Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the United States Constitution, which governed intra-term presidential succession at the time (now superseded by the Twenty-fifth Amendment), states:

In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President ....[81]
Interpreting this Constitutional prescription led to the question of whether the actual office of president devolved upon Tyler, or merely its powers and duties.[82] The Cabinet met within an hour of Harrison's death and, according to a later account, determined that Tyler would be "vice-president acting president".[83] But Tyler firmly and decisively asserted that the Constitution gave him full and unqualified powers of office and had himself sworn in immediately as president, setting a critical precedent for an orderly transfer of power following a president's death.[84] Judge William Cranch administered the presidential oath in Tyler's hotel room. Tyler considered the oath redundant to his oath as vice president, but wished to quell any doubt over his accession.[82] When he took office, Tyler, at 51, became the youngest president to that point.