Amendment XX

Section 1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January,
and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January,
of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified;
and the terms of their successors shall then begin.

Section 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

Section 3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President.
If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified;
and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.

Section 4. The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.

Section 5. Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of this article.

Section 6. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission.

The Twentieth Amendment was ratified January 23, 1933.

From Nate:

Among other things, this amendment closes the gap between the time of the presidential election and the inauguration. Previously, the inauguration had been in the spring, on March 4th.

It seems to me that this is a case of the Constitution catching up to the way Americans were living. With railroads spanning the continent, the time gap of a "lame duck" president could have been closed fifty years earlier.

So why in 1933?

The unpopular President Herbert Hoover was the lame duck. The stock market had crashed in October 1929. By the time Americans had voted for president in 1932, many were not only jobless but homeless. Entire families lived outdoors in makeshift accommodations. They called these camps "Hoovervilles" – President Hoover was keeping his hands off the economy although it wasn't improving.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was president-elect. Everyone knew his platform and ideas for rescuing America from its greatest depression. And yet the clock ticked away.

In truth, this amendment was proposed by Congress in March 1932, well before the election. This point is consistent with the feeling of removing President Hoover as early as possible. On the other hand, it was declared ratified in February 1933 after the new presidency would have begin. Perhaps this was a way of showing deference to a sitting president by not changing the rules especially to his detriment.

· · ·

Some history:

Concerning the Electoral College's choosing a president and vice president, we find in Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution:

"The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes."

Ordinarily, Congress was in session on the first Monday of December (see Article I, Section 4). They wanted to go home before winter set in and only return when roads were passable in the spring.

In the years of presidential elections, the quorum of a new Congress could have already assembled in December waiting for the arrival of the electors from all the states.

The Appalachian Mountains were a barrier between the original states and "western" territories. However, electors from Kentucky and Tennessee, riding through the Cumberland Gap over the Wilderness Road *, were hardly farther time-wise from the nation's capital than inland Vermont (1791) – maybe even closer. These two states had entered the Union in 1792 and 1796.

As new states entered the Union, they lay along the large interior rivers: the Ohio, the Missouri, and the Mississippi Rivers. Before Michigan entered the Union in 1837, only three states from the Northwest Territory had entered the Union – Ohio in 1803, Indiana in 1816, and Illinois in 1818.

According to Jack Beatty (Age of Betrayal: the Triumph of Money in America, 1865-1900, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007, page 16) people going from Illinois to New York in 1830 might be traveling up to three weeks. No other state capital was farther from New York. Of course, the capital of the United States was in Washington, D.C., not New York. But this figure gives a feel for the season of presidential elections.

1825 was the year of the "Great Betrayal." The candidates had been Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford (a Southern cotton planter), John Quincy Adams, Speaker of the House Henry Clay, and Secretary of War John C. Calhoun – and none had secured a simple majority in the Electoral College. The House would decide among the three top finishers, each state receiving one vote. Clay had finished fourth and Crawford had suffered a massive, disabling stroke. However, on the evening of January 9, Clay and Adams met in Washington "at Clay's invitation, mainly, it seems, to smooth over their personal differences."

The subseqent allegations that Adams and Clay struck a "Corrupt Bargain" in which Adams promised Clay the office of secretary of state in exchange for his support for the presidency, were highly dubious – and also devastating (Sean Wilentz, Andrew Jackson, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2005, pages 47-8).

The long winter until spring was a time of political mischief in 1825. I don't know how long Congress was away for the holidays. I don't know where the presidential electors were, although they were probably enjoying themselves in Washington. November - election. December - travel to Washington and cast preliminary votes. January - wait for revised voting instructions. Congress returns to elect the president, one vote for each of the 24 states. March 4th - inaugurate the new president. Life was slower than we can probably imagine. And plenty of time for mischief.

* From Wikipedia:

The Wilderness Road was the principal route used by settlers to reach Kentucky for more than fifty years. In 1775, Daniel Boone blazed a trail for the Transylvania Company from Fort Chiswell in Virginia through the Cumberland Gap into central Kentucky. It was later lengthened, following Native American trails, to reach the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville. The Wilderness Road was steep and rough, and could only be traversed on foot or horseback. Despite the adverse conditions, thousands of people used it. In 1792, the new Kentucky legislature provided money to upgrade the road. In 1796, an improved all-weather road was opened for wagon and carriage travel. The road was abandoned around 1840, although modern highways follow much of its route.

(Wikipedia, "Wilderness Road," Accessed December 13, 2009)