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President William Henry Harrison was the first president to die in the White House. After only a month of serving as president, he caught a cold that turned into pneumonia. At the age of 32 years-old he passed away. This was the first time it had to be taken into consideration of who would become president next.
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President James Garfield died in office shortly after being shot. His Vice President, Chester Arthur, was to be next in line. The Cabinet did not like Arthur and this created issues. The 25th Amendement needed brought up, but Arthur couldn't accomplish this since the Cabinet didn't like him.
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After President JFK was assissinated in Dallas, TX it became clear that the Consitiution needed to be revised. There was no amendment that bluntly laid out how the presidential successsion would go if there was ever a time when the president could no longer withfil their duties as the nation's leader.
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Senator Birch Bayh of Indianna and Represenative Emanuel Celler of New York brought forth proposals about the Presidential succession. Questions had been raised about what will happen for when a president would not be able to carry out his/her duties. These two men were the first to put ideas together.
*Pictured here is Senator Birch Bayh of Indianna. -
The Senate was the first to pass a proposal for the 25th Amendement. Their proposal would vary slightly from the House of Representative's Joint Resolution.
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The House of Representatives was the last house to pass a proposal for the 25th Amendment. After the Senate's joint resolution and the House of Representative's resolutions were compared it was realized that both differed in what they believed should be included in the amendment. It was decided a committee was to be formed to make a compromise of the two.
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A special committee is created to help form a single resolution. Both the Senate and House of Representatives had passes slightly different proposals for the 25th Amendment. This committee's job was to combine the proposals in the best way possible before the amendment could be passed onto the States.
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Congress approved the 25th Amendment and pushes it onto the states to be ratified. To have an amendment passed through Congress, there must be a 2/3 majority vote from both houses.
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To ratifiy an amendment there needs to be a 3/4 majority vote from the States. Nebraska and Wisconsin were the first two states to approve ratification of the 25th Amendment. The 38th state, the one to seal the deal, was Nevada.
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Lyndon B. Johnson was president when the 25th Amendment passed through the Oval Office to be certified. This was the last step in having the amendment be added to the United States Consititution.
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The first time the 25th Amendment was used was December 6, 1973. President Richard Nixon nominated Gerald Ford to occupy the vacant spot of Vice President. The nomination was approved by the House Judiciary and the Senate Rules Commitee. Ford was then sworn in and became the United States Vice President.
