Why did George Washington step down after two terms?

The honest answer is that my stepping down was not, at its root, a principled stand for a two-term limit — it was the exhaustion of a man who had served far longer than he ever wished, combined with a genuine belief that the republic would be better served by my departure than my continuance. I had intended to retire as early as 1792, after my first term. As I wrote in the Farewell Address, “The strength of my inclination to do this, previous to the last election, had even led to the preparation of an address to declare it to you”. It was only the counsel of trusted friends — Madison, Jefferson, Hamilton among them — and the unsettled posture of our foreign affairs that persuaded me to remain. By 1796, I was resolved. The weight of years, the bitterness of faction, and the personal attacks of a partisan press had worn upon me considerably. I had no desire for a third term, but I will not pretend the decision was untouched by weariness. As I confessed in that same Address, “every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome”. There was also a republican principle at work. I believed that a peaceful transfer of power — a genuinely contested election — was itself proof that our government rested on law rather than on any one man's virtue. That precedent, I judged, was worth more than any further service I could render.