U.S. Presidential Term Limits End at Ten Years

George Washington supported the opinion of our founding fathers that a two-term limit for the office of U.S. president would prevent the executive office from evolving into a monarchy. Our first president publicly addressed his feelings about this unofficial law at the end of his second term when he refused to run for office again.

The unwritten, two-term rule allowed for a vice president to assume up to two years of a president’s term and still have the possibility of  being elected to two consecutive terms as president. That meant the office of U.S. president could extend up to ten years.

Our 31st president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, broke the unwritten law when he completed a third term and then entered a fourth term as president in 1944. Roosevelt died from a cerebral hemorrhage in April, 1945. Vice President Harry S. Truman then became president.  

The feelings of uncertainly whether our country might go to war and then the beginning of our involvement in WWII at the end of 1941 dominated public opinion to keep re-electing Roosevelt. His unprecedented four elections resulted from the public view that stability was needed in the national leadership. His record of winning four consecutive elections as president will never be broken.

Washington’s belief about limiting the term of a president became a law 164 years after he was the first president, with the passing of the 22nd Amendment. The 64th anniversary of that law is the 27th of this month.

The threat of a world-wide conflict that became World War II loomed over the United States in the late 1930s as Hitler’s German Army invaded parts of Europe, and Japan became an ally to the Nazis. The Democratic Party made FDR its candidate for a third and a fourth term with the support of the country’s voters who put their trust into Roosevelt’s abilities as WWII continued.

While Truman was in office, the U.S. Congress passed the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution on March 21, 1947. The amendment started the process to make the two-year term limit for president a law. It took five years for the amendment to become law. Thirty-six states ratified the 22nd Amendment on Feb. 27, 1951. That was the required three quarters of the 48 states that then composed our country.   

Since the 22nd Amendment became law, six presidents have been re-elected to two terms. The six presidents are: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan, William J. Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack H. Obama. The law’s intent to keep a U.S. president from assuming too much power is sometimes used for support when people debate the advantage of term limits for other federally elected offices.

Many U.S. senators and representatives make a life-long career of being members of the Congress. Our founding fathers generally agreed that working in politics should be an obligation and a privilege but not a career. The term-limit discussion will likely surface again during the national elections next year.

Two examples of sitting presidents who failed in their attempts to win second terms show the strong influence of public opinion.  

Lyndon B. Johnson became president in 1963 after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.  Johnson served 14 months (less than two years) of Kennedy’s term and was elected to a full term in 1964. He ran briefly for a second full term in 1968 but withdrew from the race after he barely won the New Hampshire Primary and his poll numbers were meager.

Gerald Ford became president on August 9, 1974 after the impeachment of President Richard M. Nixon. Ford served 29 months of Nixon’s remaining administration, and he was eligible to get elected president for a maximum of one term.

He became president by default, so to speak, since he wasn’t elected to the number two seat. Ford was selected to be vice president by Nixon after Vice President Agnew left office. With such a shaky start, Ford was not accepted by the majority of citizens, and he lost the election to Jimmy Carter.

The decision to make the ten year term limit a law in 1951 resulted from feelings of our first U.S. citizens who fought the Revolutionary War to stop the control of the King of England. The English monarchy was the type of rule that Americans wanted to eliminate in the new republic of the United States.

Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States, best expressed the sentiment of our people to keep a monarchy out of our government. In “The Gettysburg Address” Lincoln said our republic was a “…government of the people, by the people, for the people….”

Thanks for reading this blog. Check my website, www.joevlatino.com, for information about my book “The Device.” It’s a compilation of short stories. A new blog will be in this space at the end of the month.