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George Washington becomes President
George Washington started out as an American Revolution War hero which led him to serving the first two terms of the United States President. He spent a majority of his first term setting up the government and defining the roles of the president. After the first term, Washington was unanimously elected again as president. This term he focused more on keeping the new nation together because of the political parties beginning to emerge, fearing that the country would split apart. -
George Washington Steps Down
President George Washington had been serving for two terms already and citizens were planning on a third term by popular vote. However, Washington declined the presidency and read his farewell address. In his speech, he believed that no president should run for more than two terms. This created an unwritten tradition for American presidents from then forward. -
Ulysses S. Grant
After Washington's farewell speech, in 1880 three years after he was president, Ulysses S. Grant decided to try to run for president for his third term. The attempt failed, Grant didn't even win his party's nomination losing to James A Garfield. In the end, Ulysses S. Grant was still the first person to ever attempt to run for a third term. -
Theodore Roosevelt Runs For Term #3
After 3 years of not being president and traveling the world, Teddy Roosevelt decided to run for a third term like Grant. He ran for his own political party called the "bull moose" and was unsuccessful. Although he was unsuccessful, only receiving 88 electoral votes, he still was the first person to be in the finals running for President. -
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidency
President FDR led the country for eight years during the Great Depression. World War ll was around the corner and wasn't looking the best, so FDR decided to run for a third term. FDR was officially the first president to be president for three terms. -
Upset over FDR's Fourth Term
After winning his third term as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt really upset the Republicans. While FDR was President, America went through two of its toughest times as a country: the Great Depression and helping the Allies defeat Germany in WWII. Although FDR received lots of positivity from the citizens, he sadly died during his fourth term of presidency. -
The Proposal of the 22nd Amendment
After FDR's fourth term election there was major talk about having a 22nd amendment which would only allow a president to serve two terms. The basis of this idea was that it would protect the democracy and save the U.S. from becoming a monarchy. The Republican dominate congress passed the Amendment on March 21, 1947 and sent it to the states to be ratified. -
22nd Amendment Ratified
From the time the 22nd amendment was proposed it took nearly four years for the amendment to be ratified. At the time 3/4 of all states needed to ratify the amendment. 18 states ratified it in the first few months after the amendment was proposed. It took almost three more years for 18 more states to ratify the amendment. It only took 36 states to ratify the amendment because Alaska and Hawaii were not states yet. -
Third Term try for Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson was the Vice president of Kennedy, after Kennedy was assassinated. Johnson was sworn into office on November 22, 1963 and was later elected as president for his own campaign in 1964. Since Johnson only serve a few months as president after Kennedy's death he could be re-elected again in 1968 but decided not to. -
Reagan Tries to Repeal Amendment
Ronald Reagan was the first president to push to repeal the 22nd amendment. He said it limited the power of the presidency. He claimed that eight years was not enough for one president to get anything good done for the country. He mentioned repealing the amendment multiple times, but no action was ever taken and the 22nd Amendment remains in place to this day.
