Acting President of the United States On April 4, 1841, only one month after his inauguration, President William Henry Harrison died. He was the first U.S. president to die in office. Afterward, a constitutional crisis ensued over the Constitution's ambiguous presidential succession provision (). Shortly after Harrison's death, his Cabinet met and decided that Vice President John Tyler would assume the responsibilities of presidency under the title "Vice-President acting President". Instead of accepting the Cabinet's proposed title, however, Tyler asserted that the Constitution gave him full and unqualified powers of the office and had himself sworn in immediately as President, setting a critical precedent for an
Owen Wynne (1755–1841) Owen Wynne (1755–1841) Owen Wynne (1755 – 12 December 1841) was an Irish landowner and politician. He was the son of Owen Wynne (1723–1789) of Hazelwood, an MP of the Parliament of Ireland, and his wife the Hon. Anne Maxwell. He succeeded to his father's estates in 1789, inheriting Hazelwood House, Sligo. He was elected a Member of the Irish Parliament for Sligo Borough for 1776–1790 and 1791–1800. After the act of Union he sat as MP for Sligo in the UK Parliament in 1801–1806, resigning his seat by taking the notional crown office of profit as Escheator of Munster.