e was no president _pro tempore_ of
the senate and no speaker of the house; so that when vice-president Arthur
became president, there was no one to succeed him in case of his
disability. It was then expected that congress would devise another plan
of succession; but it did not. When vice-president Hendricks died, there
was again no president _pro tempore_ of the senate or speaker of the
house. This recurrence of the danger within four years prompted congress
to provide an order of succession less liable to accident than the one so
long in use. The succession was placed in the cabinet in the following
order: Secretary of state, secretary of the treasury, secretary of war,
attorney-general, postmaster-general, secretary of the navy, and secretary
of the interior.

When the vice-president or secretary becomes president, he serves for the
remainder of the term.

One very important item in this connection the constitution leaves
unprovided for, namely, who shall determine when "disability," other than
death, occurs or ceases? Certainly the decision should not be left to
those interested in the succession. No official answer to this question
has yet been given.

_Clause 7.--President's Salary._

_The president shall, at stated times, receive for his services a
compensation[1] which shall be neither increased nor diminished during the
period for which he shall have been elected,[2] and he shall not receive
within that period any other emolument from the United States or any of
them.[3]_

[1] Otherwise a person of moderate means would be debarred from accepting
the position, and the country might thereby be deprived of the services of
some man of lofty character.

[2] Thus congress can neither bribe nor drive the president into doing
anything which he may regard as unwise or wrong. And on the other hand,
the president has no temptation to try to "undermine the virtue" of
congress for his own pecuniary benefit.

[3] This provision has the same purpose in view as the last. "He is thus
secured, in a great measure, against all sinister foreign influences. And
he must be lost to all just sense of high duties of his station, if he
does not conduct himself with an exclusive devotion to the good of the
whole people, unmindful at once of the blandishments of courtiers, who
seek to deceive him, and of partizans, who aim to govern him, and thus
accomplish their own selfish purposes." [Footnote: Story]

Till 1873 the salary of t