Acquiescence in Washington’s candidacy made it practically impossible for the Republican party to manifest its true strength.  The compliment of Republican support was awarded to Governor Clinton of New York, who together with Washington received all the electoral votes of Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Georgia.  A stray electoral vote from Pennsylvania brought Clinton’s total up to 50, whereas John Adams received 77 votes which re-elected him as vice-president.  Jefferson received only four electoral votes, all from Kentucky, but his poor showing in this election was wholly due to the intricacy of the electoral system, and his party meanwhile developed so much strength that when the Third Congress met on December 2, 1793, the Republicans were strong enough to elect the speaker.

Undeterred by this circumstance, Hamilton forced the fighting.  The Jeffersonians had been excusing the defeat they had received in attacking Hamilton in the previous Congress on the ground that the House had acted without allowing sufficient time for due examination of the evidence.  This plea supplied to Hamilton an occasion for prompt action.  Exactly two weeks after the meeting of Congress he addressed a letter to the Speaker, in which he declared:  “Unwilling to leave the matter on such a footing, I have concluded to request of the House of Representatives, as I now do, that a new inquiry may be, without delay, instituted in some mode, most effectual for an accurate and thorough investigation; and I will add, that the more comprehensive it is, the more agreeable it will be to me.”

Giles promptly took up the challenge, and moved the appointment of a committee to examine the state of the Treasury Department in all its particulars.  Pending action by the House, a new complication was introduced, which, though meant as a blow at Hamilton, resulted in a signal triumph for him.  His enemies got hold of a discharged clerk of the Treasury Department by means of whom they now tried to counteract the effect of Hamilton’s challenge.  Two days after Hamilton’s letter to the Speaker, a memorial from Andrew G. Fraunces was laid before the House making charges which amounted to this:  that there was a combination between Hamilton and other officers of the Treasury Department to evade payment of warrants so that they could be bought up for speculative purposes.  Hamilton’s request for an investigation was allowed to lie on the table, but the memorial from Fraunces was referred to a select committee of which Giles was a member.  This circumstance turned out to be much to Hamilton’s advantage.  Giles was an erect, bold, manly foe; he could not stomach the sort of testimony upon which depended the charges against Hamilton’s personal integrity, and he concurred in a report on Hamilton finding that the evidence was “fully sufficient to justify his conduct; and that in the whole course of this transaction the Secretary and other officers of the Treasury have acted a meritorious part towards the public.”