Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said multiple times that he feels the 2016 election is "rigged" against him.

In the third and final presidential debate Wednesday night, moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump if he'd accept the outcome of the debate. Trump refused to give a straight answer and instead said he'd keep the nation "in suspense."

Many people, Republicans and Democrats alike, were shocked by the statement, calling it "un-American." And it's something no other candidate has ever said before in such blunt terms.

Of course, there are more graceful ways to pass on the torch to an opponent. One example passed around late Wednesday night is how former president George H.W. Bush admitted defeat to Hillary Clinton's husband, Bill Clinton, when he took office in the early 1990s.

In January 1993, Bush left a handwritten note for Clinton in the Oval Office.

During a campaign event in Pittsburgh in June, Hillary Clinton said she re-read the note and it "moved her to tears." She shared it on Instagram.

"I hadn't read it in a long time, until yesterday," she said. "It moved me to tears, just like it did all those years ago ... They had just fought a fierce campaign. Bill won, President Bush lost. In a democracy, that's how it goes. But when Bill walked into that office for the very first time as President, that note was waiting for him."

The note featured advice and well wishes for the new president, but Clinton highlighted the final few sentences.

"And it concluded with these words: 'You will be our President when you read this note. I wish you well. I wish your family well. Your success is now our country's success. And I am rooting hard for you. George,'" she said.

"That's the America we love. That is what we cherish and expect."

The letter reads in full: