You really need to reread American history. Cleveland....served four years.......was defeated for relection...ran again and defeated his successor. Theodore Roosevelt. Handpicked his successor - William Howard Taft....didn't like the job he did....ran against him as the Bull Party. Lost...but so did Taft.

Should I go on? I have NEVER heard of such a tradition and....if Washington did...he was the only one to observe it! It sure wasn't Jefferson.

I think you can safely say that Lincoln, McKinley, Garfield, and Kennedy, Franklin Roosevelt, Harding... all upheld the tradition.