Benjamin Franklin put term limits in the proper context. On July 26, 1787, at the Constitutional Convention, he said: “It seems to have been imagined by some that the returning to the mass of the people was degrading the magistrate. This he thought was contrary to republican principles. In free Governments the rulers are the servants and the people their superiors & sovereigns. For the former therefore to return among the latter was not to degrade but to promote them. And it would be imposing an unreasonable burden on them, to keep them always in a State of servitude, and not allow them to
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Ben Franklin on term limits during the early days of the Constitutional Convention
