1793-1797: George Washington/Alexander Hamilton (Non-Partisan)
1797-1805: George Washington/Alexander Hamilton (National Federalist)
Seeing the utter failure of what he later described as the "
Efette, philosophising, intellectuals who played politics while we fought the war" at running the country Washington returned to the national stage alongside his Aide-de-Camp Alexander Hamilton in order to save the nation. For Washington it would have an effect on how he perceived intellectuals for the rest of his life. Receiving the support of almost every signatory to the constitution (aside from the few remaining anti-federalists and some die-hard Jeffersonians) and member of congress, Washington defeated Jefferson in a landslide, winning every single electoral vote as Jefferson had just four years earlier.
Washington was not particularly politically competent, nor had he been a brilliant general, but he was a great leader of men and was able to unite a country suffering hyperinflation and the distrust in the political class. When a handful of New Engalnders began murmuring about secession Washington's warning that "
the patriots of the revolution still have their bayonets affixed to their muskets" dispelled any thoughts of rebellion, but it also served to create the impression to the nation that the President, officially Commander in Chief of the US Army, was a military figure as well as a political one. Ironically, despite his wishes, Washington made the army more involved in politics than it ever had been. This was furthered by the appointment of military figures to various posts in the new “Cabinet” of informal advisors answerable only to the President.
Behind the scenes it was Hamilton who was running the country, establishing a new National Bank, breaking ties with the increasingly violent revolutionary regime in France and establishing the basis for an industrial economy as well as using the power of the Presidency to silence one James Reynolds when he spoke out against Hamilton's infidelities. Jefferson’s once ignored attacks on Hamilton as “
a tyrant waiting in the wings” seemed more and more prescient, but he also captured the spirit of National Unity, capturing the senate’s attention with grand speeches calling for unity in dark times. The Jeffersonians, discredited by now, were powerless to stop the Vice President’s accumulation of Executive Power.
At the end of his first term as a non-partisan, and probably largely against his wishes (Washington despised political factionalism) he and Hamilton ran for a new political party the "National Federalists". They promoted a strong economy, a strong federal government, and preparedness for war if necessary - they faced scant opposition, especially with men like National Federalist Junior Senator for New York Aaron Burr drumming up support with the use of new "Political Machines". The first political party in American history was quickly coalescing around a coalition of radical nationalists, New York Bankers, die-hard Federalists and military interests, with prominent generals openly backing their former Commander for office.
Winning a landslide again, Washington presided over the growing strength of federal government power, the passage of a common tariff system, and the introduction of a constitutional amendment abolishing state militias (largely out of fear of a southern uprising against the increasingly powerful federal government). Industry bloomed in the Northern states, whilst the South was increasingly alienated by the governing cabal’s opposition to slavery it was powerless to stop the advancements which it could see unfolding. No one was able to question Hamilton’s economic policy whilst the economy boomed.
Whilst it did not cost Washington his second re-election in 1800, the "Sedition Act" of 1799 proved highly divisive, especially following the arrest of former Jeffersonite Virginia Senator James Madison. By the end of his final term the extremely old and ill Washington was little more than a figurehead for the Hamiltonian cabal that ran the government. Many of his own appointments had been quietly removed from office as his first term began, with major Hamilton ally Burr becoming America’s Foreign Minister, who now pursued a reversal of America’s anti-French Foreign Policy, seeking if not close then
closer relations with the “Republican Dictatorship” of the Abbé Sieyes, Foreign Minister Talleyrand, and National Assembly leader Lucien Bonaparte.
Finally unable to carry on the pretence that Washington was fit for office, and with huge pressures for him not to simply become “King Washington”, the President’s office announced he had no intention to run for the Presidency in 1804. Whilst the Jeffersonian ideal of a two-term limit on the Presidency had been discredited along with many of the man’s other policies, few wanted the President to simply carry on reigning forever. Washington died just weeks after leaving office, leading many to speculate he had actually died about two years before and this had been covered up to keep the popular Hamilton out of power.