Really? Hmmm, OK, thanks. wasn’t there one that only served one term? I mean one of the founding fathers, and on purpose, not because they lost the election.
Adams lost his bid for a second term. Jefferson, Madison and Monroe each served two terms. JQ Adams lost his bid for a second term. Jackson served two terms. Van Buren lost his bid. Harrison died in office, and Tyler was so unpopular and incompetent that his own party ditched him.
Polk was the one who decided not to run for a second term. When he ran the first time, he said that his sole goal was to annex the Republic of Texas into the Union, and if he succeeded, then he would not run for re-election. He was a man of his word.
"Washington had several reasons for not running again. There was his promise not to seek unfair power as a government official and his desire to avoid being, as he wrote to Trumbull, “charged . . . with concealed ambition.” There was also his “ardent wishes to pass through the vale of life in retiremt, undisturbed in the remnant of the days I have to sojourn here.” Washington’s early promise and the lure of retirement were reasons for his declining to seek a third term."
Go to the link to read the rest of his reasonings that were put in a letter.
Washington on a proposed third term and political parties, 1799