1792 was an election year. This would be the third election for the new federal government, and only the second time they would select a president.
Washington Reelection
The first question for everyone was whether George Washington would run for reelection. Washington’s reluctance to serve at all was genuine. Before the Constitutional Convention, Washington considered himself retired. The only reason he ran for president at all was because so many leaders begged him to serve, believing the union would fall apart without him as a uniting figure.
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| George Clinton |
A few months earlier, Washington had confided in Thomas Jefferson that he planned to retire. At that time, Jefferson did not discourage the idea at that time, but told the president that he also planned to retire. A few months later, though, concerns over secession and other conflicts changed Jefferson’s view. He began to argue that Washington needed to remain or the union would collapse. He told Washington “North and South will hang together, if they have you to hang on.”
By this time Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton agreed on almost nothing, but on the issue of Washington remaining as president, they were both on the same page. Hamilton said that the greatest evil that could befall the country would be if Washington left the presidency. The rest of the cabinet, Henry Knox and Edmund Randolph, also felt the same way. Washington stepping down would likely mean the collapse of the union and the end of the new federal government.
Even beyond the cabinet, just about everyone felt the same way, even opposition members in Congress. James Madison also strongly urged the president to remain in office. Perhaps the only person who wanted him to retire was his wife Martha. She was less concerned about the nation and more about the fact that the president was getting on in years and that the job was too stressful for him.
Washington had turned 60 in 1792. He was having health problems. He suffered from rheumatism and grew tired much more quickly that he used to do. He expressed concerns that his memory was beginning to fail and that his hearing problems were getting worse.
Washington had suffered two near-fatal illnesses during his first term. He also had concerns about dying in office. It was not just that he wouldn’t get to enjoy Mount Vernon in his final years. He felt that it would harm his reputation of walking away from power after the Revolutionary War. He also did not want to set any sort of precedent that a president should remain in office for life.
Washington also saw the same divisions in the country that other people did. Unlike others, Washington did not think he was the lynchpin to hold the country together. Rather, he thought someone with better legal qualifications could better handle the tough constitutional questions that were welling up. Growing divisions would also inevitably harm his reputation. As president, Washington would have to pick a side on some of these contentious issues, inevitably alienating him from those who disagreed with his decision. He felt the sting of growing newspaper attacks and simply thought he wasn’t well suited for the rough and tumble of national politics.
He pushed back on those who told him that he was the only person who could hold the Union together. If that was the case, he would really be more like a king, something he and the others had always fought against.
By September of 1792, Washington had at least shown some willingness to consider the idea of remaining for a second term based on the unanimous pleas of just about everyone who discussed the issue with him. But even by November, only a few weeks before elections, Washington had not committed either way. He still had a draft farewell address that he considered giving. No one was really sure if Washington would serve a second term, even if they elected him.
Some historians believe that the tipping point was a letter that Washington received in early November from Elizabeth Powel. The Powels were a prominent Philadelphia family who had become socially close to the Washingtons during the war, and remained close afterwards. Elizabeth and her husband Samuel had stayed at Mount Vernon during a southern trip after the war. George and Martha frequented regular parties at Powel's home in Philadelphia.
Elizabeth wrote a lengthy letter to Washington in the weeks before the election, urging him to remain for a second term. The crux of her argument was that she knew Washington wanted to go home and enjoy life on Mount Vernon, but that leaving office would be shirking his duty to the country. His legacy would be destroyed if the Union collapsed because he simply wanted to walk away from it. He needed to remain in office for the good of the country.
The general argument that the Union depended on Washington remaining, was similar to what everyone else was telling him. But the notion that he was being selfish by leaving and going back to retirement seemed to strike a chord with the President. After that, there was no further discussion about leaving office that year.
Vice President
Once Washington determined that he would not announce his retirement, his reelection was considered a given by all Americans. No one seriously posed any challenge to him. The Vice Presidency was another matter. The Democratic-Republicans were especially not fans of John Adams, who seemed to be more monarchical than they liked and tended to support the federalist policies that they disliked. In fact, the Federalist Party supported Adams, despite the fact that Adams refused to call himself a Federalist, or associate himself with this nascent group that was largely headed by Alexander Hamilton. Adams and Hamilton did not get along much either.
While the Federalist and Democratic-Republican factions were beginning to organize politically, there still were no organized political parties as we know them today. There were Democratic-Republican clubs that met in various states to coordinate efforts related to policies and candidates. They wanted to put up someone to run against Adams. Because the Constitution still had no election for Vice President, any candidate would be running for president, knowing that finishing second to Washington secured the Vice Presidency.
The leading contender among the Democratic Republicans should have been Thomas Jefferson, probably followed by James Madison. The problem with both men was that they were Virginians. Electors could not cast both votes for people from the same state if they were also from that state. That would have meant that Virginia Electors could not vote for both Washington and Jefferson. Since Virginia was the largest state, with 16% of all electors, that would have put a Vice Presidential run from anyone from Virginia at a huge disadvantage.
Instead, they settled on George Clinton, the Governor of New York. Clinton had been the governor of New York ever since the state created the office in 1777. Before that, he had served in the Continental Congress and as a general in the Continental Army. During the war, Governor Clinton had been aggressive in confronting New York tories and seizing their property. He had a good working relationship with George Washington, both during and after the war, despite their diverging political views.
Clinton was also a staunch political opponent of Alexander Hamilton and many of Hamilton’s intiatives as Secretary of the Treasury. Clinton has also been an opponent of ratification of the Constitution. Because of his skepticism of a powerful federal government and his many years as Governor of New York, he received wide support from Democratic-Republicans across the country. He had even received three electoral votes in the first presidential election, even though New York did not cast any votes in that election.
You might think that Hamilton would become a high profile political attack dog against Clinton’s campaign, but Hamilton had a bigger fight at the time. Another New Yorker also threw his hat into the political ring: Aaron Burr. Hamilton and Burr really hated each other, so Hamilton spent most of his time directing his wrath at keeping Burr’s campaign from gaining any traction.
The campaign was pretty short. Clinton did not get the Democratic Republican endorsement until October, just weeks before the election. It really didn’t matter since candidates considered it unseemly to campaign.
As had been the case in 1789, the 1792 election was also not an election as we know it today. Twelve of the fifteen states did not hold popular votes for president. Some states that held popular elections in 1789 had taken away that process. State legislatures chose the electors. Even in the states that held elections, only a few hundred eligible voters actually went to the polls and voted for electors.
Washington was reelected unanimously. He had also been elected unanimously in 1789, but in that election only ten states participated, giving him 69 electoral votes. In 1792, fifteen states participated, and Congress had significantly enlarge, meaning a larger Electoral College so Washington received 132 votes.
Adams came in second with 77 votes, returning him as Vice President. Voting became much more sectional. Adams won all of New England, as well as the mid Atlantic states: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. Clinton, of course, won New York, but the rest of his support, which totaled 40 votes, came from the South. He won Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia. South Carolina was the only outlier, going for Adams. Kentucky cast its three votes for Thomas Jefferson, while Aaron Burr managed to win a single electoral vote in South Carolina.
Despite the strong vote of confidence for the President and Vice President, the elections showed a growing concern over many of the administration's policies. The federal assumption of debt and the creation of the Bank of the United States remained controversial, as were the high tariffs that were recently passed. They saw all of this as protecting the interests of the wealth investor class at the expense of farmers and tradesmen. Many feared that the wealthy were becoming a new aristocracy.
As a result, there was a major shift in the Congress. It had been overwhelmingly Federalist. The Democratic-Republicans won a majority in the House and made gains in the Senate for the third Congress. The new Senator from New York, Aaron Burr quickly became a leading opponent of Hamilton’s policies in the Senate.
New York Controversy
One of the bitterest and most controversial elections did not take place at the federal level that year. The fight was over the reelection of George Clinton in New York. Clinton was being run for Vice President while also seeking reelection as governor. These state elections actually took place before the federal elections. The NY election took place in the spring, while federal elections were in the fall of 1792.
Clinton had been in office for fifteen years. His opponents called out his efforts to remain in office for life. They also criticized his opposition during the fight over ratification of the Constitution. Beyond that, there was a scandal over land sales. Clinton had allowed cronies to buy huge amounts of state land. One of the sales was for a plot of land larger than the state of Connecticut. The opposition argued that the land should have been sold in smaller lots so that regular people could become land owners.
Politics in New York were always heated, but the Federalists saw an opportunity to unseat Clinton. One of the earliest opportunists to consider a run against Clinton was Aaron Burr. Hamilton, however, quashed that and prevented Burr from making any headway. So before the election even got going, Burr gave up the idea and backed Clinton.
The Hamiltonians tried to recruit Robert Yates, who was actually more of an anti-federalist than Clinton was. He had also opposed ratification of the Constitution. But the Federalists saw taking out Clinton as the primary goal and would back any popular candidate to go against Clinton. Yates wisely declined and continued to serve on the state Supreme Court.
Another potential competitor was Stephen Van Rensselaer. He was only a State Senator and still in his late twenties. But he came from one of the wealthiest families in New York. He became Hamilton’s brother in law when he married Peggy Schuyler. However, he did not have enough background to run for governor. Hamilton added him to the ticket for lieutenant governor.
John Jay became the new favorite contender among the anti-Clintonites. Jay was well known for his work in the Continental Congress, for helping to negotiate the peace treaty that ended the Revolution, and for his advocacy in adopting the Constitution. He had bene one of the writers of the Federalist papers. The problem was that Jay was also serving as Chief Justice in the US Supreme Court. Would he choose to step away from the court to run for governor?
As it turned out Jay was not happy serving on the Court. Justices were required to be on the road most of the year, riding circuit. Jay had a new baby at home and wanted to get back to a job that did not require riding around the country all year. While Jay would not campaign for governor, he allowed his name to be put forward.
While Jay was well respected in New York and around the country, that did not mean his opponents could not find dirt to throw at him. One attack was over slavery. Jay was a slave owner. Slavery was still legal in New York, although it was not nearly as common as it was in the south. Jay, however, was not criticized for owning slaves. Rather , his opponents attacked him as a closet abolitionist. Jay had joined the New York Manumission Society and had clearly begun to oppose slavery as an institution. Jay’s opponents claimed that if he was elected governor, he would end slavery and take this valuable property away from slave owners in the state. Jay responded that he thought that men of all colors had a right to freedom, but that he advocated for the gradual abolition of slavery over time, in a solution that would protect the property rights of slave owners. Given his moderate position, this issue did not seem to catch on with the voters.
One of the most effective issues that did prove to stick was his close relationship with William Duer. I’ve mentioned Duer in the past. He was working as a treasury official under the Articles of Confederation, and at the same time, trying to organize land deals in the Northwest Territory that would make him rich.
Duer left the Board of Treasury in 1789, when it shut down along with the rest of the Continental Congress. There was an unaccounted for shortage of around $240,000 for which Duer had been responsible. Despite this hanging over his head, Duer went to work with the new US Treasury Department, helping to oversee the trade of government securities during Hamilton’s Assumption plan. Duer personally invested heavily in securities and also passed along insider information to his friends, helping them all to get rich in speculation. Duer was particularly heavily invested in Bank of the United States stock. To get the money from his scheme, he borrowed from just about anyone, including offering deals to shopkeepers, and other relatively poor working class people who hoped to get rich through this insider’s speculation. Duer seemed to engage in all sorts of underhanded dealing, cheating his business partners, and just about everyone else. It worked for a time.
Seeing this paper bubble form, another group of investors led by the Livingston family withdrew large sums of gold and silver from all the banks. This triggered a credit freeze that made it impossible for Duer to continue paying his debts with more loans.
Duer could not make his promised debt payments, and ended up going to debtor’s prison owing money to just about everyone in the state. As a result, he had become just about the most unpopular man in New York. An angry mob surrounded the jail where he was being held, trying to pull him out so they could lynch him. One wealthy investor showed up with a pair of pistols, demanding a duel if Duer could not pay him what he owed.
Duer's collapse led to a massive financial panic and the first major stock market crash in US history. Hamilton was eventually able to restore the markets by having the government make massive purchases of government securities in order to restore liquidity and confidence in the markets. But it came at the cost of many fortunes lost to this speculation. Dozens of wealth investors went bankrupt.. All of this was fresh in the minds of New Yorkers who were ready to take their revenge on anyone who could be associated with Duer in any way.
Jay was a friend and a business associate of Duer. While Jay was not implicated directly in the securities scandal, his association with Duer was enough for many people to not want anything to do with him. Robert Livingston, who had been Jay’s former friend and law partner, and who had played a major role in crashing Duer’s scheme, wrote considerably about Jay’s relationship with Duer.
Jay was away in New England for the final weeks of the campaign, riding circuit with the Supreme Court. He was unable to respond to any of the allegations made against him. Despite all this, when the election finished in late April of 1792, it appeared that Jay had won.
Clinton’s supporters, however, were not ready to give up. When the votes were counted, they disputed the results of three counties upstate. Otsego, Tioga, and Clinton counties had voted heavily for Jay. State law required that the ballots be delivered to the Secretary of State by the county Sheriff. Each of these three counties failed to follow the law to the letter.
In Tioga County, the sheriff gave the ballot box to a deputy. But the deputy got sick during his journey and had a clerk carry the box the rest of the way. In Clinton County, the sheriff forgot to deputize the person who he had deliver it. In Otsego county, the newly appointed sheriff received the ballot box several days before he received his formal commission of appointment as sheriff.
The Clinton faction challenged these three counties and argued that the ballots should not be counted. The board of canvassers voted along party lines to reject the ballots from these three counties. They would not be counted.
The refusal to count the ballots led to wails of protests from the Jay supporters. Even Thomas Jefferson wrote privately that Clinton should refuse to take office under these circumstances. When Jay returned to the state a few weeks later, his supporters urged him to contest the decision. Several mobs had formed, leading to bloody riots in several towns as competing groups challenged the results. Jay certainly did not want to lead a mob to the capital. Instead, he called on the state legislature to form a convention to resolve the issue. A majority of the legislators, however, supported Clinton and voted down the idea of a convention.
While Jay considered the result an injustice, he opted to accept the result. Continued fighting would only harm the state. Clinton would return to office for another three years.
Next week, we will take a look at one of the more controversial acts of Washington’s second term: The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.
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Next Episode 380 Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 (coming soon)
Previous Episode 378 Kentucky Joins the Union
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Further Reading
Websites
Presidential Election of 1792 https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/presidential-election-of-1792
“James Madison to George Washington, 20 June 1792,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-14-02-0294
“Elizabeth Willing Powel to George Washington, 17 November 1792,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-11-02-0225
1792 Electoral College Results https://www.archives.gov/electoral-college/1792
The Disputed Election of 1792 [Editorial Note] https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jay/01-05-02-0191
The High Crimes and Misadventures of William Duer: The Founding Father who Swindled America: https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2019/07/04/the-high-crimes-and-misadventures-of-william-duer-the-founding-father-who-swindled-america
Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)
Brant, Irving James Madison: Father of the Constitution, 1787-1800. Bobbs-Merrill Co. 1950 (borrow only).
Kaminski, John P. George Clinton: Yeoman Politician of the New Republic, Madison House, 1993 (borrow only).
Pellew, George John Jay, Houghton, Mifflin, and Co. 1890.
Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*
Bordewich, Fergus M. The First Congress: How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government, Simon & Schuster, 2016.
Chernow, Ron Washington, A Life, Penguin Press, 2010.
Chervinsky, Lindsay M. The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution, Belknap Press, 2020.
Elkins, Stanley M. and Eric McKitrick, The Age of Federalism: The Early American Republic, 1788–1800, Oxford Univ. Press, 1993 (borrow on archive.org).
Ellis, Joseph J. His Excellency. George Washington, Alfred A. Knopf, 2005.
Ferling, John Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation Hardcover, Bloomsbury Press, 2013.
Heidler, David S. & Jeanne T. Washington's Circle: The Creation of the President, Random House, 2015.
Hunger, Harlow Giles Mr. President: George Washington and the Making of the Nation's Highest Office, De Capo Press, 2013.
Leibiger, Stuart Founding Friendship George Washington, James Madison, and the Creation of the American Republic, Univ. of Virginia Press, 1999.
Meacham, Jon Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, Random House, 2012
Randall, Willard Sterne Thomas Jefferson: A Life, Henry Holt and Co. 1993.
Schlesinger, Arthur M. Jr. (ed) The Elections of 1789 & 1792, Mason Crest, 2003 (borrow on archive.org).
* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
