Evening star., 1927-05-01
BY CHARLES WILLIS THOMPSON.

y yEXT to the deusion that the Constitution
~ renders Roman Catholics ineligible to
VI the Presidency there is no fallacy more
a firmly fixed in the public mind than the
notion that there Is "anti-thrd-term tradi-
ton dating back to Washngtons administra-
ton and having the force Of ''unwritten law
Almost everybody believes it. There is NOT
word of truth in it.
This supposedly ancient and venerable "tra-
dition" dates back to the Winter of 1856,
when a Democratic House of Representatives,
In the pardonable desire to smoke out a
Republican President on the question of
whether he was a candidate or not, adopted a
resolution against the third term. That was
as far as the establishment of the tradition"
and the ''unwritten law went until November,
1904 when President Roosevelt issued state
ment in which he spoke OF the two-term
presidency as a wise custom" Roosevelt was
historian. but there were points in
history which he had not looked up, and this
was one of them,
He evidently did not know. and hardly any
body else seems to know that not single
President except Jefferson ever came out against
the third term principle. In JeffersonS
case he frankly admitted that, while he did not
believe in a third term because it might lead
to a hereditary monarchy, mot the least of
his motives in refusing the condition
of his health. AS for Washington, who is
law and tradition, he believed principle
in the third term and virtually apologized to
the people for lodging in his
If words mean anything, that is what his words
mean.
So the iron and immutable tradition"
resolves itself into the fear Of President,
Jefferson, that a third term might lead to
despotism and the hasty assumption of another
President, Roosevelt, just 100 years later that
there really was tradition the subject.
Between jefferson and Roosevelt no President
declared for against the third term,
cept Grant. who. though he was not then can.
didate pooh -poohed Jeffersons nightmare about
despotism on the ground that no President
could re-elect himself if the people didn't want
him.
Finally, the question Of whether the people
will or will not elect the same man three times
has never been tried out Grant and Roosevelt
each endeavored to get a thir6 term but the
contest did not center around that question
and it not the third term tradition" that
beat either Of them And this too is contrary
to the universal deusion Of John Citizen, who
thinks he settles the question when he says
banally, Look at what happened to Grant and
Roosevelt" Nobody knows what the voter
thinks OF the third term issue, for the third
term has never been the issue
AS all the foregoing propositions run directly
counter to the general belief, it is necessary
to proceed to the proof
Washington did not want the presidency at
all for private reasons and was at first de.
termined not TO accept a second term but his
advisers, including, strangely enough. Jefferson
prevailed on him to withhold his withdrawal
for four years. Then he could no longer be
restrained; but in declining to be a third term
candidate he was actually apoogetic about it,
lie seemed to believe everybody would think
it was his duty to accept, and in his apologize
he advanced arguments to show that he could
not be accused fairly of being gutter if he
consulted his own inclinations and got out
X X
After announcing his intention to retire