Washington, unanimously reelected, began a contentious second term marked by partisan newspapers and the European war’s shockwaves. He asserted executive authority with the April 1793 neutrality proclamation, aiming to keep the US out of Britain–France hostilities. The new French minister, Citizen Genet, inflamed opinion by arming privateers, recruiting Americans, and threatening an appeal over Washington’s head; Washington demanded his recall but later granted him asylum. Lafayette fell into Austrian captivity; Jefferson wavered on resignation but stayed briefly. The crisis spawned Democratic Republican Societies and intensified attacks on Washington, even as he maintained neutrality and a pared-down public style.

Washington’s second term was jolted by Philadelphia’s 1793 yellow fever epidemic, which emptied the capital, killed thousands, and briefly muted partisan agitation. After evacuating to Germantown and ensuring constitutional continuity, Washington returned to deliver his annual address, defend neutrality, and urge preparedness. He presided over cornerstone ceremonies for the Capitol and advanced designs for the President’s House while using enslaved labor for its construction. Simultaneously, Mount Vernon reeled from mismanagement and deaths; Washington issued blistering directives to overseers and devised a rental scheme that, he told Tobias Lear, would enable him to free enslaved people and rehire them as paid labor.

Washington’s second term opened with Jefferson’s resignation and a reshaped cabinet (Randolph at State, Bradford as Attorney General), while Congress authorized six frigates, launching the US Navy. Abroad, the Terror raged in France; Britain seized American ships, prompting Washington to send Chief Justice Jay to negotiate. At home, Anthony Wayne’s victory at Fallen Timbers broke Indigenous resistance in the Northwest. The chief crisis became the Whiskey Rebellion: Washington issued a proclamation, called up militia from multiple states, and—accompanied by Hamilton—personally advanced west to enforce the excise law and affirm federal authority.

Washington rode west to Carlisle and Bedford to oversee the federal response to the Whiskey Rebellion, conferred with emissaries William Findley and David Redick, enforced discipline, and then returned to Philadelphia while Hamilton directed operations. He defended the crackdown in his 6th Annual Address and condemned “self-created societies.” The show of force quelled resistance; Washington later pardoned two condemned rebels.

The episode widened the partisan rift with Madison and Jefferson, while cabinet shifts followed: Hamilton resigned (succeeded by Oliver Wolcott Jr.), Knox resigned (replaced by Timothy Pickering). Washington longed for retirement.

Washington received John Jay’s treaty, found it flawed but peace-preserving, and sent it to the Senate under strict secrecy; with Article XII dropped, the Senate narrowly approved it. A leak triggered nationwide fury; Hamilton’s “Camillus” essays defended the pact as Washington decided to sign. Amid the uproar, a captured French dispatch (Fauchet) implicated Secretary of State Edmund Randolph, leading to his resignation and a bruising pamphlet war. Washington reshuffled the cabinet (Pickering to State; McHenry to War; Charles Lee as Attorney General) and appointed Oliver Ellsworth chief justice. He discreetly sheltered George Washington Lafayette while pressing for Lafayette’s release.

Washington secured Pinckney’s Treaty with Spain, opening the Mississippi and New Orleans and fixing the western boundary. At home, he resisted the House’s demand for Jay Treaty papers, asserting constitutional limits and executive confidentiality; after a bruising debate, appropriations for the treaty passed narrowly. The fight ruptured relations with Madison and further estranged Jefferson; Washington recalled Monroe from France, while Paine attacked him in print. Amid the rancor, he sat for portraits, managed family matters, and grappled with finances, refining plans that anticipated manumitting those he enslaved and reorganizing Mount Vernon.

In 1796 Washington resolved to retire, asking Hamilton to draft (and refine) his “Farewell Address,” which was published on September 19. The message stressed national unity, warned against faction, urged fiscal responsibility, and advocated interest-based neutrality rather than partisan attachment abroad. Republicans bristled at its veiled rebukes, while many Americans praised it; authorship remained secret. Washington’s departure effectively established the two‑term precedent. Absent from the address was enslavement: Simultaneously, the Washingtons pursued the recapture of the fugitives Ona Judge and Hercules, revealing the contradiction between public ideals and private bondage.

In his final months, Washington delivered a last annual message (December 1796), celebrated a round of farewell festivities, and presided over the first contested presidential election: John Adams won (71 electoral votes) and Thomas Jefferson became vice president (68). The press—especially the Aurora—assailed Washington even as public ceremonies honored him. On March 4, 1797, an emotional inauguration marked his orderly transfer of power. He returned to Mount Vernon amid reflections on his presidential legacy: strengthening the executive, securing peace and credit, expanding the Union—while leaving unresolved enslavement and conflicts with Indigenous peoples.