The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787/Volume 3/Appendix A/CCXXXIV

by Max Farrand

ⅭⅭⅩⅩⅩⅣ. Benjamin Franklin to the Duc de La Rochefoucald.^[1]

Philada. [Oct. 22, 1788].

That which you mention did not pass unnoticed in the Convention. Many, if I remember right, were for making the President incapable of being chosen after the first four Years; but a Majority were for leaving the Election free to chuse whom they pleas’d; and it was alledged that such Incapability might tend to make the President less attentive to the duties of his Office, and to the Interests of the People, than he would be if a second Choice depended on their good opinion of them.

1. Smyth, Writings of Franklin, Ⅸ, 666.