The Twenty-Fifth Amendment: Its Complete History and Application

Foreword to the 1976 Edition

xix Foreword to the 1976 Edition As this nation celebrates the two-hundredth anniversary of its birth, we should take special note of one unique feature of our great constitutional experiment. Unlike almost any other Western democracy, the United States has never been faced with a serious crisis in the line of succession to office of its chief executive and head of state. Our ability to avoid such a crisis throughout much of our earlier history was, perhaps, largely a matter of luck. Fortunately, we never had to confront the prospect of a double vacancy in the offices of both President and Vice President. Thus, one of two individuals specifically designated by the voters as President and next-in-line served in the offices at all times. The problem of the line of succession following the Vice President, however, long bothered many thoughtful Americans. But it was not until the mid-1960s, after the assassination of President Kennedy, that the Constitution was changed to provide a structural solution to the problem. As fate would have it, less than a decade after the ratification of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, the unprecedented happened, and both offices were vacated during one presidential term. Twice, Vice Presidents were then nominated by the President and approved by both Houses of Congress under the new Amendment. When the first of these, Gerald R. Ford, became the thirty-eighth President of the United States, there was no serious question about the legitimacy of his claim to the office. One has only to imagine the divisiveness which would have been created had the White House been turned over to the opposing party in the person of the Speaker of the House to realize how significant an achievement this was. The nation owes a great debt of gratitude to the author of this volume, John Feerick, not only for this comprehensive, scholarly, and highly readable history of xx Foreword to the 1976 Edition the Twenty-Fifth Amendment but for his expert guiding hand throughout the process of crafting the Amendment, obtaining its approval by Congress and ratification by the states, and implementing it for the first time. Mr. Feerick, who is a distinguished attorney in private practice in New York, gave freely of his time and talents in assisting those of us in public office in providing a solution to this crucial aspect of our constitutional system. In my view, his distinguished service should serve as an example to his colleagues at the bar of a man who has fulfilled his public responsibilities in an outstanding way. Birch Bayh United States Senator ...