On March 4, 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to soothe a weary and anxious nation struggling through the Great Depression with one of the most evocative phrases uttered in any inaugural address: "So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself..."
True, perhaps, with the exception of four-term presidents -- a problem solved by the Twenty-second Amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified on February 27, 1951.
Until Roosevelt's election to a third term in 1940 obliterated the standard set by George Washington, presidents who could have run a third time followed precedent and limited themselves to two terms in office. That was not for lack of trying in a few notable cases, however.
In 1872, the Republican Party seriously considered running Ulysses S. Grant for a third term, but the plan never materialized. Grant made an unsuccessful attempt to win the Republican nomination in 1880, which was won by the ill-fated James A. Garfield.
Woodrow Wilson (or was it more so First Lady Jill, er, Edith Wilson?) actively worked for a third term, demanding that the Democratic Party enter him in the nomination race at the 1920 convention. He lost to James M. Cox, who lost the presidential race alongside his running mate, a dandy from New York called Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
As 1940 rolled around, FDR was coy about pursuing an unprecedented third term. In the meantime his own vice president (John Nance Garner) and postmaster general (James Farley) entered the race for the Democratic nomination at the party's convention in Chicago.
Their presidential aspirations faded on the shores of Lake Michigan when Roosevelt sent notice to the Democratic Convention that he would run "if drafted" by the delegates. The incumbent was nominated on the first ballot. Concerns and fears about the war in Europe -- and eventually America's prime role in World War II -- convinced a majority of the American voters to keep Roosevelt in the White House not once, but twice more. He died in office on April 12, 1945.
No Limit?
It is indeed curious that, for a group highly suspicious of power, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia did not establish a fixed term for the presidency in Article II.
The subject was certainly debated and the first draft of the Constitution limited the president to one term of seven years. But the Constitution was ratified with four-year terms for the commander-in-chief with no barriers on the number of terms that an individual could serve.
The patron saint of Convention States, George Mason, was particularly adamant in his denunciation of the absence of a fixed presidential term in the Constitution, worrying that a lack of a presidential term limit went against first principles and opened up the office to malign influence from foreign entities. This he most vividly expressed during his speech before the the Virginia ratification convention on June 17, 1788.
Of the Constitution as originally written remaining silent on the subject of a fixed limitation on presidential service Mason said, "The great fundamental principle of responsibility in republicanism is here sap[p]ed. The President is elected without rotation."
He concluded by saying: "Some stated time ought to be fixed, when the President ought to be reduced to a private station. I should be contented that he might be elected for eight years: But I would wish him to be capable of holding the office only eight years, out of twelve or sixteen years. But as it now stands, he may continue in office for life; or in other words, it will be an elective Monarchy."
Mason's fellow Virginian, Thomas Jefferson, expressed the same sentiment during his second term as president: "If some termination to the services of the chief magistrate be not fixed by the Constitution, or supplied by practice, his office, nominally for years, will in fact, become for life; and history shows how easily that degenerates into an inheritance."
Do Nothing?
Although Roosevelt's successor, Harry S. Truman, would famously deride it by calling it the "Do Nothing Congress", the 80th Congress sprang into action to formally begin the process of limiting presidential terms.
Rep. Earl C. Michener of Michigan introduced a joint resolution proposing the amendment, limiting presidents to two four-year terms. This was passed on February 6, 1947, by a vote of 285-121. The Senate passed an amendment proposal put forward by Sen. Robert A. Taft of Ohio, which was adopted on March 12, 1947. The proposed amendment was then sent to the states and was ratified -- appropriately enough -- almost four years later.
Minnesota completed the process when its legislature voted to ratify the Twenty-second Amendment on February 27, 1951. As ratified, the amendment reads:
Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.
Section 2. This Article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states within seven years from the date of its submission to the states by the Congress.
The amendment's grandfather clause meant that Truman was eligible to run again in 1952, but his poor approval rating at the time convinced him to yield. Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected that year. He served two full terms and was the first president who was constitutionally barred from seeking a third term.
Here and Now
There have been several attempts to repeal the Twenty-second Amendment, largely resting upon the sentiment that it is anti-democratic. Over 50 joint resolutions have been proposed in Congress to repeal the amendment, but they have gone nowhere.
This past January, Rep. Andy Ogles, looking ahead to Donald Trump's ineligibility in 2028, introduced a joint resolution that would alter the amendment to permit a president to serve a third term, provided that a president's first two terms were non-consecutive.
Despite a recent poll demonstrating that the 88 percent of the American public would love to see fixed term limits on members of Congress, it is folly to think that any contemporary Congress will swiftly act as did their predecessors in the 80th Congress and pass -- let alone propose -- limiting the time they can enjoy the perks of office and incumbency.
Happily, Article V gives the states the ability to propose and ratify an amendment that will establish term limits for Congress and other federal officials, which is a pillar of the COS resolution that has now been introduced in every state and approved in nineteen.
You have the power to make it happen. Sign the petition below and begin working with your representatives in your state legislature to hold members of Congress to a standard that has applied to presidents since the ratification of the Twenty-second Amendment.
