During the agitation over the Jay treaty the rage of party spirit turned full against Washington himself.  He was blackguarded and abused in every possible way.  He was accused of having shown incapacity while General and of having embezzled public funds while President.  He was nicknamed “the Step-Father of his country.”  The imputation on his honor stung so keenly that he declared “he would rather be in his grave than in the Presidency,” and in private correspondence he complained that he had been assailed “in terms so exaggerated and indecent as could scarcely be applied to a Nero, a notorious defaulter, or even to a common pickpocket.”  The only rejoinder which his dignity permitted him to make is that contained in his Farewell Address, dated September 17, 1796, in which he made a modest estimate of his services and made a last affectionate appeal to the people whom he had so faithfully served.

The Farewell Address was not a communication to Congress.  It was issued in view of the approaching presidential election, to give public notice that he declined “being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made.”  The usual address to Congress was delivered by Washington on December 7, 1796, shortly after the opening of the second session of the Fourth Congress.  The occasion was connected in the public mind with his recent valedictory, and Congress was ready to vote a reply of particularly cordial tenor.  Giles stood to his guns to the last, speaking and voting against complimentary resolutions.  “He hoped gentlemen would compliment the President privately, as individuals; at the same time, he hoped such adulation would never pervade the House.”  He held that “the Administration has been neither wise nor firm,” and he acknowledged that he was “one of those who do not think so much of the President as some others do.”  On this issue Madison forsook him, and Giles was voted down, 67 to 12.  Among the eleven who stood by Giles was a new member who made his first appearance that session—­Andrew Jackson of Tennessee.  In later years, when Giles’s opinions had been modified by experience and reflection, he regretted his attitude towards Washington.  It is due to Giles to say that he did not stab in the dark.  He had qualities of character that under better constitutional arrangements would have invigorated the functions of the House as an organ of control, but at that time, with the separation that had been introduced between the House and the Administration, his energy was mischievous and his intrepidity was a misfortune to himself and to his party.

Washington’s term dragged to its close like so much slow torture.  Others might resign, but he had to stand at his post until the end, and it was a happy day for him when he got his discharge.  His elation was so manifest that it was noticed by John Adams.  Writing to his wife about the ceremony the day after the inauguration, Adams remarked that Washington “seemed to me to enjoy a triumph over me.  Methought I heard him say, ’Ay!  I am fairly out, and you fairly in!  See which of us will be the happiest.’”