1792 U.S. presidential election

In the fall of 1792 the fifteen states chose electors for a second presidential term. George Washington, who had hoped to retire, was persuaded by both Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson to serve again, and he once more received a vote from every elector, 132 in all. The real contest was for the second slot. John Adams won 77 votes and kept the vice presidency, while New York governor George Clinton drew 50, Jefferson 4 and Aaron Burr 1.¹²

Behind the vote for Clinton lay the first party split in the new government. Hamilton's program of federal debt assumption and a national bank, launched in 1790 and 1791, convinced Jefferson and James Madison that the Treasury was favoring merchants and creditors over farmers. Their allies, who began calling themselves Republicans, backed Clinton against Adams, whom they saw as a Hamilton ally with a taste for monarchy. Supporters of the administration became known as Federalists. The vote showed the outline of the two parties that would fight the bitter contests of 1796 and 1800.²