Have you ever wondered if a US president could serve for more than eight years? It’s a question many Americans have, especially when thinking about the leaders who have shaped the nation. The answer lies in the story of one extraordinary president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, often known as FDR. He holds the unique record of being the Us Longest Serving President in American history.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt didn’t just serve two terms; he served over twelve years as president. He was elected an unprecedented four times, leading the United States through some of its most challenging periods, including the Great Depression and World War II. He served three full four-year terms and was in his fourth term when he passed away on April 12, 1945, after serving for three months of it. To be precise, he was the longest serving president US has ever had.
This remarkable situation led to a significant change in the US Constitution. In 1951, the 22nd Amendment was added, setting a firm limit on presidential terms. This amendment ensures that no president can be elected to more than two terms in office. It was a direct response to FDR’s long tenure and a desire to prevent any future president from accumulating similar extended power. The amendment states that a president can only be elected to two presidential elections.
There’s a specific exception within the 22nd Amendment. If a vice president takes over the presidency mid-term, perhaps due to the president’s death or resignation, and serves less than two years of that term, they are still eligible to run for two full terms of their own. However, if they serve more than two years of the predecessor’s term, they can only be elected to one additional presidential term.
It’s important to remember that when FDR was elected and re-elected, there were no term limits. For the first 162 years of American history, from 1789 to 1951, there was no constitutional restriction on how many terms a president could serve. Despite this, George Washington, the very first US president, set a precedent by voluntarily stepping down after two terms, a tradition that most presidents followed. Yet, FDR remains the only president to have exceeded this unwritten rule and become the US longest serving president.
While FDR is the only one to serve more than two terms, many other presidents have served exactly two full terms. Before Roosevelt, eight presidents completed two terms: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, Grover Cleveland, and Woodrow Wilson. Except for Grover Cleveland, whose terms were non-consecutive, these presidents served two terms in a row. Cleveland served two terms, but they were separated by the term of Benjamin Harrison.
Interestingly, some presidents considered running for a third term even before the 22nd Amendment. Ulysses S. Grant, after leaving office for four years following his two terms, attempted to run for president again in 1880 but didn’t secure his party’s nomination. Similarly, Woodrow Wilson contemplated a third term in 1920 as his second term concluded, but ultimately decided against it.
Following the 22nd Amendment, several presidents served two full terms and then had to leave office, adhering to the new constitutional limit. These include Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. They all served two terms and respected the term limits established after the era of the longest serving US president.
Furthermore, there are presidents who, like Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson, completed another president’s term and then won their own full term. Under the rules of their time, they could have potentially run for another term. Lyndon Johnson, for instance, became president after John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 and initially considered running for a second full term in 1968. However, due to various factors, including public sentiment about the Vietnam War, he withdrew from the race.
The two-term tradition, broken only by the longest serving president FDR, originally stemmed from George Washington’s decision. Washington, immensely popular, could have easily won a third term. However, he declined to run again in 1796. He worried that staying in office too long could be seen as king-like, undermining the principles of the newly formed republic that had just rejected monarchy during the American Revolution. Washington’s voluntary departure after two terms set a powerful example for future presidents, emphasizing the importance of the peaceful transfer of power and preventing any one person from holding the presidency for too long.
Washington’s decision posed a question that resonated through history: if two terms were sufficient for George Washington, shouldn’t it be sufficient for all presidents? This sentiment, solidified by the extraordinary case of the us longest serving president Franklin D. Roosevelt, ultimately led to the 22nd Amendment, formally enshrining the two-term limit into the US Constitution, ensuring that no president could ever again serve as long as FDR.
