After all, even the most adroit politicians must sometimes sacrifice an offering to candor, not to say honesty.

At the end of the year he retired to the privacy of his home at Monticello, where he remained in seclusion, not wholly innocuous, until the end of 1796.

Edmund Randolph succeeded him as Secretary of State.
Whether it was owing to the departure of Jefferson from the Cabinet or not, the fact remains that Washington concluded shortly thereafter the most difficult diplomatic negotiation of his career.

This was the treaty with England, commonly called Jay's Treaty.

The President wished at first to appoint Hamilton, the ablest member of the Cabinet, but, realizing that it would be unwise to deprive himself and his administration of so necessary a supporter, he offered the post to John Jay, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.