Mission Creep

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	Mission Creep

"In the course of my preparation for this second volume, I have examined in manuscript about forty thousand documents.... Week by week and year by year the notes pile up, and there is born an insidious urge to justify or parade this labor by giving a place in the sun to too much of the resultant memoranda. Thus research may partake of the nature of vanity, and a book reflect a picture of the author's progressive grubbings in such strong light as to cast a shadow on the concerns of the other individual whose name appears on the title page."
--		Marquis James [1a]

In his Presidential readings, Dr. Zebra occasionally encounters fascinating non-medical facts that cry to be known.

Presenting these facts is mission creep for this website.

Well, so be it. Facilis descensus Averni.

Article II, section 1 of the Constitution of the United States states:
No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
Arthur's birthplace is not certain!
Although his birthplace was offically given as Fairfield, Vermont, it is possible that Arthur may have been born in Canada. Since his parents were US citizens, his eligibility for the Presidency was never challenged. It has recently been established that the year of his birth was in fact 1829, not 1830 as was hitherto generally accepted. [2a]
This tidbit is more interesting now than it would have been before the election of Austrian-born Arnold Schwarzenegger as Governor of California in 2003. Perhaps not by coincidence, the "Equal Opportunity to Govern Amendment" was introduced into the Senate Judiciary Committee in July 2003. This would remove the ban on foreign-born individuals becoming President. The legislation did not move during its first year.

On November 22, 1963, his last morning alive, Kennedy said to his wife after reading a Dallas newspaper: "We're heading into nut country today. But, Jackie, if someone wants to shoot me from a window with a rifle, nobody can stop it, so why worry about it?" [3c]

In the election of 1820, the electoral vote for Monroe was 231-1. A New Hampshire elector was the lone dissenter, saying he wanted George Washington to have the honor of being the only person unanimously elected [4a]

In a weird twist of fate, Edwin Booth saved the life of Robert Lincoln. Booth was the ?brother ?uncle of assassin John Wilkes Booth, and Robert Lincoln was the son of Abraham Lincoln. Robert had slipped onto the train track at the Jersey City, NJ train station while travelling to Washington from New York City. He fell into an open space and was helpless until Booth "vigorously seized" him to safety. The incident occurred while Lincoln was President. [5a]

"One thing I've learned about the Presidency: Whatever shortcomings you have, people will notice them. Whatever strengths you have, you'll need them." -- 2 September 2004
[This became a line in his stump speeches during the 2004 campaign.]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

James, Marquis. The Life of Andrew Jackson. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1938). [a] p. 910 - James twice won the Pulitzer Prize for biography

Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (ed). Burke's Presidential Families of the United States of American. 2nd ed. London: Burke's Peerage Limited, 1981. ISBN 0-85011-033-5 @ Amazon [a] p. 359

Dallek, Robert. An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy 1917-1963. Boston: Little, Brown, 2003. ISBN 0-316-17238-3 @ Amazon [a] p. 504 - Dallek attributes the remark to President James Garfield in 1881 [b] pp. 323-324 [c] p. 693

Sullivan, George. Mr. President: A Book of U.S. Presidents. New York: Scholastic Inc., 2005. ISBN 0-439-70335-2 @ Amazon [a] pp. 34-35

Gary, Ralph. Following Lincoln's Footsteps. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2001. ISBN 0-7867-09413 @ Amazon [a] pp. 238, 261