Evening star., 1939-07-09
Old One>Term Issue Invoked
Before White House Aspirants
Hayes and Buchanan Only Executives to Keep
Promise; Now the Senate Gets Chance
to Act on Proposal
By Cecil Holland.

A tribute to the timeless quality of poll
tics, the Senate Judiciary Committee has
passed on for Senate consideration the
100-odd-year-old proposal to limit the
Office of President to one term.
No more of one mind on the subject
than the political leaders of the turbulent
JaCkSonian period, the committee men,
bers split, to 7, on proposal for a sim
gle SlX-year term. A proposal to bar any
President from running again was re-
jected, 10 to 2 Then the committee
voted to report both proposals to the
Senate with record of the committee
vote on each.
If Senate action runs true to history,
both proposals will not get beyond the
talking stage. Then, politics being what
they are, they might. Since all the talk
began about a third term for President
Roosevelt, the one-term proposal seems
to have gained more support than it ever
had in the century-old debate carried on
about it.
May Become 1910 Issue.
Under the prodding of Senator Van
denberg the proposal may attain some
thing near the proportions of a campaign
issue by the time of the 1910 presidential
election Making what many consider a
discreet bid for the Republican presiden-
tial nomination, Senator Vandenberg
suggested recently that the partys nom
inee should be pledged to serve only one
term. 1t is an idea which has originated,
more often than not on the Democratic
side. It's spiritual source is to be found
In the political PHILOSOPHERS of jefferson
and Jackson not in the precepts OF
Hamilton
On the other hand, there is the third
term proposal. Those Democrats of the
New Deal school of thought and action,
who are beginning to talk hopefully of
a third term for President Roosevelt,
must look for precedents for such politi-
cal unorthodoXy, not to the saints of the
Democratic party, but to two Republican
presidents-Grant and Theodore Roose-
welt
The one-term proposal is quite old in
the countrys political history. 1t was
debated by the trainers of the Constitu-
ton. Jefferson first favored a single
term of seven years. Then he changed
his mind and advocated a four-year
term without limitation. 1t seems he
was never quite sure in his own mind
what was preferable. But by retiring
from Office at the end of his second term
he helped to build the tradition against
a third term.
- Jackson More Positive.
jackson, more positive in his views,
favored a limitation on the time
President could serve. In his practical
way, he did not want to leave it to
tradition. He preferred the written law
So in his first annual message he took
occasion to say: 1t would seem advisa-
bic to limit the services of the Chief
Magistrate to a single term of four or
six years"
Several years in the White House
strengthened Jacksons views. He re-
peated the suggestion from time to time.
Il recommend he said more emphati-
cally on one occasion, IAN amendment
to the Constitution prescribing a term
of six years for the President and for
bidding reelection"
Good advice it may have been. But
Jackson himself did not follow it. After
serving two terms himself, he supported
his successor, Martin Van Buren,, for
second term
In proposing the limitation Jackson
as ever, was concerned mainly with safe
guarding the peoples rights. DeTocque-
vile, writing in 1884 just after Jackson's
reelection, suggests other reasons why
one term for the President might be
better.
1T is impossible DeTocquevIlle wrote,
ito consider the ordinary course of af-
fairs in the United States without per-
ceivlng that the desire of being re-
elected is the chief aim Of the President;
that the whole policy of his administra-
ton and even his most indifferent
measures, tend to this object. and that
especially as the crisis approaches, his
personal interest takes the place of his
interest in the public good"
Bryce Reached Same Conclusion.
Fifty years later, Lord Bryce, drawing
upon his firSt-hand observations of
American democracy at work, reached
the same conclusions. He expressed them
even more pointedly:
The fact that he is re-elgible once,
but (practically) only once, operates
uniformly on the President. He is
tempted to pay for his denomination
by so pandering to active sections of
his party, or so using his patronage to
conciliate influential politicians, as to
make them put him forward at the next
election"
Such we're the opinions of two of
the foremost foreign observers OF the
American political scene. They are not
unlike the view expressed by Senator
Vandenberg in his affirmative statement
favorlng g. an administration for
all Americans in which a pre-pledged,
one-term President is manifestly free
OF all incentive, but the one job of saw
ing America"
Making a pledge to serve only one
term is one thing. Keeping the pledge
is quite different matter. Buchanan
and Rutherford B. Hayes stand out
among the Presidents who favored a
single term by keeping their promises
not to seek reelection. A few others
likewise favored one term but changed
their minds and then were refused the