"
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.
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