The wisdom of maintaining this unwritten rule should be evident. The common sense of thoughtful, candid and patriotic men must convince them that nothing could be more dangerous than to permit any individual, however popular or eloquent, to wield the power of the presidential office for more than two terms. The New York convention of 1788, which ratified the Constitution of the United States, proposed an amendment to the effect "that no person shall be eligible to the office of President of the United States a third time," and this undoubtedly has ever since been the sentiment of the people of this state, although it was defied in 1880 when an attempt was made to force the nomination of ex-President Grant for a third term, notwithstanding the fact that only five years before the Republican state convention had declared in its platform "our unalterable opposition to the election of any president for a third term." There is not time to discuss the genesis or wisdom of this unwritten rule of political policy, which had never been violated by any political party until the nomination of ex-President Roosevelt by the Progressives. It is now pretended that there never was any such rule or principle of political policy and that Washington and Jefferson were governed solely by considerations of their own personal convenience. Three quotations from Jefferson's writings ought to be sufficient to explode this pretense. I take Jefferson because he is now one of the patron saints of the Progressive as well as of the Democratic party. In January, 1805, shortly after his re-election, Jefferson declared as follows: "General Washington set the example of voluntary retirement after eight years. I shall follow it. And a few more precedents will oppose the obstacle of habit to any one after awhile who shall endeavor to extend his term. Perhaps it may beget a disposition to establish it by an amendment of the Constitution. I believe I am doing right, therefore, in pursuing my principle." Again in 1807 he wrote to the legislature of Vermont: "I should unwillingly be the person who, disregarding the sound precedent set by an illustrious predecessor, should furnish the first example of prolongation beyond the second term of office." And fourteen years afterwards, in 1821, he published his "Autobiography," in which he said: "The example of four Presidents voluntarily retiring at the end of their eighth year, and the progress of public opinion that the principle is salutary, have given it in practice the force of precedent and usage; insomuch, that, should a President consent to be a candidate for a third election, I trust he would be rejected on this demonstration of ambitious views." But aside from all principle and precedent, the promises deliberately made by ex-President Roosevelt to the people of the United States rendered his candidacy impossible without what seems to many a breach of faith. The facts speak for themselves.