e, 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, and the Congress may by Law provide
for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability,
both of the President and Vice-President, declaring what Officer
shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly,
until the Disability shall be removed, or a President shall
be elected."

Strictly construed, it is only in the case of the death,
inability, etc., of a President, that a Vice-President can
succeed, or in the case of the death, inability, etc., of the President
and Vice-President both, that Congress has power to declare
on whom the office shall devolve. It must be a President
and Vice-President that die; not merely a President and Vice-
President-elect. That his is not an imaginary danger is shown
by the fact of the well-known scheme to assassinate Lincoln
on his way to the seat of the Government, and also by the
fact that either the President or the Vice-President has died
in office so many times in the recollection of men now living.
President Harrison died during his term; President Taylor
died during his term; Vice-President King died during Pierce's
term; Vice-President Wilson died during Grant's term; President
Garfield died during his term; Vice-President Hendricks died
during Cleveland's term; Vice-President Hobart died during
McKinley's term, and President McKinley during his own second
term. So within sixty years eight of these high officials
have died in office; five of them within thirty years; four
of them within twenty years.

I have also drawn and repeatedly procured the passage through
the Senate of an amendment to the Constitution to protect
the country against this danger. That also has failed of
attention in the House. I suppose it is likely that nothing
will be done about the matter until the event shall happen,
as is not unlikely, that both President and Vice-President-
elect shall become incapacitated between the election and
the time for entering upon office.

I was more successful in providing against another situation
that might prove quite awkward. In Washington's Administration
Congress exercised, as far as it could, the power given by
the Constitution to provide against the death or disability
of both the President and Vice-President, if it should happen
after they had entered upon office, as follows:

"In ca