The Reluctant President: Reelecting George Washington

George Washington did not want to be reelected in 1792, but he was anyway.

0:00 Washington's decision to retire after one term
4:18 Hamilton's proposals: Funding
7:01 Hamilton's proposals: Assumption
7:57 Centralization vs. state autonomy
9:53 Hamilton's proposals: A national bank
11:21 The underlying cultural divide
14:10 The rise of political factions
19:15 Naming the factions
23:23 Loyal Americans vs. enemies of the Republic
25:57 Jefferson's conspiracy theory
29:58 George Washington was a Federalist
31:29 Philip Freneau and the National Gazette
36:02 Washington refrains from retiring
36:47 The battle for the vice presidency
43:25 Choosing the presidential electors
46:22 Election results
47:39 The legacy of 1792

FOOTNOTES

[1] Madison's account of the conversation is in Letters and Other Writings of James Madison, 4 vols., (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1865), 1:554–59. It has also been published more recently in The Papers of James Madison (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia), Congressional Series, vol. 14. The meeting is discussed in Stuart Leibiger, Founding Friendship: George Washington, James Madison, and the Creation of the American Republic (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999), 158–61.

[2] Douglas Southall Freeman, George Washington: A Biography, 7 vols. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1948–57), 6:358.

[3] Freeman, George Washington, 6:148–51; John R. Alden, George Washington: A Biography (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1984), 234.

[4] Freeman, George Washington, 6:357–60. Donald E. Heidenreich, “Conspiracy Politics in the Election of 1796,” New York History 92, no. 3 (2011), 153–55.

[5] Hamilton’s first Report on the Public Credit (January 9, 1790) is published in The Papers of Alexander Hamilton (PAH), ed. Harold C. Syrett, 27 vols. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1961–87), 6:65–168, but the main text is on 6:65–110. It is summarized in Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton (New York: Penguin, 2004), 297–301. The Report on a National Bank (December 13, 1790) is in PAH, 7:305–42. The Report on Manufactures (December 5, 1791) is in PAH, 10:230–340.

[6] Noah Feldman, The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President (New York: Random House, 2017), 338–39.

[7] John Ferling, John Adams: A Life (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1992), 302–04. He soon put them away to fit in better: Ferling, John Adams, 318.

[8] Jefferson told Washington to serve one more year and then resign: Jefferson to Washington, 23 May 1792, in The Works of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Paul Leicester Ford, 12 vols., (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1904–05), 6:494. Jefferson’s statement to Washington that it’s all the Hamiltonians’ fault and everything will be fine once they’re out of office: Conversation on 29 February 1792, in The Anas, in The Works of Thomas Jefferson, 1:196–98, and Jon Meacham, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power (New York: Random House, 2012), 262.

[9] Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, 318–20.

[11] Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick, The Age of Federalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 263–270; James Roger Sharp, American Politics in the Early Republic: The New Nation in Crisis (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1993), 10, 42–43, 276–277.

[12] Jefferson to Washington, 23 May 1792, in The Works of Thomas Jefferson, 6:488–493; Meacham, Thomas Jefferson, 263–64.

[13] Jefferson, “Conversations with the President,” 10 July 1792, The Anas, in The Works of Thomas Jefferson, 1:229; Freeman, George Washington, 6:360; Elkins and McKitrick, The Age of Federalism, 289–90.

[14] Alden, George Washington, 250. Freeman, George Washington, 6:355–356.

[15] Alden, George Washington, 297; Don Higgenbotham, “Virginia’s Trinity of Immortals: Washington, Jefferson, and Henry, and the Story of Their Fractured Relationships,” Journal of the Early Republic 23, no. 4 (Winter 2003), 534–39.

[16] Jefferson to Madison, 1 October 1792, in The Works of Thomas Jefferson, 7:154.

[17] Freeman, George Washington, 6:378–79.

[18] For the New York gubernatorial election of 1792 and its disputed results, see Alfred F. Young, The Democratic Republicans of New York: The Origins, 1763–1797 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1967), chapters 13 and 14, and John P. Kaminski, George Clinton: Yeoman Politician of the New Republic (Madison, Wis.: Madison House, 1993), chapters 35 and 36.

[19] Kaminski, George Clinton, chapter 37.

[20] Kaminski, George Clinton, 230–32.

[21] Kaminski, George Clinton, 232–33.

[bheemabachus]

Most YouTubers who cover academic subjects manage to make their videos entertaining with either presentation or overt charisma, not to mention being no longer than 22 minutes, usually closer to 12. You held my attention for this entire video despite it more or less sounding like a lecture, and the reason is because your dynamic grasp on the history is so strong that it almost feels like you were part of this drama and are simply reciting personal recollections. All your videos are great but this one is probably my favorite, because you portrayed these people as humans rather than as bare information.

[jacobsutton]

If you are so inclined, a continued series on each presidential election would be so amazing. I’ve loved the first two.

[nikolay-sr]

Please continue making episodes through the passage of the 12th amendment, it's really interesting

[calebjustin]

Kentucky, the newest state in the union, and the one that represented Jefferson's idealized America moreso than any other state at the time voting for Jefferson despite nobody else doing so is kind of adorable.

[TEFFTPATTERN]

This man is the most ancient form of human entertainment… a good storyteller

[WrnMyr]

"Yes, we're doing a lot of shady things for short-term political expediency, but remember - the election 1792 is the most important election of our lifetimes!"

[llamapie]

this is easily one of the best channels on Youtube, you’re so casual yet eloquent and relentlessly well informed.

I have minimal interest in US political history and this was a breeze to sit through. Well done.

[EEEdoman]

What I love most about your videos is how you talk about these historical moments not like the stoic drama that history is often portrayed, but as the complicated human experiences they really were (and are). Please keep it up, these videos are wonderful!

[Phrauntcast]

Don't ever comment on videos but I have to comment my support for this channel. One of the best history channels on this platform, feels like my old history lectures but super engaging and eloquently presented. Please keep uploading and researching!

[xCaptxCrunchx]

Washington would be disappointed with our current Senators and Congressmen who refuse to relinquish power.

[joeb]

Regarding Jefferson’s conspiracy theory, it’s also relevant that Hamilton argued at the Constitutional Convention that the President and Senators should serve for life, and that the President should have an absolute veto. Assuming Jefferson heard about Hamilton’s remarks when he returned from France, or perhaps via letter, I can see how this could fuel Jefferson’s paranoia, although I don’t believe Hamilton actually wanted to reinstitute a monarchy. In fact, I don’t believe he wanted the President to serve for life, but used this argument as a negotiating tactic to center the debate around the idea that the federal government should be strong.

[sagarroy]

George Washington would love farming sims

[zidoot]

The bit about the National Gazette was great. Reminded me of the modern practice of using a burner account on Twitter to talk shit about your own organization

[alexomar]

You should teach a master class in communication. You're taking what normally considered a dry topic and you're presenting it in an engaging way. If you threw this content into an hour-long podcast I'd listen and I know a lot of others who would too.

[unionsquaregrassman]

History as a story, complete with footnotes. Thank you very much.

[tyche]

Such a breath of fresh air, this channel. One of the best qualities in good educational communicators is that it takes the rose colored glasses off and represents historical figures as real people whose concerns and vision for the world feel as vivid and informed by their reality as ours are

[tulde]

A must-watch series for anyone who wants to understand the birth of America in a language that is void of any ideology. Thank you for this great gift.

[stevesomers]

Thanks for this story. It corroborates what I read in John Marshall's biography of The Life of George Washington. The original version I read, in the King's English, was quite a challenge to complete, but likely the most fascinating story of our lives. The future of our republic, so many times, hung by a thread and the actions of a single person or event. I am so thankful to have read Marshall's account. I don't blame Washington at all, not withstanding that he invested his own money to feed soldiers in his army at Valley Forge, PA. Washington was truly an amazing person for whom we are all still much indebted.

[scdrew]

I hope you take as long as you want and need to for making any of your videos. The quality is outstanding and I will be coming back.

[Persuasions]

so glad I found this channel!! I have my bachelors in political science and wish more professors explained things in this style. You explain how events are connected rather than just stating the events that happened. Can’t wait to see more!!