Editing Alexander Hamilton (section)

===Jay Treaty===
{{main|Jay Treaty}}

When [[War of the First Coalition|France and Britain went to war]] in early 1793, all four members of the Cabinet were consulted on what to do. They and Washington unanimously agreed to remain neutral, and to have the French ambassador who was raising privateers and mercenaries on American soil, [[Edmond-Charles Genêt]], recalled.<ref name="Elkins McK">{{cite book |first1=Stanley M. |last1=Elkins |first2=Eric |last2=McKitrick |title=The Age of Federalism: The Early American Republic, 1788–1800 |url=https://archive.org/details/ageoffederalism00elki |year=1994 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-506890-0}}</ref>{{rp|336–341}} However, in 1794, policy toward Britain became a major point of contention between the two parties. Hamilton and the Federalists wished for more trade with Britain, the largest trading partner of the newly formed United States. The Republicans saw monarchist Britain as the main threat to republicanism and proposed instead to start a trade war.<ref name=schachner />{{rp|327–328}}

To avoid war, Washington sent Chief Justice John Jay to negotiate with the British, with Hamilton largely writing Jay's instructions. The result was a treaty denounced by the Republicans, but Hamilton mobilized support throughout the land.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Todd |last=Estes |title=Shaping the Politics of Public Opinion: Federalists and the Jay Treaty Debate |journal=Journal of the Early Republic |year=2000 |volume=20 |number=3 |pages=393–422 |jstor=3125063}}</ref> The Jay Treaty passed the Senate in 1795 by exactly the required two-thirds majority. The treaty resolved issues remaining from the Revolution, averted war, and made possible ten years of peaceful trade between the United States and Britain.<ref name="Elkins McK" />{{rp|Ch 9}} Historian George Herring notes the "remarkable and fortuitous economic and diplomatic gains" produced by the Treaty.<ref>{{cite book |first=George C. |last=Herring |title=From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations since 1776 |url=https://archive.org/details/fromcolonytosupe1776herr |url-access=limited |year=2008 |page=[https://archive.org/details/fromcolonytosupe1776herr/page/n98 80] |isbn=978-0-19-507822-0}}</ref>

Several European states had formed the [[Second League of Armed Neutrality]] against incursions on their neutral rights; the cabinet was also consulted on whether the United States should join the alliance and decided not to. It kept that decision secret, but Hamilton revealed it in private to George Hammond, the British minister to the United States, without telling Jay or anyone else. His act remained unknown until Hammond's dispatches were read in the 1920s. This revelation may have had limited effect on the negotiations; Jay did threaten to join the League at one point, but the British had other reasons not to view the alliance as a serious threat.<ref name="Elkins McK" />{{rp|411–412}}<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bemis |first=Samuel Flagg |title=Jay's Treaty and the Northwest Boundary Gap |journal=The American Historical Review |volume=27 |number=3 |date=April 1922 |pages=465–484 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3mMSAAAAYAAJ |jstor=1837800 |hdl=2027/hvd.32044020001764 |hdl-access=free}}</ref>