| Show Our Founding Fathers Found The TIle Baby on Their Doorsteps F J ept ept Uncle Samuel in Stew Years Years Hamilton Hamilton Wanted Presidents During Good Behavior Term One Bills nills Pop Up Frequently EDITORS EDITOR'S OTE now note anti and the sie lummer summer dIY day ten hen hen the Democratic Democratic Demo Demo- cratic trout party nominates itt its candidate for the she third term ferns issue will ill be lit litone one of oJ the most discussed questions of the 1940 19 campaign That discussion may continue until November 4 4 increasing in in- creasing in intensity at OJ election day draws dram near To help our reader judge I fur for or the Uie meriu of o othe the arguments fU ar menu ments for or against a residential third term this newspaper presents present the first in a series lerie of 0 three articles article ulich give ile some ome of 0 the historical his hil lor lal background of that issue me It Is is it neither IOU FOK nor AGAINST a third term it simply limply scans the she pa past pai l and giles gite an impartial report of 0 its iu findings finding I. I TilE FOUNDING FATHERS AND CONGRESS SHALL CHALL the President of L J these United States be elected for a certain term of years and thereafter be Ineligible ineligible ineligible in in- eligible What shall that term be Six years Seven years Twenty years Or shall he be permitted to serve during good behavior Those were some of the questions which the Founding Fathers meeting meet meet- ing lag in Philadelphia years ago tried to answer as they Struggled with their gigantic task of devising a frame of government for the new republic Considered Tear Seven Term On May 29 Gov Edmund Randolph Ran dolph of Virginia and Charles Pinckney Pinckney Pinck- Pinck ney of South Carolina both presented present present- ed resolutions providing for an executive executive exec exec- to be chosen by the national legislature for a term of years and to be ineligible a second time Three days later a vote was taken on a year seven term for this executive exec exec- Five states voted for it and four against it The next day a II motion to make the executive ineligible after atter seven years also was carried by a vote of 7 to 2 Apparently that matter was settled But two weeks later it was brought up again and Alexander Hamilton proposed that the supreme executive authority be vested in a Governour to be elected to serve during good behavior The delegates turned thumbs down on this idea and on June 19 10 voted for a year seven term for the President who should be he ineligible for re A month later however however how how- ever they changed theist their mines minds and struck out the Ineligibility clause dause Then followed a long debate During Good Behavior Once more the during good behavior behavior behavior be be- havior clause bobbed up but again it failed to pass There was a suggestion sug sug- that the Chief Executive be elected for 20 years and another that he be be chosen by the legislature with the provision that no person be eligible el for more than six years in any 12 years Both Doth of these plans were rejected and eventually they went back to the year seven term with its a second proviso This was in July and for the next two months the presidential term was repeatedly debated On September Sep 4 it was brought up again with the suggestion that the Presidents Presidents President's dents dent's term be made four years A motion to change this back to seven seven sev sev- en years and another to six years were defeated and on September 15 IS ISit it was finally agreed that the President President President dent should be chosen by an electoral elec dec toral college for four years no limit to his re eligibility being fixed Problem Bobbed up Again Although the adoption of the Constitution Con Can on September 17 1787 apparently apparently ap ap- settled this question of presidential tenure satisfactorily it was a question that was destined to come up again and again in future years years especially especially in the legislative branch of our government After the contested election of 1800 1800 a D resolution W was l presented in the senate that no person who has been twice successively elected l President shall be eligible as President President dent until four tour years elapse when he may be eligible to office for four years and no longer But the senate rejected this by a vote of 25 to 4 Twenty years later however the senate passed a Joint resolution by bya a vote of 36 to 3 providing that no noman noman noman man should be chosen President for more than two terms But Dut the house failed to act on this resolution so nothing more was done about presidential tenure until the contested election of 1824 brought it up again Then no less than 10 amendments to the Constitution intended to limit the President to one term were deba debated de de- ba bated ted in congress Many l Resolutions Offered During Jacksons Jackson's administration 21 Joint resolutions dealing with ith a limitation of the presidential term were introduced in congress but none was acted upon Some of these recommended a single term of four tour or six years others prohibited a third term and still others were against more than two consecutive terms In Van Burens Buren's r 1 S 'S 5 1 GEORGE WASHINGTON tim tion 10 term one-term Joint resolutions were Introduced but failed to pass For the next 30 years the third third- term issue was dormant mainly because because be be- cause there was a succession of one one- term Presidents But Dut during the administration of Andrew Johnson there were 12 Joint resolutions recommending recommending rec rec- single presidential terms without any action being taken taken tak tak- en upon them But In irs 1875 when It seemed likely that Grant would be bea a candidate for a third term William Willlam M M. Springer of Illinois Introduced a resolution in the house That In the opinion of this House the precedent established established- by Washington and other Presidents Presidents dents of the United States In retiring retiring re re- tiring from the presidential office of of- fice flee after aUer their second term tenn has become by concurrence concurrence concur concur- rence a part of our republican system of government and that thai any departure from this time time- honored custom would be Unwise unwise un Un- wise unpatriotic and aud fraught with peril to our free This resolution was adopted by a vote of to 18 with 38 not voting Two years later after President Hayes in his Inaugural address had recommended a constitutional amendment limiting the President to a single term tenn of six years Springer Spring Spring- er offered another resolution embodying embodying em em- bodying Hayes Hayes' recommendation and other reforms But Dut no action was taken on the resolution The third term issue remained Inthe in inthe inthe the background until 1892 when Grover Cleveland who had been first elected In 1884 and defeated de In 1888 was again elected Then no less than 13 amendments were introduced in congress to limit the presidential term In various ways Drought Brought up In 1912 Again there was a lull of 20 years until 1912 when the house committee commit commit- tee on the Judiciary submitted a favorable report on a resolution proposing proposing pro pro- posing a constitutional amendment limiting the President to a single year six term but no further action was taken During this year some 21 such amendments were introduced introduced intro intro- in the house and In hi 1913 the senate passed a Joint resolution by bya a vote of 47 to 23 proposing a similar similar simi simi- lar amendment but the house refused refused re reo re- re fused to act upon it In 1927 when talk was started about the possibility of Calvin Coolid Coolidge Coo- Coo lid lidge hidge ge seeking re-election re the anti anti- I third term resolutions began to come I thick and fast The first one offered offered of of- by Rep Beck Deck of Wisconsin a Republican was practically the same as the resolution of 1875 suggesting a constitutional amendment against a third term Then Senator LaFollette introduced a similar resolution In the senate Resolutions Not Acted Upon In Its the meantime Representative Fairchild of New York a Republican can had offered a constitutional amendment that No person shall be eligible to the office of President who has previously served two terms whether by election or Dr by succession due to the removal I death resignation or inability of the President where the term by succession sue suc cession shall have continued for a period of two years or more No action was taken on any of these proposals by the Sixty-ninth Sixty congress but they came up again in the Seventieth culminating in b LaFollette's La La- Follette's resolution being reintroduced reintroduced o on January 27 1928 amended amend ed and passed by the senate on February Feb I 10 by a vote of 56 58 tp p 26 28 It said Resolved That It is the sense of the Senate that the precedent established by Washington and other Presidents of the tr United States in retiring from the presidential office after their second term has become by universal concurrence a part of our republican system of government govern ment and that any departure from this time honored custom would be unwise unpatriotic and fraught with peril to our free tree Institutions Released b by Western Newspaper |
