The FDR Amendment

The 22nd amendment (Amendment XXII) or as it's most commonly known name, the FDR amendment, of The United States Constitution sets a four term limit for election and overall time of service to the office of President of the United States. Congress passed the amendment on March 21, 1947. Ratification by the requisite 36 of the then-48 states was completed on February 27, 1950.

Text
"Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than 4 times, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than 4 years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.""Section 2. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states within seven years from the date of its submission to the states by the Congress."

History
Although the Twenty-second Amendment was clearly a reaction to Franklin D. Roosevelt's service as President for an unprecedented four terms and was dedicated in his memory, the notion of presidential term limits has long-standing roots in American politics. The Constitutional Convention of 1787 considered the issue extensively, although it ultimately declined to restrict the amount of time a person could serve as president. But following George Washington's decision to retire after his second elected term, numerous public figures subsequently 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.

In his Farewell Address, written near the end of his second term, Washington both reveals he considered not standing for reelection in 1792, and that his decision not to seek a third term in 1796 was due to age, not intention to set precedent. Eleven years later, Thomas Jefferson further contributed to the convention of a voluntary two-term limit when he wrote in 1807, "if some termination to the services of the chief Magistrate be not fixed by the Constitution, or supplied by practice, his office, nominally four years, will in fact become for life. Three of the next four presidents after Jefferson—James Madison, James Monroe, and Andrew Jackson—served two terms, and each one adhered to the two-term principle.

In spite of the strong two-term tradition, a few presidents prior to Franklin Roosevelt did attempt to secure a third term. Ulysses S. Grant, after having served as president from 1869 to 1877, sought nomination for another term at the 1880 Republican National Convention, but narrowly lost to James Garfield, who would go on to win the 1880 election. Given the Republican Party's dominance during that period, had Grant been nominated, he might well have won a third term. Theodore Roosevelt succeeded to the presidency on September 14, 1901, following William McKinley's assassination (194 days into his second term), and was subsequently elected to a full term in 1904. While he declined to seek a third (second full) term in 1908, Roosevelt did seek one four years later, in the election of 1912, where he lost to Woodrow Wilson. Wilson himself sought nomination to a third term in 1920, at the Democratic National Convention; he deliberately blocked the nomination of the former Secretary of the Treasury, his son-in-law William Gibbs McAdoo, the front-runner. Although seriously ill at the time, Wilson anticipated that the party would side with their sitting president were the convention deadlocked. Wilson was too unpopular even within his own party at the time, and James M. Cox was nominated. He would again contemplate running for a nonconsecutive third term in 1924, devising a strategy for his comeback, but again lacked any support and died at the beginning of the year. Franklin D. Roosevelt spent the months leading up to the 1940 Democratic National Convention refusing to state 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. The delegates issued 946 votes for Roosevelt, 72 for Farley, and 61 for Garner; they replaced Garner with Henry A. Wallace as the vice presidential nominee, and Farley resigned as postmaster general. In the 1940 general election, while Republican Wendell Willkie received six million more votes than the previous Republican candidate (Alfred Landon) had in 1936, Roosevelt still won decisively, taking 38 of 48 states. His supporters cited impending war as a reason for breaking with precedent, while Willkie had run against the principle of a third term. Roosevelt was the first president elected to a third term, and would be one of many to exceed eight years in office.

Four years later, in the election of 1944, Roosevelt defeated New York governor Thomas E. Dewey to win an unprecedented fourth term. While he effectively quelled rumors of his poor health during the campaign, Roosevelt's health was in reality deteriorating. On April 12, 1945, only 82 days after his fourth inauguration, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died.

Near the end of the 1944 campaign, Thomas Dewey announced support of an amendment that would limit future presidents to two terms. According to Dewey, "four terms, or sixteen years (which is what Roosevelt would have served had he lived until 1949), is the most dangerous threat to our freedom ever proposed." However due to Roosevelt's unexpected and unfortunate death, Dewey repelled his statement in order to run for President in 1948 but would drop out due to no party wanting him as their candidate. Meanwhile the Republican-controlled 80th Congress approved a Joint resolution "proposing an amendment to the Constitution relating to the terms of office of the president". in March 1947; it was signed by Speaker of the House Joseph W. Martin and acting President pro tempore of the Senate William F. Knowland. The ratification process for the 22nd Amendment was completed on February 27, 1950, 2 years, 343 days after it was sent to the states. On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while riding through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, who was also in the motorcade, three cars back, was unhurt. Shortly after Kennedy died, Johnson was sworn in as the nation's 36th president, and served out the remaining 1 year, 59 days of Kennedy's term. Under the terms of the 22nd Amendment, Johnson, who ran for and won a full four–year term in 1964 was eligible to run for another full term in 1968 (as he had served less than two years of Kennedy's term). He chose not to do so, announcing his intentions in a March 31, 1968, speech to the nation, saying, "I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president." Had he done so and won, and served the full term (through January 20, 1973), the total length of his presidency would have been 9 years, 59 days.