President Pro Tempore of The United States Senate - History

History

The office of president pro tempore was established by the Constitution of the United States in 1789. The first president pro tempore, John Langdon, was elected on April 6 the same year. Originally, the president pro tempore was appointed on an intermittent basis when the vice president was not present to preside over the Senate. Until the 1960s, it was common practice for the vice president to preside over daily Senate sessions, so the president pro tempore rarely presided unless the vice presidency became vacant.

Until 1891, the president pro tempore only served until the return of the vice president to the chair or the adjournment of a session of Congress. Between 1792 and 1886, the president pro tempore was second in the line of presidential succession following the vice president and preceding the speaker.

When President Andrew Johnson, who had no vice president, was impeached and tried in 1868, Senate President pro tempore Benjamin Franklin Wade was next in line to the presidency. Wade's radicalism is thought by many historians to be a major reason why the Senate, which did not want to see Wade in the White House, acquitted Johnson. The president pro tempore and the speaker were removed from the line of succession in 1886, but were restored in 1947. This time however the president pro tempore followed the speaker.

Following the resignation (for health reasons) of President pro tempore William P. Frye, a Senate divided among progressive Republicans, conservative Republicans, and Democrats reached a compromise by which each of their candidates would rotate holding the office from 1911 to 1913 (see Presidents pro tempore of the United States Senate, 1911-1913).

Only three former presidents pro tempore ever became vice president: John Tyler, William R. King and Charles Curtis. Tyler is also the only one to have become president, when he succeeded William Henry Harrison in 1841.