Sutton, Nebraska native Herbert Johnson became a nationally renowned political cartoonist with The Saturday Evening Post. He donated 250 of his original drawings to the Nebraska State Historical Society in 1944.
This 1940 cartoon was accompanied by quotations from George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Woodrow Wilson—the ghostly figures looking over the voter’s shoulder. The occasion was President Franklin Roosevelt’s nomination for an unprecedented third term.
At the time, the Constitution placed no limits on presidential terms, but tradition was important. Washington had famously refused to run for a third term, establishing a two-term precedent honored until 1940.
That year Nebraska newspapers were filled with columns and full-page ads about the issue. Some papers quoted a 1928 speech by Senator George Norris of McCook. Speaking in support of a senate resolution opposing third presidential terms, Norris had warned of monarchy. The Fairbury Daily News complained, “And now twelve years later, the senator comes back to Nebraska to speak in behalf of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s third term candidacy… ‘About face!’”
After supporting Roosevelt in 1932 and 1936, traditionally Republican Nebraska returned to form by supporting Wendell Willkie in 1940 and Thomas Dewey in 1944. The two-term presidential limit became part of the Constitution with the ratification of the 22nd Amendment in 1951.
(Image: Original drawing of “Should Any Man Have a Third Term?” NSHS 523P-178)
—David L. Bristow, Editor
