Show 4 ce N 0 our founding fathers found the baby on their doorsteps kept uncle samuel in stew years Halu hamilton ilton wanted presidents duri during n good Belia behavior vior one term bills pop lop up frequently EDITORS NOTE KOTE betheen anneen now and the summer day ulen the Derno cratic party nominates i I 1 is candidate lor for president the third term issue mil it ill be one of the most discussed questions of the 1940 campaign that discussion may continue until unlit Noi No ember 4 increasing in intensity as election day draws near to help our readers judge lor for ies es the merits of the arguments lor for or against agni n a presidential third term this neus newspaper paper presents her ruith the first in a series of three articles chich gite file some of the historical bach background ground of that issue it is neither FOR n nor or AGAINST 4 a third term it simply scans the past and aites an impartial report of its findings 1 I THE FOUNDING FATHERS AND CONGRESS HALL the president of these IS SHALL united states be elected for a certain term of years and thereafter be ineligible what shall that term bea 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 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 seven sevan year term on may 29 gov edmund randolph of virginia and charles pinckney of south carolina both presented resolutions providing for an executive 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 seven year term for this executive five states voted for it and four against it the next day a motion to make the executive ineligible after 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 in a governour to be elected to serve during good behavior the delegates turned thu thumbs abs down on this idea and on june 19 voted for a seven year term for the president who should be ineligible for reelection election re A month later however they changed their minds and struck ck out the ineligibility clause then followed a long debate during good behavior once more the during good behavior clause bobbed up but again agai n it failed to pass there was a suggestion that the chief executive be elected for 20 years and another that he be chosen by the legislature with the provision that no person be eligible for more than six years in any 12 years both of these plans were rejected and eventually they went back to the seven year term with its ineligibility a seco second nd time proviso this was in july and for the next two months the presidential term was repeatedly debated on se september P 4 it was brought up again with the suggestion that the presidents term be made four years A motion to change this back to seven years and another to six years were defeated and on september 15 it was finally agreed that the president should be chosen by an electoral college for four years no limit to his re eligibility being fixed problem bobbed up again although the adoption of the constitution ution on september 17 1787 apparently parent ly settled this question of presidential tenure satisfactorily it was a question that was destined to come up again and again in future years especially in the legislative branch of our govern governments menh after the contested election of 1800 a resolution was presented in the senate that no person who has been twice successively elected president shall be eligible as president until four 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 iter however the senate passed a joint r resolution eso lution by a vote of 36 to 3 providing that no man should be chosen president for more than two terms but the house tailed 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 Pre president to one term were debated in congress many resolutions offered during jacksons administration 21 joint resolutions dealing with a I 1 limitation imitation of the presidential term were introduced in congress but none was acted upon some of these recommended a single term of four i ors or six alx lx years others prohibited a third term and still others were against more than two consecutive terms in van burens administration 10 one term joint resolutions ir i GEORGE washington were introduced but failed to pass for the next 30 years the third term issue was dormant mainly because there was a succession of one term presidents but during the administration of andrew johnson there were 12 joint resolutions recommending om Orn single presidential terms without any action being taken upon them but in 1875 when it seemed likely that grant would be a candidate for a third term william M springer of illinois introduced a resolution in the house that in the opinion of this house the precedent established by washington and other presidents of the 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 and that any departure from this time honored custom would be unwise unpatriotic and fraught with peril to our free institutions 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 of six years springer offered another resolution embodying hayes recommendation and other reforms but no action was taken on the resolution 1 the third term issue re remained m in the background until 1892 when grover cleveland who had been first elected in 1884 1834 and defeated in 1888 was again elected then no less ih than an 13 amendments were introduced in congress to limit the presidential term in various ways brought up in 1912 again there was a lull of 20 years until 1912 when the house committee on the judiciary submitted a favorable report on a resolution proposing a constitutional amendment limiting the president to a single six year term but no further action was taken during this year some 21 such amendments were introduced in the house and in 1913 the senate passed a joint resolution by a vote of 47 to 23 proposing a similar amendment but the house refused to act upon it in 1927 when talk was started about abou t the possibility of calvin coolidge seeking reelection election re the anti third term resolutions began to come thick and fast the first one offered by rep beck of wisconsin a republican was practically the same as the springer resolution of 1875 suggesting a constitutional amendment against a third term then senator lafollette La introduced a similar resolution in the senate resolutions not acted upon in the meantime representative fairchild of new york a republican had offered a constitutional amendment that no person shau shall be eligible to the office of president who has previously served two terms whether by election or by succession due to the removal death resignation or inability of the president where the term by succession shall have continued for a period of two years or more no action was taken on any of these proposals by the sixty ninth cong congress ress but they came up again in the seventieth culminating in la Fol lettes resolution being reintroduced on january 27 1928 amended and passed by the senate on february 10 by a vote of 56 to 26 it said resolved that it is the sense of the senate that the precedent established dished by washington and other presidents of the 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 and that any departure from this time honored custom would be unwise unpatriotic and fraught with peril to our free institutions ins released by western newspaper union |