Grant and the Campaign for a Third Term

The third-term question was another hurdle. Although there was no constitutional limit on presidential terms until the Twenty-Second Amendment went in effect in 1951, there was in 1880 the exalted precedent of George Washington, who had declined a third term in his Farewell Address of 1796. His two-term example was dutifully followed by Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Jackson, those presidents who had been in a position to possibly run for a third term.

Newspapers of 1880, many overtly partisan, covered with a range of voices every aspect of the campaign, including the third term question. Puck and the New York Sun were blatantly anti-Grant. The more objective North American Review saw no particular problem with a third term. The Nation didn’t as a general matter, but it opposed a third term for Grant, having disapproved of his presidency. See the related article. The New York Times, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, and Chicago’s Daily Inter-Ocean were quite supportive. Blaine also enjoyed substantial editorial support, as well as opposition, around the country.

Elihu Washburne was a Grant ally as well as a possible presidential contender himself.

But for others of varying motivations, the prospect was troubling. In a February 1880 letter to Grant, Washburne, the ex-president’s ally and now a possible presidential contender himself, suggested that Grant issue a statement promising, if elected, not to run for a fourth term. Grant’s reply, if any, is unknown.

Most of Grant’s delegate totals in 1880 came from Southern states. Some viewed this as ironic, Leitman wrote. While Grant was a conciliator in important respects, he had also been Lincoln’s hammer during the Civil War. Further, some of his supporters in the rest of the country, most notably Conkling, boosted Grant by “waving the bloody shirt,” or conjuring up painful memories of the war, and alleging Southern transgressions in Congress.

The Chicago Tribune picked up on this point in April 1880, running conciliatory comments by Grant about the South alongside vitriolic ones by Logan about protection under the law there. Nevertheless, mixed results in several southern states yielded a number of Grant delegates. By the national convention in June, the South, a region that the Republican Party had little hope of winning in the fall, provided 58 percent of Grant’s support on the first ballot.

<<	Grant and the Campaign for a Third Term	>>
A Boom For Grant	Contenders	Other Hurdles
Grant's Participation	The Big Three Battlegrounds	Tactics
The National Convention		A Third Term for Grant: Point - Counterpoint
The 1880 Republican National Convention in Chicago: The Setting
Conkling Nominates Grant	Was Grant a Candidate?	Q&A with author Ken Ackerman
Sources