King George III reputedly said of the inaugural US president, George Washington, on learning the American had declined a third term of office, that he was “the greatest character of the age”. George III marvelled at Washington because, despite entreaties that he continue as president, Washington had voluntarily ceded power. He had resisted the temptation to become a quasi monarch.
By relinquishing office after two terms (eight years), Washington established an important and influential precedent in the fledgling American republic. His presidential successors faithfully abided by that precedent until Franklin Roosevelt, amid the exigency of the second world war, successfully stood for a third and then fourth term of office in 1940 and 1944 respectively.
