Term of Office
The Constitution provides in Article II, Section 1 that, “He (the president) shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years. . . .” It makes no mention of the number of terms a president may serve. The two-term limit was established by Amendment XXII, passed by Congress in 1947 and ratified by the requisite number of state in 1951.
With no constitutional limit, the decision to seek a third term was open to George Washington. Some believe that Washington rejected a third term over concerns of developing another monarchy. They believe he thought two terms should be the limit for a president. Other historians point to his farewell address and indications that his age (67) was his concern. Still others contend that health issues may have played into his decision. Had Washington been elected again in 1796, he would likely have been the first president to die in office. He died on December 14, 1799.
Regardless of the motivation, Washington’s decision set a presidency that continued for 144 years, but it was not without challenges. Ulysses Grant considered a third term in 1880, but lost the Republican nomination to James A. Garfield. Grover Cleveland also considered a third term in the election of 1896. Cleveland, the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms of office (1885 to 1889 and 1893 to 1897) sought a third term but lost his party’s nomination to William Jennings Bryan, who lost the election of 1896 to William McKinley.
Theodore Roosevelt became the president when McKinley died in 1901. After completing that term of office he won re-election in 1904. He made another bid for the White House in the election of 1912 as a third-party candidate. He lost that bid to Woodrow Wilson, who quietly sought a third term in the election of 1920. Although seriously ill and living in seclusion, he sought to deadlock the convention hoping that he would be drafted to run for a third term. His party did not draft him.
Franklin Roosevelt notified the Democratic National Committee that he would run in 1940 only if he was drafted by the convention. The convention nominated Roosevelt for an unprecedented third term, which he won handily carrying 38 of 48 states to defeat Wendell Willkie. Despite rumors of failing health, Roosevelt again won re-election in 1944, defeating the Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey. Dewey, the Governor of New York, came out in this election cycle in support of a two-term limit. Roosevelt was sworn into office for his fourth term on January 20th 1945. He died less than three months later on April 12th from a cerebral hemorrhage.
Upon Roosevelt’s death, Harry S Truman became the 33rd president. It was during his two terms in office that the 22nd Amendment was passed by Congress and ratified by the requisite number of states. Although Truman supported a two-term limit, the Amendment provided a provision that permitted him to seek a third term, but he declined to do so. All presidents after Truman have been and are bound by the two-term limit.