A Year With George Washington
On March 21, 1790, Thomas Jefferson, having recently returned from France, reported for duty as President Washington’s and the nation’s first Secretary of State.
He was reluctant to accept the post at first and said as much in his response to President Washington’s offer to join his administration. He worried about the unjust “criticism and censures of a public just indeed in their intentions, but sometimes misinformed and misled, and always too respectable to be neglected.”
As the office and indeed the nation were newly created, Jefferson was unclear about what it entailed and was justifiably apprehensive about accepting the post. He had a change of mind, however, after receiving a follow-up letter from Washington, brimming with his calming assurances. He would write that, “In general, I think it necessary to give as well as take in a government like ours.”
Thomas Jefferson’s acceptance and filling of the office of Secretary of State was one of the most consequential episodes in American history. The dueling philosophies on the length and breadth of government between him and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton spawned the two-party system still with us today. Though Washington abhorred “factions” as they were called in his time, the two brilliant minds in his cabinet possessed diametrically opposed ideas about government, and thus the formation of factions was inevitable.
Washington often relied on Jefferson and Hamilton being on opposite sides of an argument, as it allowed him to reassure himself that he had thought an issue or problem through. His pattern was generally to rely on Jefferson’s advice for foreign relations and Hamilton’s for domestic concerns. Foreign and domestic relations were often intertwined, of course, but the policy served Washington well.
As was ever the case in his endeavors, Jefferson performed well in his role as Secretary of State. He negotiated favorable commercial treaties, successfully maintained Washington’s policy of neutrality among nations, and set the stage for the massive territorial expansion of the United States, which would benefit him later as President of the United States.
Jefferson served a little more than one term, resigning his post on December 31, 1793.
