THE PRESIDENCY
On Aug. 27, 1787, John Dickinson of Delaware, a member of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, raised a ticklish question relating to the matter of succession in the event of a President's disability. "What is the extent of the term 'disability,' " asked Dickinson, "and who is to be the judge of it?" The question was swiftly referred to a committee — where it stayed.
Last week, 177 years later, the U.S. Congress came close to providing an answer. By a vote of 368 to 29, the House of Representatives passed a resolution proposing a constitutional amendment which provides that:
> If the vice-presidency becomes vacant, the President can nominate a Vice President, his choice subject to confirmation by a majority vote of each House of Congress.
> If the President declares himself unable to carry out his duties, the Vice President becomes Acting President until such time as the President indicates that he is able to resume office.
> If necessary, the Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet can declare a President mentally or physically unable to continue in office, and the Vice President immediately becomes Acting President. In such a case, the President can resume office on his own declaration of fitness — unless, within two days, the Vice President and a Cabinet majority state that he still is disabled. In that event, Congress would convene within 48 hours to resolve the issue within ten days. Unless a two-thirds majority of both Senate and House declared him incapable, the President would resume office.
In the House debate, New York's Democratic Representative Emanuel Celler, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, made an impassioned plea. "We have trifled with fate long enough on this question of presidential inability," said Celler. "We can no longer delay. Delay is the art of keeping up with yesterday. We must keep abreast of tomorrow." But some Representatives had misgivings. Said Ohio Republican Clarence Brown: "Under certain circumstances, a vacancy could exist in the vice-presidency and a President could name a billy goat as Vice President and some Congresses would approve of that nomination."
But all such doubts were overridden by the testimony of House Speaker John McCormack, a man who knew what he was talking about. In a House speech, he recalled how, during the 14 months between John Kennedy's assassination and Lyndon Johnson's inauguration for a full term, McCormack himself was next in line.* "A matter of great concern to me," he said, "was the vacuum which existed in the subject of determining inability of the occupant of the White House, if and when that should arise."
In his office safe, McCormack reminded the House, was a written agreement between himself and Johnson that outlined McCormack's responsibilities if Johnson became disabled. That agreement, he said, was not only "outside the law," but valueless as well, since "I could never have made the decision" to declare Johnson unfit. Added McCormack: "There are so many human considerations involved. For example, my motives might well be impugned. Also, there could be the feeling that I might be involved in a quest for personal power."