The mid-term electorate might want to consider the possibility of a President Kevin McCarthy Kevin Owen McCarthyMcCarthy's Democratic challenger to launch first TV ad highlighting Air Force service as single mother Trump asked Chamber of Commerce to reconsider Democratic endorsements: report The Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by The Air Line Pilots Association - White House moves closer to Pelosi on virus relief bill MORE or Steve Scalise Stephen (Steve) Joseph ScaliseHouse GOP slated to unveil agenda ahead of election House panel details 'serious' concerns around Florida, Georgia, Texas, Wisconsin elections Scalise hit with ethics complaint over doctored Barkan video MORE. If Republicans retain their majority, one is likely to ascend to second in presidential succession.

The last time this was an urgent matter, former Kennedy administration adviser, Theodore Sorensen, sent House Speaker Carl Albert (D-Okla.) a nineteen-page personal and confidential memorandum “for your use in the event that you are suddenly elevated to the Office of President of the United States.” This long-forgotten document sheds light on what would be an unprecedented succession.

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Recall that Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned on Oct. 10, 1973, and Gerald Ford did not take the oath of office as the 40th Vice President of the United States until Dec. 6. For two months, Speaker Albert was first in the line of succession for a president who might resign at any moment. The interregnum led Albert to seek Sorensen’s discreet advice.

Sorensen alerted Albert to “the steps you will need to take in those first hours and days of unprecedented pressure.” He implored the would-be president to communicate a confident accession. Among the most eloquent of speechwriters, Sorensen suggests Albert state: “Under the statute long ago considered with care and lawfully enacted by the representatives of the people convened in Congress, my election by the House of Representatives as Speaker placed me next in line for the high office to which I have now succeeded.”

Given that his elevation would pass the office from one party’s control to another’s, Sorensen also suggests that Albert “pledge a non-partisan administration of national reconciliation and unity,” appoint a Republican vice president, and recruit a mix of highly qualified Republicans and Democrats to the Cabinet.

Much of Sorensen’s memorandum is devoted to the function and purpose of one or another White House staff position as well as such topics as “priorities for the first day.” When to take the oath of office? As soon possible. Where? The East Room. From whom? The Chief Justice. Guests? Very few. “It should be a somber occasion – no music or refreshment.”

Attention to such detail does not distract, however, from the principal responsibilities of executive leadership. While it is critical for Albert to obtain a “quick fix on the national security situation,” it is also necessary to preserve White House files, meet with the special prosecutor, and seek counsel from “various wise men” and other “Establishment figures.” Sorensen stresses that Albert adopt a “basic posture,” “an approach which will govern your attitude and actions…and your subsequent conduct of the office,” which Albert will need “both for private peace of mind and for public use.”

One wonders how the tragic and heartrending transition from JFK’s to LBJ’s administration affected Sorensen’s advice a decade later. It is not difficult to imagine him in his New York City law office, reliving tragedies and eager to caution concerning them. With comparable crisis again brewing in our time, Sorenson’s first injunction has a contemporary ring: “beware of men, agencies and nations seeking to take advantage of the pressures, to test you, to commit you or to outmaneuver you.”

Perhaps the advice most informed by Sorensen’s White House experience--and that which any House Speaker may consider most valuable--is the formulation of the president’s singular duty: “You must be your own man [sic], listening to your own common sense, conscience and convictions even when they differ from the experts, the pressure or the majority opinion.”

Sorensen adds gravitas: “Every casual statement by you or a member of your staff – on or off the record – that was previously a matter of politics or public relations will hereafter be regarded as Presidential and national policy.” He advocates strength and decisiveness--“Identify and get rid of any hold-overs undercutting you or forming factions”—as well as caution and judgment: “attacks” on one’s “predecessor accomplish nothing” and “raising questions and pointing with alarm are no longer enough for the man who must have the answers and actually run the show.”

With the tumultuous Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon presidencies before him, Sorensen pined for a competent, honorable, and visionary president, for whom the good of the nation was paramount and thus for whom he could write, as he suggested for Albert’s inaugural address, “I shall not be a candidate for the Presidency in 1976 or at any other time.” Should either one day serve as the 46th President of the United States, Reps. McCarthy or Scalise could do worse than heed such sage advice.

Steven P. Dandaneau is associate professor of sociology at Kansas State University. His latest publication is “Leadership and the Land-Grants: The Case of Milton S. Eisenhower” in Leadership and the Humanities (2017).