On January 19, 1886, President Grover Cleveland signed the Presidential Succession Act. The act specified that in the absence of a President and vice president, heads of executive departments would succeed to the presidency in the order in which the departments were created, starting with the secretary of state. The Presidential Succession Act of 1886 remained in force until 1947.
Vice President Thomas Hendricks died in his Indianapolis home in November 1885. President Grover Cleveland's message to Congress on December 8 regarding the death of the new vice president called for a constitutional amendment to clarify the line of succession should both the President and vice president die or become unable to serve. While the Presidential Succession Act that was proposed and passed shortly afterward on January 15, 1886, was primarily the work of the Congress, President Cleveland supported the legislation and signed the bill into law.
In 1792, Congress had passed a law that addressed presidential succession; the law stipulated that if the President and vice president should both be unable to serve, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate would take office, followed by the Speaker of the House. The Presidential Succession Act changed the previous legislation by placing in line for the presidency, after the vice president, the heads of each executive department in the order in which the department was created. The new system provided a long list of successors, making it all but impossible for the nation to be without a chief executive.
Congress changed the law again in 1947, when it was argued that those at the top of the list for presidential succession should be elected, not appointed, officials. The order established in 1947, which remains in place today, set up the line of succession in the form of President, vice president, Speaker of the House, President Pro Tempore of the Senate, and the heads of each executive department in the order of their creation beginning with the secretary of state and the secretary of the treasury.