Afraid that sparring between his two brilliant cabinet members might sink the republican experiment, Washington conferred with Jefferson at Mount Vernon in October 1792 and expressed amazement at the hostility between him and Hamilton.  As the beleaguered president confided, 'he had never suspected [the conflict] had gone so far in producing a personal difference, and he wished he could be the mediator to put an end to it,' as Jefferson recorded in a subsequent memo. To Hamilton, Washington likewise issued pleas for an end to 'wounding suspicions and irritating charges.' Both Hamilton and Jefferson found it hard to back down from this bruising rivalry. To his credit, Washington never sought to oust Jefferson from his cabinet, despite their policy differences, and urged him to remain in the administration to avoid a monolithic uniformity of opinion."

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