from Senate Report 104-158 - CONGRESSIONAL TERM LIMITS

In the century following the ratification of the Constitution, the republican philosophy of rotation in office was respected and practiced. At its peak, rotation in office was so widely accepted in American politics that, without mandated term limits, Congress experienced a 76 percent turnover in 1842. On average, nearly one-third of the Members of Congress voluntarily retired from office between 1789 and 1900. Among those adhering to the principle of rotation was a young Illinois Congressman, Abraham Lincoln. After serving one term in Congress, Lincoln returned to Illinois. As President, Lincoln chastised those resisting rotation in office when he stated: `If our American society and United States Government are overthrown, it will come from the voracious desire for office, this wriggle to live without toil, work, and labor--from which I am not free myself.'