In Washington, DC, fears of a new war ran deep. At one particularly anxious meeting, a young staffer noticed that Secretary of State George Marshall remained cool and collected. "Mr. Secretary," he asked, "how in the world can you remain so calm during this appalling crisis?" Marshall, who was the US Army's Chief of Staff during World War II, replied bluntly, "I've seen worse."

Like George Marshall, we as a nation have seen worse, both epidemiologically and economically. Voting -- the central, unifying act of functioning democracy -- went forward in troublesome decades past.

It's insulting to the American public to even suggest that this sacred constitutional right should be undermined by an authoritarian President tanking in the national polls to Joe Biden.

From the earliest days of the republic, regular elections and orderly transfer of power have been signatures of American democracy. That we were able to achieve both so early is a testament to the wisdom of the Founders, but even they disagreed over the limits of executive authority.

In 1797, that worry faced its first test as President John Adams contemplated a second term in the midst of escalating tensions with France. Jefferson, Adams' vice president, feared that escalation could distract the nation from the "pivot of free and frequent elections." If war came, he wrote, no one could foresee "into what port it will drive us."

Luckily, Adams maintained the peace. The 1800 election proceeded as scheduled. And for more than 150 years after, Americans brooked no possibility of postponing our quadrennial presidential rite, despite war, panic and pestilence.

Public opinion was split, with most New England states refusing to send militiamen to the cause and later formulating a plan to secede from the Union. With the nation divided and under attack, Madison might easily have considered postponing that year's election.

Instead, he won a second term, kept the union together and negotiated an end to hostilities.

Across the country, intemperate voices argued, as one commentator put it, "that politics should be completely adjourned during the building of the defense program; that opponents of the party in power should sit down and shut up; that, in fact, the presidential election should be postponed until the danger to this country is over."

"For more than three centuries," Roosevelt continued, "we Americans have been building on this continent a free society, a society in which the promise of the human spirit may find fulfillment. . . . It is this that we must continue to build -- this that we must continue to defend. It is the task of our generation, yours and mine. But we build and defend not for our generation alone. We defend the foundations laid down by our fathers. We build a life for generations yet unborn. We defend and we build a way of life, not for America alone, but for all mankind."

Like Lincoln, Roosevelt understood his duty to the Founders' great experiment.

In the postwar era, the United States continued to be the symbol of rock-solid democracy. Candidates could come and go, but faith in what seemed like the natural cycle of our elections was near absolute.

Fast forward to 2004. As the first post-9/11 presidential election loomed, Newsweek reported that members of George W. Bush's administration wanted to usurp Congress's power to set presidential election dates, citing the need for quick decision making were terrorists to strike immediately before the election.

One Texas voter quoted in the Odessa American got right to the point: "We expect this kind of talk from tinpot dictators or Third-World banana republics desperate to hold onto power," he said, "not from the current administration of the world's oldest constitutional republic."

So the next time Trump tweets or suggest that the 2020 election might be postponed, patriotic lawmakers should shut him down hard. Ballots will be cast.

Our country has seen worse and always had the fortitude and democratic idealism to carry on. November 3 is the gold-stamped day. The race for the White House has begun.

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Sorry, Donald Trump: The 2020 presidential election is on - CNN