2024-07-28 17:24:26
- It was first done by James C. Polk for the 1848 election.
- For the last time, the Vietnam War refused Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded the assassinated John F. Kennedy
Joe Biden is not the first American president to decline a second term.
Others have done it too, but for different reasons.
The first to decide not to run was James C. Polk. He held the post from March 4, 1845 to March 4, 1849 and was the 11th head of state in a row. Basically, at the beginning of the mandate, he announces that he will do everything possible to remain only for a short period as president. The attorney from Nashville, Tennessee, had a pretty serious political career before that, having also served as Speaker of the House of Representatives in the US Congress before taking office.
Polk is considered a relatively successful president, having won the war with Mexico, while annexing a significant amount of territory to the United States. This brings him huge popularity and it is believed that he will have no problem with re-election.
Shortly before the Democratic convention, however, he surprisingly announced that he had achieved all of his goals that he had set during the term, and that he intended to keep his promise and remain only one term as president.
Perhaps Polk knew that he was also in poor health and did not run for that reason. He died of cholera on June 15, just days after leaving office.
Next is Rutherford B. Hayes. He ruled from March 4, 1877 to March 4, 1881, the 19th president in a row. Exactly
like Polk, he announced in advance that he did not intend to run for a second term
And he keeps his promise. Hayes is also a lawyer by training, having practiced in Cincinnati. He was previously governor of Ohio, served in the Senate, and at one point even gave up politics.
In reality, Hayes comes to power after one of the biggest scandals in US history. Three days into the election, his Democratic challenger Tilden has 184 electoral votes, just one short of the required majority. Hayes has 166. 19 votes from Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina are unreported. Both parties claim victory by accusing the rival of fraud. The situation was complicated when one of the delegates in Ohio, where Hayes had been disqualified, was removed, dropping Hayes’ tally to 165. Finally, a special committee was convened, headed by the attorney general, which gave all 20 contested votes to Hayes and he winning 185:184, which is the smallest margin to date.
The story of one of the most popular presidents in the history of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, is quite interesting. He was vice president of William McKinley after
his previous choice, Garrett Hobert, dies of a heart attack, McKinley wins the election in a landslide.
On September 6, 1901, Mickinley was shot by Hungarian-born anarchist Leon Tsolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. At the time, Roosevelt was vacationing on La Motte Island in Vermont. He leaves for Buffalo at once. There he sees that the president will be fine and returns to the Adirondack mountain vacation. McKinley’s surprise situation worked, and Roosevelt again set out for Buffalo.
The president died on September 14, at which time his vice was still at North Creek. And sworn in as the 26th President of the United States at the home of Ashley Wilcox. So he takes over, but here is the time to note that he is not elected. The US Constitution specifically mentions that you are entitled to two terms after an election.
Roosevelt got on the ballot after McKinley’s term ended and normally won the election. Actually, according to the constitution, this is his first personal mandate. And
surprisingly gave up second in 1908,
although he would surely have won. However, he returned to politics in 1912 and ran for Bill Moose’s Progressive Party. But he lost to Woodrow Wilson.
A few more similar cases follow. Calvin Coolidge assumed the presidency when Warren Harding died of a heart attack on August 2, 1923, a few months before the end of his term. Coolidge won the vote in 1924 and lost it in 1928.
Harry Truman, on the other hand, took office after the death of Franklin Roosevelt in 1945. In one of the biggest surprises in history, he defeated Thomas Dewey in the 1948 election.
In early 1951, the 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution was enacted to stop the confusion. It states that no one can be elected president more than twice, and no one who has been such, or has held this office in the place of another person and has been elected head of state for more than 2 years, cannot to be elected president more than once.
According to an interpretative decision of the Supreme Court
the adoption of the amendment does not limit the rights of the current president
and Truman was eligible to run for a third term in 1952. However, he waived that privilege.
And the last one to refuse to be president is Lyndon Johnson. He took office after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. The election is only 14 months away and does not fall under the restrictions of the 22nd Amendment. Thus, Johnson won his first term in 1964 with a huge margin. But he refused to appear for the vote 4 summers later with his famous speech on television.
“I will not seek or accept a nomination from my party for another term as your president,” he declared, with Democrats deeply divided at the time.
Special mention should also be made of Gerald Ford. He goes down in history as the man who was never elected president or vice president, but eventually rose to the position of the most powerful man in the world. Basically, Richard Nixon was elected in a duet with Spiro Agnew, or Spiro Agnev, which is the surname of his father, who is from Aegean Macedonia.
In the midst of the Watergate scandal, on October 10, 1973, Spiro Agnew resigned. And Nixon chooses Ford, who at that moment leads the minority in the Senate, as vice president. On December 6, he was approved by a 387-35 vote by the House of Representatives and took office. So
for the first time in history, the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution also came into use.
Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, and Ford took his place. He took office with the words “our national nightmare is over”.
However, Ford made a fatal mistake and exonerated Nixon for Watergate. This eats into his head and he loses the election outright. Thus, on top of everything, he failed to win a vote in his career.