Presidential Succession Act of 1886

The Presidential Succession Act of 1886 is invoked during the crisis triggered by President Charles A. Lindbergh’s disappearance as a legal alternative to the emergency rule imposed by Acting President Burton K. Wheeler. In Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s broadcast, the statute supplies a proposed route back to constitutional government: Congress should remove Wheeler, appoint the Secretary of State to the presidency if the vice presidency is vacant, and decide whether to call a special election.

The Succession Rule

In her appeal to the country, Anne states that the Act places the Secretary of State next in line for the presidency when the vice presidency is vacant. She also says that, under the circumstances she describes, Congress must decide whether to call a special presidential election. The broadcast presents both points as components of one process: choosing a successor through the statutory order and allowing Congress to determine how the presidency should next be filled.

Invocation During the Crisis

The statute enters the story after Wheeler announces that Lindbergh has been kidnapped and declares martial law throughout the United States and its territories and possessions. The crisis deepens as the FBI takes Lionel Bengelsdorf into custody and the First Lady is transferred to Walter Reed Army Hospital, where she is held and prevented from speaking freely. With the government’s account of the emergency controlling public life, Anne’s appeal shifts attention to the rules for succession and the authority of Congress.

The Broadcast’s Constitutional Demand

Escaping the hospital with help from Lindbergh loyalists in the Secret Service, Anne broadcasts that the First Amendment must be respected, detainees must regain their rights, and the armed forces and National Guard should stand down. She calls on Congress to begin proceedings to remove Wheeler and to appoint a new president under the Act. She also asks Congress to authorize a special election to coincide with the scheduled congressional election. These are demands made in the broadcast, not events the evidence establishes as already completed under the statute.

Significance

The Act gives Anne a specific institutional procedure to set against Wheeler’s claim to emergency authority. Rather than treating the crisis as a question to be settled by military control alone, her broadcast directs Congress toward succession and an election. Its role in the episode is therefore both practical and rhetorical: the statute becomes the basis for a proposed transfer of power and a public appeal to restore constitutional procedures.