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George Washington retires
Washington declines a third term, retires, and goes back to his Mount Vernon home. In his Farewell Address, he says that two four-year terms was enough any president. Up until 1940, every president followed this tradition of only serving two terms.
Source: post-gazette.com -
Thomas Jefferson Contribution
Thomas Jefferson wrote, "if some termination to the services of the chief Magistrate be not fixed by the constitution, or supplied by practice, his office, nominally four years, will in fact become for life." He's saying that if we don't have a limit to how long a president can serve, the president will end up serving until he dies. Jefferson then resigned after two terms as did many of the following presidents.
Source: Wikipedia -
Ulysses S. Grant attempts running for third election
After serving in 1869 and 1877, Grant decided to run for another term. However he narrowly lost his party's nomination. Grant was the first president to attempt to run for more than two terms.
Source: Wikipedia -
FDR elected as president
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to his first term as president. He help guide the country through the Great Depression and was viewed as a great president. Then in 1936 he was re-elected for his second term.
Source: post-gazette.com -
FDR re-elected for third term
Due to world problems at hand, such as Hitler, many felt that a change away from Roosevelt would be bad. His opponent, Wendell Willkie, put up a good fight and didn't make winning his third term easy. Many historians feel if it hadn't been for the war, Roosevelt wouldn't have won his third term.
Sourse: usconstitution.net, post-gazette.com -
FDR is elected for fourth term
Being in the middle of World War II when the next election came around meant that a change in leaders might be bad for the country. Roosevelt was elected for another term. Unfortunately less than 100 days after his inauguration he passed away, and Harry Truman took over.
Source: usconstitution.net -
Congress proposed the 22nd Amendment
After World War II and FDR passed away, congress wanted to make sure that a president could only serve up to two terms. They proposed the 22nd amendment. It set in stone that the president could only serve up to two terms or 10 years.
Source: www.usconstitution.net -
22nd Amendment passed
After 1,439 days, the 22nd amendment was ratified. 41 states approved the amendment, while only two states flat out rejected it. Those two states were Massachusetts and Oklahoma.
Source: usconstitution.net -
Lyndon B. Johnson elected
After JFK was assinated, Lyndon B. Johnson took over and served the last fourteen months of his term. Then in 1964, Johnson was elected as president. Since fourteen months in under two years, under the twenty-second amendment he was allowed to run president again in 1968.
Source: Wikipedia -
Gerald Ford takes over Nixon's term
Gerald Ford takes over for Nixon and served the remaining 29 months. During the next election Ford lost to Carter. If Ford had won he wouldn't have been able to serve in the election after that, because it would exceed the 10 year max set by the 22 amendment.
Source: Wikipedia -
Attempt to repeal the 22nd amendment
A bill was proposed to repeal the 22nd amendment by Jose Serrano. It was introduced and referred to a comittee. However, that session of congress ended before anymore was done with it, and it was cleared from the books.
Source: govtrack.us
