The impetus behind the Presidential Succession Act of 1886 was rooted in the Garfield assassination five years earlier, and it provided the first version of the "long" succession list to the presidency that have today.

Authored by prominent Massachusetts Senator George Frisbie Hoar (pictured at right), the Presidential Succession Act of 1886 removed Congressional officers from the line of succession, replacing them instead with cabinet secretaries - following the Vice President in the order their respective executive departments were created.  The only caveats to someone on the list being eligible to act as President were that (a) they had to have been confirmed into their service by the United States Senate, and (b) they must not have been impeached (undergoing an impeachment proceeding) at the time they were to assume Presidential functions.

The 1886 law was intended to ensure a line of succession that guaranteed successors would be of the same political party as the incumbent President, but sadly, as with the original, 1792 law, it failed to address the fundamental questions asked nearly a century earlier:  Who determines that a President is disabled?  How does someone become Acting President if a President is disabled and cannot turn over executive authority voluntarily?  How does a President legally resume the powers and duties of his office?