George Washington Resigns Presidency

From Hamilton the Musical (Broadway 2020, Act II)

Categories:

Democracy and Democratization–Presidency

Run time: 5:27

Clip Description: The first president of the United States, George Washington, was enormously popular. He made the unusual decision to step down after a 2nd term, however. Nearly every president who followed did the same — Ulysses S. Grant and Theodore Roosevelt are the notable exceptions — until the 32nd president, Franklin Roosevelt, won a third term in 1940. After FDR’s death, a constitutional amendment was passed to limit Presidents to two terms.

American Politics Concepts Discussed/Connected To: This clip discusses how presidential terms work within the government.

Possible Uses in Classroom: This clip is a useful addition to discussions about presidential term limits and constitutional amendments.

Discussion Questions

Washington’s refusal of a third term was a choice, not a rule, and for roughly a century and a half it held on nothing but example. After Franklin Roosevelt won four terms, the country wrote it into the Constitution as the Twenty-Second Amendment, ratified in 1951. Make the case that something that survived that long as a norm should have been left a norm — and then the case that anything that important should never have depended on the character of whoever happened to hold the office.
A two-term limit removes the most experienced candidate from the ballot, takes an option away from voters who might want him, and guarantees that every second-term president governs without ever facing the electorate again. Which of those costs is the most serious, and is it worth paying? Note the pattern: most governors face term limits and members of Congress face none at all. Is there a principled reason for that split, or is it mostly about who gets to write the rules?
A voluntary limit only works if leaders accept it and the public punishes the ones who do not. Name a norm in American politics that you personally rely on and that no law enforces. Then answer honestly: would you want it enforced against a leader you support as strictly as against one you oppose — and if not, is it a norm at all, or just a stick you are holding?

Assignment

Washington’s Farewell Address (1796) is short, public, and almost never actually read. Read it alongside the text of the Twenty-Second Amendment, then write two to three pages on what Washington was warning about — parties and faction, sectional loyalty, permanent foreign attachments — and whether the Amendment addresses any of it. The difficulty is built in: the Address is not primarily a document about term limits, and students who arrive expecting it to endorse the Twenty-Second Amendment will have to deal with what it actually argues. Finish by taking a side on repeal, and make the argument using the Address only where it genuinely supports you.

For AP Students

AP Comparative Government and Politics
Unit 2: Political Institutions

Topics: 2.4 Executive Term Limits; 2.3 Executive Systems; 2.5 Removal of Executives
Skill: Country Comparison
Big idea: Power and Authority
Course countries: China, Russia, Mexico

Washington steps down after two terms when nothing required him to, and the norm he sets holds for a century and a half before anyone writes it into the Constitution. The course asks students to compare term limits across systems, and this is the origin story of the strongest one — which makes it the right place to ask why limits elsewhere have proved so much easier to remove.

Discussion questions

Washington was not required to leave. Explain the difference between a norm and a rule, and name what each one depends on in order to survive.
China removed presidential term limits in 2018. Russia reset the count in 2020. Both changes were made lawfully. Explain how a lawful change can still weaken a political system.
Mexico limits its president to a single six-year term with no reelection, ever. Name one advantage and one cost of a limit that strict.

Short activity

The term limit table (15 minutes). Four rows: the United States, Mexico, Russia and China. Three columns: what the limit is, whether it has been changed, and who held the power to change it. The third column is the one that teaches. A term limit is only ever as strong as the institution that would have to approve its removal, and once students fill that column in they can explain the pattern without being told it.

Clip hosted on Critical Commons.