Summary
Contents
This comprehensive guide is the definitive source for researchers seeking an understanding of those who have occupied the White House and on the institution of the U.S. presidency. Readers turn to Guide to the Presidency for its wealth of facts and analytical chapters that explain the structure, powers, and operations of the office and the president’s relationship with Congress and the Supreme Court. The work is divided into eight distinct subject areas covering every aspect of the U.S. presidency.
Chapter 8 Removal of the President and the Vice President
Chapter 8 Removal of the President and the Vice President
The four-year presidential term specified in the Constitution may be cut short by one of three events: death from either natural causes or assassination, impeachment and removal, or resignation. As of 2012, nine of the thirty-nine men who have been elected president have failed to serve out the term of office for which they were chosen.
During the first fifty-two years of the Republic, no deaths, impeachments, or resignations occurred—the longest stretch in American history in which none of these eventualities arose. Not until the death of President William Henry Harrison in 1841 were the succession provisions of the Constitution activated. Since that time, three other presidents have ...
