GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THIRD TERM
George Washington and Third Term [From The GRANT COUNTY INDEPENDENT] WE hear much argument these days against a third term for a president of the United States. The reasons usually given are that...
...WASHINGTON'S virtual refusal of a third term may or may not have been prompted by the precedent now ascribed to it...
...This was the history of the proposal that the executive should be elected for a term of seven years and be ineligible thereafter...
...It will be well to recall here just a very few of the important—very Important facts connected with the framing, adoption and beginning of government under our constitution...
...It had become to look as though his fears were to be realized...
...The atmosphere of the convention became more and more tense as the constitution took shape...
...The vote of Virginia was divided, Blair and Mason voting aye, Madison and Washington voting no...
...These were followed by ratifications by Connecticut, Jan...
...As the work went on through the summer many ideas diametrically opposed to each other were advanced and debated...
...Find Labor Law Procedure O. K. WASHINGTON, D. C.—NLRB procedure "is more in conformity with strict 'due process of law' procedure than the procedure of any other authority issuing cease and desist orders," a report by The Brookings Institution read into the congressional record by Sen...
...Delaware's unanimous vote heartened those who were for the constitution...
...Only nine of the 13 states were represented on that day, Massachusetts by only one delegate, Rufus King...
...In the heat of the debate, therefore, Washington's attitude becomes very plain in the following statement in his letter to General LaFayette: "I see no propriety In precluding ourselves from the services of any man, who in some great emergency, shall be deemed universally, most capable of serving the public...
...It was not until the last day of the convention that he spoke a word in debate...
...Only 29 delegates all told were present...
...That the constitution which had been adopted was far from being a harmonious result of their labors, is best shown by the attitude of the delegates from the two prominent states, Virginia and Massachusetts...
...Randolph had refused to sign because he feared nine states would not ratify and "the object of the constitution would be frustrated by the alternative which it pre-sented to the people...
...WASIUNGTON, D. C—Amendments to the first half of the national labor relations act were turned down by the house labor committee as it continued consideration of pending proposals...
...Meantime, conditions in the country were growing desperate...
...Other very prominent delegates signed out of deference to the opinion of the minority...
...IN the general debate everywhere in the states over the adoption of the constitution, which led to an agreement to adopt the "Bill of Rights" embodied in the first 10 amendments to the constitution, no provision was under greater fire than the one creating the presidency...
...Every school boy...
...At that time, he spoke less than 10 sentences in favor of reducing the basis of representation in the first House of Representatives from 40,000 to 30,000, As an indication of the esteem in which he was held by the delegates, the change was made by a voice vote without debate...
...None could tell...
...In this critical situation—on April 28, 1788, when only seven states had ratified the constitution—Washington wrote a very significant letter to General Lafayette...
...He was in his 66th year when he relinquished the presidency, Mar...
...Only once in Madison's "Journal of the Convention" is Washington's vote recorded on the proceedings creating an executive...
...Certain propositions were adopted, then later voted down, and still later again adopted...
...of Teamsters Chauffeurs Stablemen & Helpers (AFLJ in a signed editorial in the union's official periodical...
...Some even advance the idea that it would be creating...
...The committee approved a proposal for ariditim of two members to the NLRB...
...17, 1787...
...It was Friday, May 25, before delegates from a majority of the 13 states met in Philadelphia and began their labors...
...THE completed constitution was signed by the delegates of 12 out of 13 states on Sept...
...At any rate the notion is widespread that electing a president for a third term would be committing some grave overt act—akin almost to treason — against the perpetuity of the constitutional government of the United States...
...John L. Lrwi.s nl the golden jubilee convention of the United Mine Workers...
...Some of the most Influential delegates had voiced such predictions at the close of the constitutional convention...
...It was more than eight months after the signing of the constitution before South Carolina gave it its approval on May 23 by a vote of 149 to 73...
...It cannot be too often recalled that the .supreme court has held again and again that the procedure of the labor act safeguards every constitutional right of employers and employes...
...Robert F. Wagner (D, N. Y.) declares...
...New Jersey gave the constitution a unanimous ratification Dec...
...Of the Virginia delegates, Madison and Blair were for the document and wore supported by Washington, who was president of the convention...
...Many thought that some provision should be in the constitution preventing the president from being elected again and again...
...In addition, he had joined with his colleagues on each roll-call In determining whether the state of Virginia should vote Aye or No...
...Alexander Hamilton alone of the New York delegation gave the constitution his sanction although he didn't like it...
...On July 26, after the seven-year term and ineligibility provision had again been inserted in the provision creating the president, a vote was taken on the article as amended...
...Almost seven months had passed before Maryland ratified on April 11 by a vote of 63 to 11...
...Never was a man needed, who understands the affairs of the nation and of the world, more than at this particular dangerous time in our history...
...The period covered has been aptly caleld the most critical period In American history...
...Whether the executive powers should be lodged in one man or a group...
...how it should be created, by election by the states, by the national legislature, by the senate, by the people or by one of many other methods...
...Five days afterward Pennsylvania ratified by a divided vote of 43 to 23...
...the term of office and whether the executive should be allowed to succeed himself: these and many other questions were debated for days and days...
...Just what particular parts of the article Washington was against cannot be determined...
...None was more Interested than Washington in the work of the convention and in the adoption of the constitution and he used his great influence throughout the states In helping to secure Its ratification...
...Tobin Calls For FDR Third Term INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.—A third term for Pres...
...The reasons usually given are that electing a president for a third term would be violating an honored precedent established by Washington and would be violating some very fundamental principle of our American form of government...
...who knows his United States history, know5 how critical had become the situation under the loosely drawn Articles of Confederation—how such national government as it created was powerless to meet the situation and had become bankrupt, and how a constitutional convention was finally agreed upon to meet at Philadelphia, May 14, 1787, to undertake the arduous task of devising a government under which the states could survive as one nation...
...a dictatorship and other such piffle...
...7 before it was ratified by the first state...
...As I recently stated to the senate," Wagner declared, "investors under the Securities and Exchange act anil businessmen under the Federal Trade commission act, among other economic groups under various regul'.tory statutes, now enjoy adventages of an administrative procedure similar to that established for the redress of labor's rights under the labor act...
...Daniel J. Tobin of the Intl...
...It is hard for us to realize now, over iso years after, the opposition which met the adoption of the constitution and the long and strenuous campaign which was necessary before it was finally ratified by the required ninth state...
...He had spent long and arduous years in the service of his country—as commander-in-chief during the long and depressing years of the Revolution—in helping create the constitution—and eight years as its first president...
...17, that the convention finished its arduous toil...
...but is it possible to deliberate between anarchy and convulsion on one side and the chance of good to be expected from the plan on the other...
...Delaware...
...Delegates came and went...
...Washington had presided over the long deliberations of the convention...
...One more state was needed...
...Mason and Randolph refused to sign...
...9 by a vote of 128 to 40 and Massachusetts on Feb...
...In the light of all the facts, it seems more improbable than otherwise that Washington thought he was establishing a precedent for all the future of his beloved country in giving up the presidency after his second term...
...Would the ninth state ratify...
...When the constitution was finally agreed upon, three prominent delegates out of the 42 present declined to give the constitution the sanction of their names...
...It was nearly four months later, Sept...
...6th by the close vote of 187 to 168...
...A lot of people, who have been so confident that they know just what was in Washington's mind when he refused to be elected for a third term, will get little consolation from the actual facts...
...2, 1788...
...It was Dec...
...At the end, six out of the original were not present...
...No subject brought forth more divergent ideas than the creation of the executive department...
...The number of delegates present at any one time was not large...
...18th and Georgia on Jan...
...Of the Massachusetts delegates, King and Gor-ham signed while Gerry refused...
...Alexander Hamilton, who alone cast the vote of his state in favor of the constitution, said, "No man's ideas were more remote from the plan than mine were known to be...
...Labor must support him because it has no other place to go where it could expect as much protection and consideration," Tobin wrote...
...This they said would soon lead to the presidency settling into an hereditary monarchy...
...4, 1797...
...The constitution itself provided it was to go into effect when nine states should have ratified it by conventions elected for the purpose...
...Wagner read the entire study of the ultra-conservative organization into the record and declared that it should go far "to dispel misconceptions about the administrative procedure under the labor act...
...And most of the work of devising a great document fell to the lot of a comparatively few...
...Tobin denounced the criticism of Roosevelt made by CIO Pres...
...Roosevelt was urged by Pres...
Vol. 10 • April 1940 • No. 14
