the United States the power to establish uniform qualifications for candidates for federal office. The Constitution requires a specified period of citizenship, residency in the state represented, and attainment of a certain age. The Convention also established the length of terms for all elective offices, but voted against any limits on re-eligibility or the number of consecutive terms that would be allowed. The absence of term limits in the Constitution was not an oversight, Proposals to limit elected officers to a specified number of terms were introduced at least three times during the 1787 Convention but were rejected, not because anyone deemed term limits to be a state prerogative, but because terms limitation would be redundant, For the most part, short terms would encourage more accountability than limited terms. In his notes on the Convention, James Madison records: "Frequent elections are necessary to preserve the good behavior of rulers. They also tend to give permanency to the Government, by preserving that good behavior, because it ensures their re-election." Two-year terms for the House and other constitutional restraints limited the amount of mischief federal officers might be inclined to indulge in. Federal powers, being few and defined, were well understood, and elected officials who exceeded their mandate, or who abused those powers, would have fully expected to be - and indeed were - limited by their electors to a single term. An impeachment process was also established in the Constitution to facilitate the immediate discharge of more flagrant abusers. According to Convention historian Max Farrand, "Mr. Madison observed that to prevent a man from holding office longer than he ought, he may for malpractice be impeached and removed; - he is not for any ineligibility." Thus there was no need for punishing the good with the bad by arbitrarily limiting the terms of everyone in service. Moreover, a term-limit clause would...
