In 1804, upon confirmation that President Alexander Hamilton has died of the wounds he sustained in his duel with Aaron Burr, Chief Justice John Marshall of the Supreme Court swears in Vice-President Thomas Jefferson as the acting President of the United States.Death of Hamilton
Partisans of the late President are offended by what they see as a 'perversion' of the succession process. They demand that in light of the manner of Hamilton's death, essentially by assassination, Jefferson, like John Adams before him, decline to be considered as a candidate for permanent elevation to the presidency. Jefferson, however, refuses. "If Congress decline to appoint me, so be it," he declares. "But I shall not remove myself from consideration before that consideration has even begun. The Constitution doers not require it; it places no stricture upon the vice-president seeking the higher office, even should his predecessor's demise be other than natural. Common decency does not require it; to say otherwise is to suggest that I somehow bear responsibility for the President's death. And the welfare of the country does not require it; there is no reason to believe myself less able to fulfill the duties of the office than some other upon whom Congress might settle".
Hamiltonians are not mollified, and there are calls for a new constitutional amendment to bar an acting President from seeking permanent election.