The Second Term Curse: George Washington's Second Term
Many historians have concluded that the delegates to the Constitutional Convention designed the Presidency of the United States with George Washington in mind. Trusting in Washington's wise judgement, the President was given flexible powers, with the delegates expressing confidence in Washington's abilities to carry out the powers of the presidency wisely. The state electors chosen under the Constitution voted for the President on February 4, 1789. The March 4th date set out in the Constitution passed by without a Congressional quorum to count the votes, due to the challenges that winter travel presented at the time. Congress waited anxiously for other members to arrive to determine who won the election (although everyone knew what the result would be). A quorum was finally reached on April 5, and Congress counted the votes on April 6. Congressional Secretary Charles Thomson was sent to Mount Vernon to tell Washington that he had been elected the first President of the United States. Washington won the majority of every state's electoral votes. He won all 69 electoral votes. In those days electors voted for two candidates. John Adams received the next highest vote total and was elected Vice President.
Washington wrote about what he called "anxious and painful sensations" over leaving the "domestic felicity" of Mount Vernon. Nevertheless he left Mount Vernon and set out for New York City (then the seat of government) on April 23 to be inaugurated. Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States on April 30, 1789. Washington was re-elected unanimously in the 1792 presidential election, and chose to retire after two terms. In doing so he set a precedent that, while not mandated by law, was followed until 1940 when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to a third consecutive term.
Washington's reputation for sound leadership under pressure was solidified through his service as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and as President of the 1787 Constitutional Convention. In his first inaugural address, Washington expressed both his reluctance to accept the presidency and his inexperience with the duties of civil administration, but he proved an able leader. Washington presided over the establishment of the new federal government. He supported Alexander Hamilton's economic policies that called for the federal government to assume the debts of the state governments and establish the First Bank of the United States, the United States Mint, and the United States Customs Service. Congress passed the Tariff of 1789, the Tariff of 1790, and an excise tax on whiskey to fund the government and, in the case of the tariffs, address the trade imbalance with Britain. Washington personally led federal soldiers in suppressing the Whiskey Rebellion, which arose in opposition to the administration's taxation policies.
While one might expect that things would get easier as the new nation matured, Washington's second term was met with more controversy than his first. There were two particular issues that were troubling for Washington. One of these was the Jay Treaty, signed in 1794. The second was the development of political factions.
In foreign affairs, Washington had followed a policy of neutrality in order to maintain peace with the European powers. This was easier said than done. The French Revolutionary Wars were taking place, and many in Washington's administration pressed for a policy of support for the French, comparing the French Revolution to America's own struggle for independence, and recalling how the French had been a valuable ally in gaining American independence from Great Britain. But Washington understood that becoming embroiled in the European conflict would be hazardous to his own fragile nation. He issued the 1793 Proclamation of Neutrality, declaring that the United States would not take sides in the European conflict. He also secured two important bilateral treaties, the 1794 Jay Treaty with Great Britain and the 1795 Treaty of San Lorenzo with Spain, both of which fostered trade and helped secure control of the American frontier. To protect American shipping from Barbary pirates and other threats, he re-established the United States Navy with the Naval Act of 1794.
The Jay Treaty led to polarization within the nation. United States Chief Justice John Jay was instructed by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton to seek compensation for seizure of American ships and to clarify the rules governing British seizure of neutral ships. He was also instructed to demand that the British relinquish their posts in the Northwest. In return, the U.S. would take responsibility for pre-Revolution debts owed to British merchants and subjects. Jay was also instructed to seek limited access for American ships to the British West Indies. Jay and the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Grenville, began negotiations on July 30, 1794 and a treaty emerged from those discussions several weeks later, commonly known as the Jay Treaty. Both sides achieved many objectives, while several other issues were sent to arbitration. For the British, America remained neutral and economically grew closer to Britain. The Americans guaranteed favorable treatment to British imports. In return, the British agreed to evacuate the western forts, which they had been supposed to do by 1783. They also agreed to open their West Indies ports to smaller American ships, allow small vessels to trade with the French West Indies, and set up a commission that would adjudicate American claims against Britain for seized ships as well as British claims against Americans for debts incurred before 1775. The treaty failed to address concessions on impressment nor any statement of rights for American sailors.
When details of the treaty arrived in Philadelphia in March 1795, Washington kept its contents confidential until June, when a special session of the Senate convened to give its advice and consent. Washington found himself in a difficult position. If he threw his support behind the treaty, he risked inflaming partisan sentiments, but if he shelved the treaty, there would likely be increased aggression with Great Britain.
Debate on the treaty's 27 articles was carried out in secret, and lasted for more than two weeks. Members of Thomas Jefferson's Republican faction in the Senate wanted to pressure Britain to the brink of war. They denounced the Jay Treaty as an insult to American prestige, and a repudiation of the 1778 treaty with France. But on June 24, the Senate approved the treaty by a vote of 20–10 – precisely the two-thirds majority vote required for ratification.
The Senate hoped to keep the treaty secret until Washington had decided whether or not to sign it, but Jefferson's supporters leaked it to a Philadelphia editor who printed it in full on June 30. Reaction to the treaty was the most negative in the South. Southern planters, who owed the pre-Revolution debts to the British and who were now not going to collect for the slaves lost to them, were highly opposed. Federalists lost most of the support they had among planters. Protests, organized by Republicans, included petitions, incendiary pamphlets, and public meetings held in the larger cities, to protest the treaty. Washington was placed in a position of having to defend the treaty, doing so at a cost to his personal support.
The British, in an effort to promote signing of the treaty, delivered a letter in which Secretary of State Edmund Randolph was accused of taking bribes from the French. Randolph was forced to resign from the cabinet, eliminating any value to his opposition to the treaty.
On August 24, Washington signed the treaty and the furor against the treaty subsided. By late 1796, the Federalists were able to sway public opinion had been swayed in favor of the treaty, in part because of news of atrocities occurring in France during the French Revolution. In spite of this, in 1797, the House of Representatives debated the issue of whether the House had the power under the Constitution to refuse to appropriate the money necessary for a treaty already ratified by the Senate and signed by the president. Citing its constitutional fiscal authority (Article I, Section 7), the House requested that the president turn over all documents that related to the treaty, including his instructions to Jay, all correspondence, and all other documents relating to the treaty negotiations. Washington refused to do so, invoking what later became known as executive privilege. He insisted that the House did not have the Constitutional authority to block treaties. A contentious debate ensued, and some of Washington's most vehement opponents in the House even called for his impeachment. Washington responded to his critics in a sincere and straightforward fashion to broaden public support for his stance. The nation had not forgotten the debt it owed to its Commander-in-chief. On April 30, the House voted 51–48 to approve the requisite treaty funding.
The French government concluded that the treaty violated the Franco-American treaty of 1778. This led to a series of diplomatic and political conflicts over the ensuing four years, culminating in the Quasi-War during the presidency of John Adams. The Jay Treaty also helped ensure American control of its own frontier lands. After the signing of treaty, the British withdrew their support from several Native Americans tribes, while the Spanish, fearing that the Jay Treaty signaled the creation of an Anglo-American alliance, sought to appease the United States.
The conflict over ties to these foreign powers led to growing partisanship within the government. Washington was very concerned about the detrimental impact political parties could have on the fragile unity of the nation. Especially during his second term, Washington struggled to hold rival factions together. He was, and remains, the only president never to be affiliated with a political party. Debates over Hamilton's economic policy, the French Revolution, and the Jay Treaty deepened ideological divisions. Those that supported Hamilton formed the Federalist Party, while his opponents coalesced around Thomas Jefferson and formed the Democratic-Republican Party.
Though most Americans supported the French Revolution prior to the Execution of Louis XVI, Federalists began to fear the radical nature of the revolution as it became increasingly violent. Washington worried that sympathy for France and hatred for Britain would propel the United States into the French Revolutionary Wars, to the ruin of the American economy.
In his second term Washington had to confront what became known as the Whiskey Rebellion. Attacks by local opponents of the tax on spirits took place in 1794, leading to to clashed with federal forces. As word of this rebellion spread across the frontier, a whole series of loosely organized resistance measures were taken, including robbing the mail, stopping court proceedings, and the threat of an assault on Pittsburgh. Washing took charge of the situation by personally leading the militia against the Whiskey Rebellion. He first sent commissioners to meet with the rebels, while at the same time preparing soldiers to march into Western Pennsylvania. When the final report of the commissioners recommended the use of the militia to enforce the laws, the president invoked the Militia Law of 1792 to summon the militias of Pennsylvania, Virginia and several other states. The governors sent the troops and Washington took command as Commander-in-Chief. Washington commanded a militia force of 12,950 men, roughly the same size of the Continental Army he had commanded during the Revolutionary War. Under the personal command of Washington, Hamilton and Revolutionary War hero General Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, the army assembled in Harrisburg and marched into Western Pennsylvania (to what is now Monongahela, Pennsylvania) in October 1794. The insurrection collapsed quickly with little violence, and the resistance movements disbanded. The men arrested for rebellion were imprisoned, where one died, while two were convicted of treason and sentenced to death by hanging. Later, Washington pardoned all the men involved.
After crushing the Whiskey Rebellion, Washington publicly blamed the Democratic-Republican Societies for the rebellion. In turn, Jefferson called Washington as "the head of a party" rather than "the head of a nation." Federalists were thrilled by Washington's remarks, and the party sought to closely associate itself with Washington. By 1795–96, election campaigns at the federal, state and local levels were waged primarily along partisan lines.
Washington decided early in 1796 that he would retire. He delayed a formal announcement until later in the year, but began drafting his Farewell Address. Washington's retirement was remarkable for the fact that, at this point in history, national leaders rarely relinquished their titles voluntarily. In making the announcement and then following through on it, Washington established a precedent for the democratic transfer of executive power.
Over the course of several months, Washington and Hamilton worked together on the wording of his farewell address. The final product, was published on September 19, 1796, in David Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser. It was immediately reprinted in newspapers and as a pamphlet throughout the United States. After announcing that he was not running for a third term, Washington thanked his fellow citizens for the opportunity to serve as their president. He then wrote about the preservation of the Union, and about the obstacles and potential hazards that lay ahead for the nation. He urged Americans to cherish and safeguard their hard-won system of republican government despite their many differences. He wrote:
"The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national Union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts."
Washington wrote about what he called "anxious and painful sensations" over leaving the "domestic felicity" of Mount Vernon. Nevertheless he left Mount Vernon and set out for New York City (then the seat of government) on April 23 to be inaugurated. Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States on April 30, 1789. Washington was re-elected unanimously in the 1792 presidential election, and chose to retire after two terms. In doing so he set a precedent that, while not mandated by law, was followed until 1940 when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to a third consecutive term.
Washington's reputation for sound leadership under pressure was solidified through his service as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and as President of the 1787 Constitutional Convention. In his first inaugural address, Washington expressed both his reluctance to accept the presidency and his inexperience with the duties of civil administration, but he proved an able leader. Washington presided over the establishment of the new federal government. He supported Alexander Hamilton's economic policies that called for the federal government to assume the debts of the state governments and establish the First Bank of the United States, the United States Mint, and the United States Customs Service. Congress passed the Tariff of 1789, the Tariff of 1790, and an excise tax on whiskey to fund the government and, in the case of the tariffs, address the trade imbalance with Britain. Washington personally led federal soldiers in suppressing the Whiskey Rebellion, which arose in opposition to the administration's taxation policies.
While one might expect that things would get easier as the new nation matured, Washington's second term was met with more controversy than his first. There were two particular issues that were troubling for Washington. One of these was the Jay Treaty, signed in 1794. The second was the development of political factions.
In foreign affairs, Washington had followed a policy of neutrality in order to maintain peace with the European powers. This was easier said than done. The French Revolutionary Wars were taking place, and many in Washington's administration pressed for a policy of support for the French, comparing the French Revolution to America's own struggle for independence, and recalling how the French had been a valuable ally in gaining American independence from Great Britain. But Washington understood that becoming embroiled in the European conflict would be hazardous to his own fragile nation. He issued the 1793 Proclamation of Neutrality, declaring that the United States would not take sides in the European conflict. He also secured two important bilateral treaties, the 1794 Jay Treaty with Great Britain and the 1795 Treaty of San Lorenzo with Spain, both of which fostered trade and helped secure control of the American frontier. To protect American shipping from Barbary pirates and other threats, he re-established the United States Navy with the Naval Act of 1794.
The Jay Treaty led to polarization within the nation. United States Chief Justice John Jay was instructed by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton to seek compensation for seizure of American ships and to clarify the rules governing British seizure of neutral ships. He was also instructed to demand that the British relinquish their posts in the Northwest. In return, the U.S. would take responsibility for pre-Revolution debts owed to British merchants and subjects. Jay was also instructed to seek limited access for American ships to the British West Indies. Jay and the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Grenville, began negotiations on July 30, 1794 and a treaty emerged from those discussions several weeks later, commonly known as the Jay Treaty. Both sides achieved many objectives, while several other issues were sent to arbitration. For the British, America remained neutral and economically grew closer to Britain. The Americans guaranteed favorable treatment to British imports. In return, the British agreed to evacuate the western forts, which they had been supposed to do by 1783. They also agreed to open their West Indies ports to smaller American ships, allow small vessels to trade with the French West Indies, and set up a commission that would adjudicate American claims against Britain for seized ships as well as British claims against Americans for debts incurred before 1775. The treaty failed to address concessions on impressment nor any statement of rights for American sailors.
When details of the treaty arrived in Philadelphia in March 1795, Washington kept its contents confidential until June, when a special session of the Senate convened to give its advice and consent. Washington found himself in a difficult position. If he threw his support behind the treaty, he risked inflaming partisan sentiments, but if he shelved the treaty, there would likely be increased aggression with Great Britain.
Debate on the treaty's 27 articles was carried out in secret, and lasted for more than two weeks. Members of Thomas Jefferson's Republican faction in the Senate wanted to pressure Britain to the brink of war. They denounced the Jay Treaty as an insult to American prestige, and a repudiation of the 1778 treaty with France. But on June 24, the Senate approved the treaty by a vote of 20–10 – precisely the two-thirds majority vote required for ratification.
The Senate hoped to keep the treaty secret until Washington had decided whether or not to sign it, but Jefferson's supporters leaked it to a Philadelphia editor who printed it in full on June 30. Reaction to the treaty was the most negative in the South. Southern planters, who owed the pre-Revolution debts to the British and who were now not going to collect for the slaves lost to them, were highly opposed. Federalists lost most of the support they had among planters. Protests, organized by Republicans, included petitions, incendiary pamphlets, and public meetings held in the larger cities, to protest the treaty. Washington was placed in a position of having to defend the treaty, doing so at a cost to his personal support.
The British, in an effort to promote signing of the treaty, delivered a letter in which Secretary of State Edmund Randolph was accused of taking bribes from the French. Randolph was forced to resign from the cabinet, eliminating any value to his opposition to the treaty.
On August 24, Washington signed the treaty and the furor against the treaty subsided. By late 1796, the Federalists were able to sway public opinion had been swayed in favor of the treaty, in part because of news of atrocities occurring in France during the French Revolution. In spite of this, in 1797, the House of Representatives debated the issue of whether the House had the power under the Constitution to refuse to appropriate the money necessary for a treaty already ratified by the Senate and signed by the president. Citing its constitutional fiscal authority (Article I, Section 7), the House requested that the president turn over all documents that related to the treaty, including his instructions to Jay, all correspondence, and all other documents relating to the treaty negotiations. Washington refused to do so, invoking what later became known as executive privilege. He insisted that the House did not have the Constitutional authority to block treaties. A contentious debate ensued, and some of Washington's most vehement opponents in the House even called for his impeachment. Washington responded to his critics in a sincere and straightforward fashion to broaden public support for his stance. The nation had not forgotten the debt it owed to its Commander-in-chief. On April 30, the House voted 51–48 to approve the requisite treaty funding.
The French government concluded that the treaty violated the Franco-American treaty of 1778. This led to a series of diplomatic and political conflicts over the ensuing four years, culminating in the Quasi-War during the presidency of John Adams. The Jay Treaty also helped ensure American control of its own frontier lands. After the signing of treaty, the British withdrew their support from several Native Americans tribes, while the Spanish, fearing that the Jay Treaty signaled the creation of an Anglo-American alliance, sought to appease the United States.
The conflict over ties to these foreign powers led to growing partisanship within the government. Washington was very concerned about the detrimental impact political parties could have on the fragile unity of the nation. Especially during his second term, Washington struggled to hold rival factions together. He was, and remains, the only president never to be affiliated with a political party. Debates over Hamilton's economic policy, the French Revolution, and the Jay Treaty deepened ideological divisions. Those that supported Hamilton formed the Federalist Party, while his opponents coalesced around Thomas Jefferson and formed the Democratic-Republican Party.
Though most Americans supported the French Revolution prior to the Execution of Louis XVI, Federalists began to fear the radical nature of the revolution as it became increasingly violent. Washington worried that sympathy for France and hatred for Britain would propel the United States into the French Revolutionary Wars, to the ruin of the American economy.
In his second term Washington had to confront what became known as the Whiskey Rebellion. Attacks by local opponents of the tax on spirits took place in 1794, leading to to clashed with federal forces. As word of this rebellion spread across the frontier, a whole series of loosely organized resistance measures were taken, including robbing the mail, stopping court proceedings, and the threat of an assault on Pittsburgh. Washing took charge of the situation by personally leading the militia against the Whiskey Rebellion. He first sent commissioners to meet with the rebels, while at the same time preparing soldiers to march into Western Pennsylvania. When the final report of the commissioners recommended the use of the militia to enforce the laws, the president invoked the Militia Law of 1792 to summon the militias of Pennsylvania, Virginia and several other states. The governors sent the troops and Washington took command as Commander-in-Chief. Washington commanded a militia force of 12,950 men, roughly the same size of the Continental Army he had commanded during the Revolutionary War. Under the personal command of Washington, Hamilton and Revolutionary War hero General Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, the army assembled in Harrisburg and marched into Western Pennsylvania (to what is now Monongahela, Pennsylvania) in October 1794. The insurrection collapsed quickly with little violence, and the resistance movements disbanded. The men arrested for rebellion were imprisoned, where one died, while two were convicted of treason and sentenced to death by hanging. Later, Washington pardoned all the men involved.
After crushing the Whiskey Rebellion, Washington publicly blamed the Democratic-Republican Societies for the rebellion. In turn, Jefferson called Washington as "the head of a party" rather than "the head of a nation." Federalists were thrilled by Washington's remarks, and the party sought to closely associate itself with Washington. By 1795–96, election campaigns at the federal, state and local levels were waged primarily along partisan lines.
Washington decided early in 1796 that he would retire. He delayed a formal announcement until later in the year, but began drafting his Farewell Address. Washington's retirement was remarkable for the fact that, at this point in history, national leaders rarely relinquished their titles voluntarily. In making the announcement and then following through on it, Washington established a precedent for the democratic transfer of executive power.
Over the course of several months, Washington and Hamilton worked together on the wording of his farewell address. The final product, was published on September 19, 1796, in David Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser. It was immediately reprinted in newspapers and as a pamphlet throughout the United States. After announcing that he was not running for a third term, Washington thanked his fellow citizens for the opportunity to serve as their president. He then wrote about the preservation of the Union, and about the obstacles and potential hazards that lay ahead for the nation. He urged Americans to cherish and safeguard their hard-won system of republican government despite their many differences. He wrote:
"The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national Union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts."