Editing David Rice Atchison

{{Short description|American politician (1807–1886)}}
{{redirect2|President for One Day|President for a Day}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2016}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name        = David Rice Atchison
| image       = David Rice Atchison by Mathew Brady March 1849.jpg
| office      = [[President pro tempore of the United States Senate]]
| term_start1 = December 20, 1852
| term_end1   = December 4, 1854
| predecessor1= [[William R. King]]
| successor1  = [[Lewis Cass]]
| term_start2 = August 8, 1846
| term_end2   = December 2, 1849
| predecessor2= [[Ambrose Hundley Sevier]] (acting)
| successor2  = [[William R. King]]
| jr/sr3      = United States Senator
| state3      = [[Missouri]]
| term_start3 = October 14, 1843
| term_end3   = March 3, 1855
| predecessor3= [[Lewis F. Linn]]
| successor3  = [[James S. Green]]
| office4     = Member of the<br>[[Missouri House of Representatives]]
| term_start4 = 1834
| term_end4   = 1841
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1807|8|11}}
| birth_place = [[Lexington, Kentucky]], U.S.
| death_date  = {{death date and age|1886|1|26|1807|8|11}}
| death_place = [[Gower, Missouri]], U.S.
| resting_place= Greenlawn Cemetery, [[Plattsburg, Missouri]], U.S.
| party       = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
| alma_mater  = [[Transylvania University]]
| profession  = {{hlist|Politician|lawyer}}
| signature   = David Rice Atchison Signature.svg
| allegiance  = {{ubl|{{flag|United States|1837}}|{{Nowrap|[[File:Flag of the Missouri State Guard.svg|Missouri|border|23px]] [[Confederate government of Missouri|Missouri (Confederate)]]}}}}
| branch      = {{flagicon|United States|1837}} [[Missouri Volunteer Militia]]<br>[[File:Flag of the Missouri State Guard.svg|Missouri|border|23px]] [[Missouri State Guard]]
| serviceyears= 1838 ([[Missouri Volunteer Militia|MVM]])<br>1861–1862 ([[Missouri State Guard|MSG]])
| rank        = [[File:Union Army major general rank insignia.svg|35px]] [[Major general (United States)|Major-General]] (MVM)<br>[[File:Confederate States of America General-collar.svg|23px]] [[Brigadier general|Brigadier-General]] (MSG)
| battles     = [[1838 Mormon War|Missouri Mormon War]]
* [[Battle of Crooked River]]
[[American Civil War]]
* [[Battle of Liberty|Action at Blue Mills Landing]]
}}
'''David Rice Atchison''' (August 11, 1807{{spaced ndash}}January 26, 1886) was a mid-19th-century [[United States Democratic Party|Democratic]]<ref name="who2.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.who2.com/davidriceatchison.html|title=David Rice Atchison Biography|publisher=Who2.com|access-date=November 21, 2014}}</ref> [[United States Senate|United States Senator]] from [[Missouri]].<ref name="who2.com"/> He served as [[president pro tempore of the United States Senate]] for six years.<ref name=senatehistoryminute>{{cite web|url=https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/President_For_A_Day.htm |title=1801: President for a Day – March 4, 1849 |date=May 29, 2014 |publisher=United States Senate |access-date=November 21, 2014}}</ref> Atchison served as a major general in the Missouri State Militia in 1838 during Missouri's [[1838 Mormon War|Mormon War]] and as a [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] brigadier general during the [[American Civil War]] under Major General [[Sterling Price]] in the Missouri Home Guard. Some of Atchison's associates claimed that for 24 hours—Sunday, March 4, 1849, through noon on Monday—he may have been [[Acting President of the United States|acting president of the United States]]. This belief, however, is dismissed by most scholars.<ref name=senatehistoryminute/><ref name=HistoryChannel>{{cite web | author=Christopher Klein | title=The 24-Hour President | url=http://www.history.com/news/the-24-hour-president |archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20180105234307/http://www.history.com/news/the-24-hour-president|archive-date =January 5, 2018| publisher=The History Channel | date=February 18, 2013 | access-date=June 18, 2013}}</ref>

Atchison, owner of many [[Slavery in the United States|slaves]]<!--Give number from Slave Schedules  --> and a [[plantation]], was a prominent pro-slavery activist and [[Border Ruffian]] leader, deeply involved with violence against [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionists]] and other [[Free-Stater (Kansas)|free-staters]] during the "[[Bleeding Kansas]]" events that preceded admission of the state to the Union.<ref>[[James M. McPherson|McPherson, James M.]], ''[[Battle Cry of Freedom (book)|Battle Cry of Freedom]]'', Penguin Books, 1990, {{ISBN|978-0-14-012518-4}} pp. 145–148</ref><ref>Stampp, Kenneth, ''America in 1857: a nation on the brink'', Oxford University Press US, 1992, {{ISBN|0-19-507481-5}}, p. 145</ref><ref>Grimsted, David, ''American Mobbing, 1828–1861: Toward Civil War'', Oxford University Press US, 2003, {{ISBN|0-19-517281-7}}, p. 256</ref><ref>Freehling, William W., ''The Road to Disunion: Secessionists triumphant, 1854–1861'', Oxford University Press US, 2007, {{ISBN|0-19-505815-1}}, pp. 72–73</ref>

==Early life==
Atchison was born to William Atchison and his wife in Frogtown (later Kirklevington), which is now part of [[Lexington, Kentucky]]. He was educated at [[Transylvania University]] in Lexington. Classmates included five future Democratic senators ([[Solomon Downs]] of [[Louisiana]], [[Jesse Bright]] of [[Indiana]], [[George Wallace Jones]] of [[Iowa]], [[Edward Hannegan]] of [[Indiana]], and [[Jefferson Davis]] of [[Mississippi]]). Atchison completed law studies and was admitted to the Kentucky [[bar association|bar]] in 1829.<ref name="bioguide.congress.gov">{{cite web |url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=A000322 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150620180150/http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=A000322 |archive-date=June 20, 2015 |title=Atchison, David Rice (1807–1886) |website=Biographical Dictionary of the United States Congress}}</ref>

==Missouri lawyer and politician==
In 1830, he moved to [[Liberty, Missouri|Liberty]] in [[Clay County, Missouri|Clay County]] in western Missouri,<ref name="bioguide.congress.gov"/> and set up practice there. He also acquired a farm or plantation, with labor provided by enslaved African Americans. Atchison's law practice flourished, and his best-known client was [[Joseph Smith]], founder of the [[Latter Day Saint Movement]].<ref name="house.mo.gov">{{cite web|url=http://www.house.mo.gov/famous.aspx?fm=3 |title=Hall of Famous Missourians |publisher=House.mo.gov|access-date=November 21, 2014}}</ref> Atchison represented Smith in land disputes with non-Mormon settlers in [[Caldwell County, Missouri|Caldwell County]]<ref name="house.mo.gov"/> and [[Daviess County, Missouri|Daviess County]].<ref name="house.mo.gov"/>

[[Alexander William Doniphan]] joined Atchison's law practice in Liberty in May 1833.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://kansasboguslegislature.org/mo/doniphan_a_w.html|title=Kansas Bogus Legislature – Alexander W. Doniphan|publisher=Kansasboguslegislature.org|access-date=November 21, 2014}}</ref>  The two became fast friends and spent many leisure time hours playing cards, going to horse races, hunting, fishing, and attending social functions and political events. Atchison, already a member of the Liberty Blues, a volunteer militia in Missouri, got Doniphan to join.<ref name=Muench-pp-7-8>Muench, James F., (2006). ''Five Stars: Missouri's Most Famous Generals''. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press.  pp. 7–8. {{ISBN|978-0-8262-1656-4}}.</ref>

Atchison was elected to the [[Missouri House of Representatives]] in 1834.<ref name=PoliticalGraveyard>{{cite web |title=Index to Politicians: Ashley-Cotleur to Ather | url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/ashlock-athelston.html | publisher=The Political Graveyard | year=2013 | access-date=June 18, 2013}}</ref><ref name=MOSOS>{{cite web | title=Missouri History: Missouri State Legislators, 1820–2000 | url=http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/history/historicallistings/molega.asp | publisher=Office of the Missouri Secretary of State | year=2013 | access-date=June 18, 2013}}</ref> He worked hard for the [[Platte Purchase]], which required Native American tribes to cede land to the United States and extended the northwestern boundary of Missouri to the [[Missouri River]] in 1837.

When early disputes broke out into the [[Mormon War (1838)|Mormon War of 1838]], Atchison was appointed a [[General officer|major general]] in the state [[militia]].<ref name="trivia-library.com">{{cite web | title=The Other 12th U.S. President: David Rice Atchison | url=http://www.trivia-library.com/b/the-other-12th-u-s-president-david-rice-atchison-part-1.htm | publisher=Trivia-Library | year=2013 | access-date=June 18, 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160822042050/https://www.trivia-library.com/b/the-other-12th-u-s-president-david-rice-atchison-part-1.htm | archive-date=August 22, 2016 | url-status=dead }}</ref> He took part in suppressing violence by both sides.

Active in the Democratic Party, Atchison was re-elected to the Missouri State House of Representatives in 1838. In 1841, he was appointed a [[Missouri Circuit Courts|circuit court]] judge for the six-county area of the Platte Purchase. In 1843, he was named a [[county commissioner]] in [[Platte County, Missouri|Platte County]], where he then lived.

==Senate career==
[[File:Atchison-statue.jpg|thumb|upright=.83|Statue in front of the [[Clinton County, Missouri|Clinton County]] Courthouse, [[Plattsburg, Missouri]]]]
In October 1843,<ref name="house.mo.gov"/> Atchison was appointed to the [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]] to fill the vacancy left by the death of [[Lewis F. Linn]].  He was the first senator from western Missouri to serve in this position.<ref name="house.mo.gov"/> At age 36, he was the youngest senator from Missouri up to that time.<ref name="house.mo.gov"/> Atchison was re-elected to a full term on his own account in 1849.<ref name="house.mo.gov"/>

Atchison was very popular with his fellow Senate Democrats. When the Democrats took control of the US Senate in December 1845, they chose Atchison as [[President pro tempore of the United States Senate|president pro tempore]],<ref name="trivia-library.com"/> placing him second in succession for the presidency.<ref name="preslib">[http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/news/sty/KSProfileDavidRiceAtchison020806.htm Kansas Profile – ''Now That's Rural''] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060912134055/http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/news/sty/KSProfileDavidRiceAtchison020806.htm |date=September 12, 2006 }}</ref><!--Note that this was under the Presidential Succession Act of 1792, not the Presidential Succession Act of 1947. The 1792 act placed the President pro tempore after the VP and before the speaker of the house, unlike the 1947 act--> He also was responsible for presiding over the Senate when the [[Vice President of the United States|vice president]] was absent. At 38, he was a young man with low seniority in the Senate after two years to gain such a position.

In 1849, Atchison stepped down as president pro tempore in favor of [[William R. King]].<ref name="trivia-library.com"/>  King, in turn, yielded the office back to Atchison in December 1852, after being elected Vice President of the United States. Atchison continued as president pro tempore until December 1854.<ref name="trivia-library.com"/>

As a senator, Atchison was a fervent advocate of slavery<ref name="trivia-library.com"/> and territorial expansion. He supported the annexation of Texas and the [[U.S.-Mexican War]]. Atchison and [[Thomas Hart Benton (senator)|Thomas Hart Benton]], Missouri's other senator, became rivals and finally enemies, although both were Democrats. Benton declared himself to be against slavery in 1849. In 1851 Atchison allied with the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whigs]] to defeat incumbent Benton for re-election.

Benton, intending to challenge Atchison in 1854, began to agitate for [[organized territory|territorial organization]] of the area west of Missouri (now the states of [[Kansas]] and [[Nebraska]]) so that it could be opened to settlement. To counter this, Atchison proposed that the area be organized ''and'' that the section of the [[Missouri Compromise]] banning slavery there be repealed in favor of [[popular sovereignty]]. Under this plan, settlers in each territory would vote to decide whether they would allow slavery.

At Atchison's request, [[Stephen A. Douglas|Senator Stephen Douglas]] of [[Illinois]] introduced the [[Kansas–Nebraska Act]], which embodied this idea, in November 1853. The act was passed and became law in May 1854, establishing the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska.

===Border Ruffians===
Both Douglas and Atchison had believed that Nebraska would be settled by [[Free-Stater (Kansas)|Free-State]] men from [[Iowa]] and [[Illinois]], and Kansas by pro-slavery Missourians and other Southerners, thus preserving the numerical balance between free states and slave states in the nation. In 1854 Atchison helped found the town of [[Atchison, Kansas]], as a pro-slavery settlement. The town (and county) were named for him.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kancoll.org/books/cutler/atchison/atchison-co-p2.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030627075200/http://www.kancoll.org/books/cutler/atchison/atchison-co-p2.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 27, 2003|title=History of the State of Kansas by William G. Cutler – 1883 |publisher=Kancoll.org|access-date=November 21, 2014}}</ref>

While Southerners supported the idea of settling in Kansas, few migrated there. Most free-soilers preferred Kansas to Nebraska. Furthermore, anti-slavery activists throughout the North came to view Kansas as a battleground and formed societies to encourage free-soil settlers to go to Kansas, to ensure there would be enough voters in both Kansas and Nebraska to approve their entry as free states.<ref name=Billings>{{cite book |last=Billings |first=R. A. |title=Westward Expansion|year=1949 |publisher=Macmillan |location=New York |pages=599–601 }}</ref>

It appeared as if the Kansas Territorial legislature to be elected in March 1855 would be controlled by free-soilers and ban slavery. Atchison and his supporters viewed this as a breach of faith. An angry Atchison called on pro-slavery Missourians to uphold slavery by force and "to kill every God-damned abolitionist in the district" if necessary.<ref>David M. Potter, Don E. Fehrenbacher, ''The Impending Crisis 1848–1861'' at 203 (Harper, 1976)</ref> He recruited an immense mob of heavily armed Missourians, the infamous "[[Border Ruffian]]s". On election day, March 30, 1855, Atchison led 5,000 Border Ruffians into Kansas. They seized control of all polling places at gunpoint, cast tens of thousands of fraudulent votes for pro-slavery candidates, and elected a pro-slavery legislature.<ref name=Billings/>

The outrage was nonetheless accepted by the Federal government. When Territorial Governor [[Andrew Reeder]] objected, President [[Franklin Pierce]] fired him.

Despite this show of force, far more free-soilers than pro-slavery settlers migrated to Kansas. There were continual raids and ambushes by both sides in "[[Bleeding Kansas]]". In spite of the best efforts of Atchison and the Ruffians, Kansas rejected slavery and finally became a free state in 1861.

Charles Sumner, in the epic "Crimes Against Kansas" speech on May 19, 1856, exposed Atchison's role in the invasion, tortures, and killings in Kansas.  Speaking in the flamboyant style he and others used, lacing his prose with references to Roman history, Sumner compared Atchison to Roman Senator [[Catiline]], who betrayed his country [[Second Catilinarian conspiracy|in a plot]] to overthrow the existing order.  For two days, Sumner listed crime, after crime, in detail, complete with documentation by newspapers and letters of the time, showing the tortures and violence by Atchison and his men.<ref name=sumner-1856>{{cite web|title=Full text of 'The crime against Kansas. Speech of Hon. Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts. In the Senate of the United States, May 19, 1856'|url=https://archive.org/stream/crimeagainstkans00sumn/crimeagainstkans00sumn_djvu.txt|website=archive.org|access-date=16 March 2017|language=en}}</ref>

Two days later, Atchison gave his own speech, totally unaware that he had been exposed on the Senate floor in such a fashion. Atchison's speech was to the Texas men he had just met, hired, and paid for, Atchison reveals in his speech, by "authorities in Washington".   They are about to invade [[Lawrence, Kansas]].  Atchison makes the men promise to kill and "draw blood," and boasts of his flag, which was red in color for "Southern Rights" and the color of blood. They would press "to blood"  the spread of slavery into Kansas.   He revealed in this speech that the immediate goal of the invasion was to stop the newspaper in Lawrence from publishing anti-slavery material.  Atchison's men had made it a crime to publish anti-slavery newspapers in Kansas.<ref>{{cite web|title=Copy of David R. Atchison speech to proslavery forces – Kansas Memory|url=http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/90822|website=www.kansasmemory.org|access-date=16 March 2017|language=en}}</ref>

Atchison made it clear the men were to kill and draw blood, told the men they would be "well paid," and encouraged them to plunder from the homes that they invaded. That was after the hundreds of dozens of tortures and killings that Sumner had detailed in his Crimes Against Kansas speech. In other words, things were about to get much worse since Atchison had his hired men from Texas.<ref name=sumner-1856/>

===Defeated for re-election===
Atchison's Senate term expired on March 3, 1855. He sought election to another term, but the Democrats in the Missouri legislature were split between him and Benton, while the Whig minority put forward their own man. No senator was elected until January 1857, when [[James S. Green]] was chosen.

===Railroad proposal===
When the [[first transcontinental railroad]] was proposed in the 1850s, Atchison called for it to be built along the central route (from [[St. Louis, Missouri|St. Louis]] through Missouri, Kansas, and [[Utah]]), rather than the southern route (from [[New Orleans, Louisiana|New Orleans]] through Texas and [[New Mexico]]). Naturally, his suggested route went through Atchison.

==American Civil War==
Atchison and his law partner Doniphan fell out over politics in 1859–1861, disagreeing on how Missouri should proceed.  Atchison favored secession, while Doniphan was torn and would remain, for the most part, non-committal. Privately, Doniphan favored the Union, but found it difficult to oppose his friends and associates.<ref name=Muench-pp-7-8/>

During the secession crisis in Missouri at the beginning of the [[American Civil War]], Atchison sided with Missouri's pro-Confederate governor, [[Claiborne Jackson]].  He was appointed a major general in the [[Missouri State Guard]].  Atchison actively recruited State Guardsmen in northern Missouri and served with Guard commander General [[Sterling Price]] in the summer campaign of 1861.  In September 1861, Atchison led 3,500 State Guard recruits across the [[Missouri River]] to reinforce Price and defeated [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] troops that tried to block his force in the [[Action at Blue Mills Landing|Battle of Liberty]].

Atchison served in the State Guard through the end of 1861.  In March 1862, Union forces in the [[Trans-Mississippi]] theater [[Battle of Pea Ridge|won a decisive victory at Pea Ridge]] in [[Arkansas]] and secured Union control of Missouri. Atchison then resigned from the army over reported strategy arguments with Price and moved to Texas for the duration of the war.  After the war, he retired to his farm near [[Gower, Missouri|Gower]]. He denied many of his pro-slavery public statements made prior to the Civil War. Then, his retirement cottage outside of [[Plattsburg, Missouri]] burned to the ground before he died in 1886.  This entailed the complete loss of his library containing books, documents, and letters documenting his role in the Mormon War, Indian affairs, pro-slavery activities, Civil War activities, and other legislation covering his career as a lawyer, senator, and soldier.

==Purported one-day presidency==
[[United States presidential inauguration|Inauguration Day]]—March 4—fell on a Sunday in 1849, and so [[president-elect of the United States|president-elect]] [[Zachary Taylor]] did not take the [[Oath of office of the President of the United States|presidential oath of office]] until [[Inauguration of Zachary Taylor|the next day]] out of religious concerns. Even so, the term of the outgoing president, [[James K. Polk]], ended at noon on March 4. On March 2, outgoing vice president [[George M. Dallas]] relinquished his position as [[Presiding Officer of the United States Senate|president of the Senate]]. Congress had previously chosen Atchison as president pro tempore. In 1849, according to the [[Presidential Succession Act]] of 1792, the Senate president pro tempore immediately followed the vice president in the [[United States presidential line of succession|presidential line of succession]]. As Dallas's term also ended at noon on the 4th, and as neither Taylor nor vice president-elect [[Millard Fillmore]] had been sworn into office on that day, it was claimed by some of Atchison's friends and colleagues that from March 4–5, 1849, Atchison was [[acting president of the United States]].<ref name=1day441849>{{cite web| title=President for a Day: March 4, 1849| url=https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/President_For_A_Day.htm| publisher=Office of the Secretary, United States Senate| location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=June 20, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| title=From Failing Hands: the Story of Presidential Succession| last1=Feerick| first1=John D.| last2=Freund| first2=Paul A.| date=1965| url=https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=twentyfifth_amendment_books| publisher=Fordham University Press| location=New York City| pages=100–101| lccn=65-14917}}</ref>

Historians, constitutional scholars, and biographers dismiss the claim. They point out that Atchison's Senate term had also ended on March 4.<ref name=HistoryChannel/> When the Senate of the new Congress convened on March 5 to allow new senators and the new vice president to take the oath of office, the secretary of the Senate called members to order, as the Senate had no president pro tempore.<ref name=1day441849/> Although an incoming president must take the oath of office before any official acts, the prevailing view is that presidential succession does not depend on the oath.<ref name=HistoryChannel/> Even supposing that an oath was necessary, Atchison never took it, so he was no more the president than Taylor.<ref name=HistoryChannel/>

In September 1872, Atchison, who never himself claimed that he was technically president,<ref name=HistoryChannel/> told a reporter for the ''Plattsburg Lever'':
{{blockquote|It was in this way: Polk went out of office on March 3, 1849, on Saturday at 12 noon. The next day, the 4th, occurring on Sunday, Gen. Taylor was not inaugurated. He was not inaugurated till Monday, the 5th, at 12 noon. It was then canvassed among Senators whether there was an interregnum (a time during which a country lacks a government). It was plain that there was either an [[interregnum]] or I was the President of the United States being chairman of the Senate, having succeeded Judge [[Willie Person Mangum|Mangum]] of North Carolina. The judge waked me up at 3 o'clock in the morning and said jocularly that as I was President of the United States he wanted me to appoint him as secretary of state. I made no pretense to the office, but if I was entitled in it I had one boast to make, that not a woman or a child shed a tear on account of my removing any one from office during my incumbency of the place. A great many such questions are liable to arise under our form of government.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.rootsweb.com/~moclinto/histsoc/| title = Clinton Co. Historical Society}}</ref>}}

==Death==
[[File:Atchison David Rice - Plattsburg MO 3.jpg|thumb|upright=.90|David Rice Atchison's tombstone]]
Atchison died on January 26, 1886, at his home near [[Gower, Missouri]] at the age of 78. He was buried at Greenlawn Cemetery in [[Plattsburg, Missouri]]. His grave marker reads "President of the United States for One Day."

==Legacy==
* [[Atchison, Kansas]]<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=4443 | title=Profile for Atchison, Kansas | publisher=[[ePodunk]] | access-date=June 4, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140606205916/http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=4443 | archive-date=June 6, 2014 | url-status=dead }}</ref> county seat of [[Atchison County, Kansas]]. 
** The [[Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad]] utilized the town name.
* [[Atchison County, Missouri]]
* [[Atchison Township, Clinton County, Missouri]]
* [[Atchison Township, Nodaway County, Missouri]]
* [[USS Atchison County (LST-60)|USS ''Atchison County'' (LST-60)]] ship
* In 1991, Atchison was inducted into the [[Hall of Famous Missourians]], and a bronze bust depicting him is on permanent display in the rotunda of the [[Missouri State Capitol]].<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6IbqCgAAQBAJ&q=bronze+bust+David+Rice+Atchison+missouri+state+capital&pg=PT89 |title = Stories from History's Dust Bin|isbn = 9781514419922|last1 = Winterton|first1 = Wayne|date = 2015| publisher=Xlibris US }}</ref>
* The [[Atchison County Historical Museum]], in Atchison, Kansas, includes an exhibit titled the "World's Smallest [[Presidential Library]]".<ref>{{cite web |title=Thanks for visiting Atchison County's Museum |url=http://atchisonhistory.org/museum.html |website=Atchison County Historical Museum |access-date=August 11, 2017 |archive-date=June 16, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170616214405/http://www.atchisonhistory.org/museum.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* A [[historical marker]] designating the approximate site of Atchison's birth is located along [[Kentucky Route 1974|Highway 1974]] in the [[Lansdowne, Lexington|Landsdowne]] neighborhood of [[Lexington, Kentucky]].<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/53798| title=Lexington, Kentucky: One-Day President Birthplace| website=roadsideamerica.com| access-date=June 29, 2018}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of American Civil War generals (Confederate)]]
* [[List of United States senators from Missouri]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
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{{CongBio|A000322}}
* [https://archive.today/20130624214657/http://www.shapell.org/btl.aspx?atchison-pesident-for-one-day David Rice Atchinson: On Being President For A Day – Original Letters] Shapell Manuscript Foundation
* {{cite BDA1906 |wstitle= Atchison, David R. |volume= 1 |page= 158 |short=}}
* [https://archive.today/20130202112750/http://www.snopes2.com/history/american/atchison.htm Urban Legends: President for a Day]
* [http://www.all-lies.com/legends/history/presforaday.shtml Another view of the President for a Day claim]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20011116213743/http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/atchison/index.html Useless Information: David Rice Atchison]
* [https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/President_For_A_Day.htm U.S. Senate Historical Minute Essay]
* {{cite book |title=Kentucky politicians : sketches of representative Corncrackers and other miscellany |last=McAfee |first=John J. |publisher=Press of the Courier-Journal job printing company |location=[[Louisville, Kentucky]] |year=1886 |url=https://archive.org/details/kentuckypolitic00mcafgoog |pages=[https://archive.org/details/kentuckypolitic00mcafgoog/page/n16 10]–16}}

{{S-start}}
{{S-par|us-sen}}
{{U.S. Senator box
| state=Missouri
| class=3
| before=[[Lewis F. Linn]]
| after=[[James S. Green]]
| alongside=[[Thomas Hart Benton (senator)|Thomas Hart Benton]] and [[Henry S. Geyer]]
| years=October 14, 1843&nbsp;– March 3, 1855
}}
{{S-off}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Ambrose Hundley Sevier]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[President pro tempore of the United States Senate]]|years=August 8, 1846&nbsp;– December 2, 1849}}
{{s-aft|after=[[William R. King]]}}
{{s-bef|before=[[William R. King]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[President pro tempore of the United States Senate]]|years=December 20, 1852&nbsp;– December 4, 1854}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Lewis Cass]]}}
{{S-end}}
{{USSenMO}}
{{SenIndianAffairsCommitteeChairmen}}
{{USSenPresProTemp}}
{{Portal bar|American Civil War|Biography|Politics}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Atchison, David Rice}}
[[Category:1807 births]]
[[Category:1886 deaths]]
[[Category:County commissioners in Missouri]]
[[Category:Politicians from Lexington, Kentucky]]
[[Category:Missouri state court judges]]
[[Category:Democratic Party members of the Missouri House of Representatives]]
[[Category:Presidents pro tempore of the United States Senate]]
[[Category:Transylvania University alumni]]
[[Category:Missouri State Guard]]
[[Category:Democratic Party United States senators from Missouri]]
[[Category:Confederate militia generals]]
[[Category:Border ruffians]]
[[Category:Activists from Missouri]]
[[Category:19th-century Missouri state court judges]]
[[Category:United States senators who owned slaves]]
[[Category:19th-century United States senators]]
[[Category:19th-century members of the Missouri General Assembly]]