During his first term (1789-1793), the President worked to make the executive and the federal government stronger. For that, he gathered around him a team of men who had shown during the revolution: Alexander Hamilton attended the Treasury Department, Thomas Jefferson was his secretary of State, Henry Knox Secretary of the War, Edmund Randolph to Justice John Adams and his vice president. James Madison was one of his senior advisers.

In the area of home affairs, the Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton tried to resolve the budget crisis and reduce the country’s debt. On 25 February 1791, Washington signed the decree establishing a federal bank [25]. It was during this period that it chooses to build the federal capital in the District of Columbia: the president chose a site on the Potomac and entrusted the task of drawing the maps in French Pierre Charles L’Enfant [ 26]. During the work, the government moved from New York to Philadelphia in 1790. Washington laid the cornerstone of the Capitol in 1793. But he died before the work.

The Indian wars continued after independence: the U.S. military faced the Miamis in the early 1790s and the Indians of the Northwest Territories. The British and Spanish hampered American expansion to the West. Madison and Jefferson challenged the policy pursued by Hamilton. Given these difficulties, Washington first wanted to go out of business policies. However, under pressure from his Cabinet and Thomas Jefferson came to convince him to Mount Vernon, he eventually agreed to stand for a second term (1793-1797).