In a letter of May 23, 1792, Jefferson presented to Washington an elaborate indictment of Hamilton’s policy as a justification of his own behavior in organizing an opposition party in Congress.  He charged Hamilton with subverting the character of the Government by his financial measures, the logical consequence of which would be “a change from the present republican form of government to that of a monarchy.”  Hence the need for organizing “the Republican party who wish to preserve the government in its present form.”  Washington thought over the matter, and—­ according to Jefferson—­reopened the subject in a personal interview on July 10.  Being now fully apprised of Jefferson’s case, Washington himself prepared a brief of it, divided into numbered sections, and applied to Hamilton for a statement of his ideas upon the “enumerated discontents,” framed so “that those ideas may be applied to the correspondent numbers.”  The proceeding is a fine instance of the care which Washington exercised in forming his opinions.  Of course, as soon as charges of corruption and misdemeanor were reduced to exact statement the matter was put just where Hamilton wanted to get it, and in the grasp of his powerful hands its trashy character was promptly displayed.  It is needless to go into details, now that public loans, the funding of floating indebtedness in excess of current income, and the maintenance of a national banking system to supply machinery of credit, are such well recognized functions that the wonder is how any statesman could have ever thought otherwise.  Jefferson’s arguments, when read with the prepossessions of the present day, are so apt to leave an impression of absurdity that they constitute a troublesome episode for his biographers.

Jefferson’s maneuvering utterly failed to injure Hamilton in Washington’s esteem, but it did have the effect of so thoroughly disgusting Washington with public life that at one time he was determined to refuse a reelection, and even went so far as to ask Madison to prepare a valedictory address for him.  He consented to serve another term most reluctantly, and not until he had been besought to do so by the leaders on both sides.  Jefferson was as urgent as was Hamilton.  While Washington was still wavering, he received a strong letter from Edmund Randolph that doubtless touched his soldierly pride.  The letter closed with this sharp argument: 

“You suffered yourself to yield when the voice of your country summoned you to the Administration.  Should a civil war arise, you cannot stay at home.  And how much easier will it be to disperse the factions, which are rushing to this catastrophe, than to subdue them after they shall appear in arms?  It is the fixed opinion of the world, that you surrender nothing incomplete.”

An appeal of this character was the most effective that could possibly be addressed to Washington, but in consenting he grumbled over the hardship of having to keep in active service at his time of life after already having served for so long a time.  He complained that his hearing was getting bad and that “perhaps his other faculties might fall off and he not be sensible of it.”