice atchison had this two 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. There was either border ruffian or peace broker David Rice Atchison. And the question was, did David Rice Atchison fire the first shot through the free state in lawrence or did he plead for calmer heads. Im going to read two excerpts and you can decide which one makes more sense for that time period. Were going to start off with the peace broker David Rice Atchison. Someone else reported he told them in later years. I made several speeches. At least half a dozen, riding horse back 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 that the hotel should be destroyed. I urged 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 he was bent on mischief and i could do nothing with him. The newspaper of the time in atchison, the city of atchison, reported on the events in lawrence this way. Atchison this is 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 positiposse of the condition of the country and told them that the eyes of the nation would be riveted on their actions that day. These men owed it, therefore, to their friends and families, in distant places to remain calm in the discharge of their duty. That sounds like a human being talking, doesnt it . On the other side, the new york tribune which had reporters stationed in atchison and northeast kansas throughout this entire time period reported on the same event. And this is the story of border ruffian David Rice Atchison. Boys, this day im a ranger. We have entered lawrence and not one damn abolitionist has dared to fire a gun. And we will go in and test the strength of that damned Free State Hotel and learn the society that kansas shall be ours. Boys, ladies should be respected by all gentlemen but by god when a woman takes on the garb of a soldier, then shes no longer a woman and treat her for what you find her and trample under your foot as you would a snake. If a man or woman dare stand before you, below thlow them to with a chunk of led. Theres a subtle difference between these two accounts. [ laughter ] so you have to decide who was David Rice Atchison. Obviously you have two completely different characters being portrayed in the media at this time. Atchison was consumed by what was happening in kansas and he let himself be drawn into the determent of Everything Else in his life. He even ignored the opportunity to be reelected to the new york senate to reconcile how the question was going to be answered. David rice atchison was no saint. He was a slave owner and 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 kidding himself that kansas allowing the extension of slavery would solve the problem . In both cases, probably, yes, but you have to consider that he was not this radical radical slave state, wildeyed heathen as we get the image from atchison at this time. If he only cared about slavery and not about the union, his record in the senate would be different. And his lifelong friendship with Jefferson Davis would have allowed him to have had any position in the confederacy he wanted. However, they differed a very great deal in what they felt about what was happening. Jefferson davis was not David Rice Atchisons biggest fan at the time because he had other agendas. And David Rice Atchison was probably closer to lincoln in his opinion of trying to preserve the union than of Jefferson Davis or any of the other Southern States that he was supposedly the leader of in the senate. He could have any position in the confederacy. When he fulltiinally admitted himself after many people had saw it, that the kansas cause was futility, in 1858, he retired going to his farm in clinton county. He would be pulled back to serve with the missouri militia and used his contacts to benefit the state by forging a defensive alliance with the confederacy. Late in the civil war his path literally disappears, just as he would do later. Finally resurfacing, he owned a farm in texas where he stays for at least a couple of years weary of returning to his family property in missouri. During this time period, he writes some letters to his brother, still in missouri, and you can see theres this dual thing going on again, hes concerned about his property and how missourians around them are being able to keep their property, but hes writing what to do with the slaves that he has with with him in texas. And he points out that no one desires them, and he is afraid to let them go, because he doesnt think that there is any way that they can support themselves at the time, because texas was probably not a very good place to be a free slave at this time period. So theres two things going on. Hes concerned about the economics of slavery. At the same time he does have a concern for the people who are now freed that he has had a responsibility for in and at least some feeling. But once again, we are not putting him in a good light. He was a slave owner and thats an institution that cant be defended but he is in this interesting position that hes been strag ling this line between two things that are going on for so long and he is finally given up on politics and kind of at a loss for what to do at this point and he finally does return from texas but its kind of an interesting time pae period to see that this person so involved in everything is now stepping out on the sideline, trying to stay out of way until things settle down. So you kind of have a picture of who David Rice Atchison is. Now we come to the question, was he or wasnt 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. And in a different time line, in a different time period where the union did not split itself apart shortly after we very well may be talking about him as someone who was a full term president at some point. It was certainly mentioned during his career at this time period. But at this point i want to lay out the reasons why for 24 hours he may or may not have been president of the United States. The congressional globe and the journal of the senate lay out a series of events that are pretty easy to follow as you make a case for what happened in this unique 24 hours. First, president elect Zachary Taylor decides not to ascend to the presidency on the normal day, march 4th 1849, because that day fell on the sabbath and that of course is 165 years ago today. Second, on february 9, 1849, thomas hart bend, the other missouri senator presents the credentials of David Rice Atchison from the legislature of the state of missouri reelecting atchison from another term from 1849 to 1855. The acceptance of these credentials extends his term in the senate of course without a break. The third point on page 293 of the journal of the senate, it relates to the perjure of Vice President george m. Dallas. I relayed a little bit about what dallas said at this time and this occurred on march 2nd. As dallas was getting ready to leave, he says something that points out a very salient fact deciding whether David Rice Atchison was president or not. This is george m. Dallas, Vice President. Gentlemen of the senate, the close of my official term be near a hand, i conform to an established and convenient practice by withdrawing from the deliberations of the body and thus creating the occasion for the choice of a temporary president. So ill point that out again. He conforms to establishing a convenient practice withdrawing to force the creation of a choice of a new president of the senate. He went on to thank the senate