Partly-printed vellum document, one page, 15.75 x 19.75, March 3, 1849. A presidential appointment for Charles S. Merchant as a “Major in the Third Regiment of Artillery.” Signed in a secretarial hand on behalf of President James K. Polk and Secretary of War William L. Marcy. In very good condition, with scattered light soiling, and creasing and areas of loss to the upper right corner.
Following the election of Zachary Taylor, President James K. Polk departed the White House on March 3rd, but continued working on last-minute appointments and bill signings when he was able. Polk wrote in his diary: ‘The 11th President had spent the previous evening with Congress trying to pass some final appropriation bills before turning the Oval Office over to the incoming Zachary Taylor…thus closed my official term as President.’
Or did it? Back then, presidential terms expired at noon on March 4. But because the day fell on a Sunday, Taylor didn’t want to take the oath of office in violation of the Sabbath. The situation created one of history’s strangest footnotes — a controversy over who, if anyone, was president on that date. It also led some people to believe that the 12th president wasn’t Taylor but Missouri Senator David Rice Atchison, the Senate president pro tempore at the time, whose tombstone reads ‘President of the United States for One Day.’
After writing in his diary that his term was over, Polk exited the White House and stayed at the Irving Hotel in Washington. Because Taylor wasn’t sworn in until the following day, who ran the country that day remains a debate of constitutional interpretation and presidential succession that has never been fully answered.
![Lot #10 [James K. Polk] Presidential Commission Dated to the Day Polk Left the White House - Image 1](https://d2skn5554g4boz.cloudfront.net/2020-website/694/3487770/large/3487770_1.jpg)