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Washington's Presidency marked the first United States Cabinet in the Executive Branch, the first federal judiciary system and oversaw the ratification of the United States [[Bill of Rights]]. An able administrator, he nevertheless failed to heal the widening breach between factions led by [[Secretary of State]] [[Thomas Jefferson]] and [[Secretary of the Treasury]] [[Alexander Hamilton]]. Because he supported many of Hamilton's controversial fiscal policies--the assumption of state debts, the Bank of the United States, and the excise [[tax]]--Washington became the target of attacks by Jeffersonian [[Democratic-Republican]]s.

Washington's Presidency marked the first United States Cabinet in the Executive Branch, the first federal judiciary system and oversaw the ratification of the United States [[Bill of Rights]]. An able administrator, he nevertheless failed to heal the widening breach between factions led by [[Secretary of State]] [[Thomas Jefferson]] and [[Secretary of the Treasury]] [[Alexander Hamilton]]. Because he supported many of Hamilton's controversial fiscal policies--the assumption of state debts, the Bank of the United States, and the excise [[tax]]--Washington became the target of attacks by Jeffersonian [[Democratic-Republican]]s.

When Washington was first sworn in to office he was faced with the on going Northwest [[Indian War]], a battle between the United States and Indians for control of the Northwest Territory in the U.S. He ended the war in 1795 by ceding Indian lands in the [[Ohio]] [[River]] [[Valley]] to the United States. Washington was reelected president in the [[United States presidential election, 1792|1792 Presidential Election]] and the following year the most divisive crisis arising out of the personal and political conflicts within his cabinet occurred--over the issue of American neutrality during the war between [[England]] and [[France]]. Washington, whose policy of neutrality angered the pro-French Jeffersonians, was horrified by the excesses of the [[French Revolution]] and enraged by the tactics of Edmond Genet, the French minister in the United States, which amounted to foreign interference in American politics. Further, with an eye toward developing closer commercial ties with the British, the president agreed with the Hamiltonians on the need for peace with Great Britain. His acceptance of the 1794 Jay's Treaty, which settled outstanding differences between the United States and Britain but which Democratic-Republicans viewed as an abject surrender to British demands, revived vituperation against the president, as did his vigorous upholding of the excise law during the [[Whiskey Rebellion]] in western [[Pennsylvania]].

When Washington was first sworn in to office he was faced with the on going Northwest Indian War, a battle between the United States and Indians for control of the Northwest Territory in the U.S. He ended the war in 1795 by ceding Indian lands in the [[Ohio]] [[River]] [[Valley]] to the United States. Washington was reelected president in the [[United States presidential election, 1792|1792 Presidential Election]] and the following year the most divisive crisis arising out of the personal and political conflicts within his cabinet occurred--over the issue of American neutrality during the war between [[England]] and [[France]]. Washington, whose policy of neutrality angered the pro-French Jeffersonians, was horrified by the excesses of the [[French Revolution]] and enraged by the tactics of Edmond Genet, the French minister in the United States, which amounted to foreign interference in American politics. Further, with an eye toward developing closer commercial ties with the British, the president agreed with the Hamiltonians on the need for peace with Great Britain. His acceptance of the 1794 Jay's Treaty, which settled outstanding differences between the United States and Britain but which Democratic-Republicans viewed as an abject surrender to British demands, revived vituperation against the president, as did his vigorous upholding of the excise law during the [[Whiskey Rebellion]] in western [[Pennsylvania]].

==Retirement and Assessment==

==Retirement and Assessment==