, which amplified longstanding debates over term limits. The Twenty-second Amendment was a reaction to
Franklin D. Roosevelt's election to an unprecedented four terms as president, but presidential
term limits had long been debated in American politics. Delegates to the
Constitutional Convention of 1787 considered the issue extensively (alongside broader questions, such as who would elect the president, and the president's role). Many, including
Alexander Hamilton and
James Madison, supported lifetime tenure for presidents, while others favored fixed terms. Virginia's
George Mason denounced the life-tenure proposal as tantamount to
elective monarchy. An early draft of the U.S. Constitution provided that the president be restricted to one seven-year term. Ultimately, the Framers approved four-year terms with no restriction on how many times a person could be elected president. Though dismissed by the Constitutional Convention, term limits for U.S. presidents were contemplated during the presidencies of
George Washington and
Thomas Jefferson. As his second term entered its final year in 1796, Washington was exhausted from years of public service, and his health had begun to decline. He was also bothered by his political opponents' unrelenting attacks, which had escalated after the signing of the
Jay Treaty, and believed he had accomplished his major goals as president. For these reasons, he decided not to run for a third term, a decision he announced to the nation in his September 1796
Farewell Address. Eleven years later, as Thomas Jefferson neared the halfway point of his second term, he wrote, Since Washington made his historic announcement, numerous academics and public figures have looked at his decision to retire after two terms, and have, according to
political scientist Bruce Peabody, "argued he had established a
two-term tradition that served as a vital check against any one person, or the presidency as a whole, accumulating too much power". Various amendments aimed at changing informal precedent to constitutional law were proposed in Congress in the early to mid-19th century, but none passed. Three of the next four presidents after Jefferson—Madison,
James Monroe, and
Andrew Jackson—served two terms, and each adhered to the two-term principle; Many of Wilson's advisers tried to convince him that his poor health after the stroke precluded another campaign, but he asked that his name be placed in nomination for the presidency at the
1920 Democratic National Convention. Democratic Party leaders were unwilling to support Wilson due to his widespread unpopularity and poor health, and the nomination went to
James M. Cox, who lost to Harding. Wilson contemplated and devised a strategy for a third term in 1924, but received no and died that February. Franklin Roosevelt spent the months leading up to the
1940 Democratic National Convention refusing to say whether he would seek a third term. His vice president,
John Nance Garner, along with
Postmaster General James Farley, announced their candidacies for the Democratic nomination. When the convention came, Roosevelt sent a message to the convention saying he would run only if
drafted, saying delegates were free to vote for whomever they pleased. This message was interpreted to mean he was willing to be drafted, and he was renominated on the convention's first ballot. Roosevelt won a decisive victory over Republican
Wendell Willkie, becoming the only president to exceed eight years in office. His decision to seek a third term dominated the election campaign. Willkie ran against the open-ended presidential tenure, while Democrats cited the
war in Europe as a reason for breaking with precedent. He also discreetly raised the issue of the president's age. Roosevelt exuded enough energy and charisma to retain voters' confidence and was elected to a fourth term. While he quelled rumors of poor health during the campaign, Roosevelt's health was deteriorating. On April 12, 1945, only days after his
fourth inauguration,
Roosevelt died, and was succeeded by Vice President
Harry S. Truman. In the
midterm elections months later, Republicans took control of the House and the Senate. As many of them had campaigned on the issue of presidential tenure, declaring their support for a constitutional amendment that would limit how long a person could serve as president, the issue was given priority in the
80th Congress when it convened in January 1947. ==Proposal and ratification==