Ellsworth, and Caleb Strong in calling for the appointment of Hamilton as special minister to negotiate a treaty with Britain. However, the public clamor that would be aroused by Hamilton's appointment led Washington to appoint John Jay instead. Though he thought it less than ideal, Cabot was one of the most uncompromising defenders of the resulting Jay Treaty with Great Britain as the best possible compromise at a time when war would have destroyed the Union. 4th United States Congress (1795–1796) During the debate over the Jay Treaty in his final Congress, Jefferson accused Cabot of supporting the dissolution of the Union, based on Cabot's belief that rejection of the treaty would lead to ruinous war. Jefferson also quoted Cabot as supporting a "President for life and an hereditary Senate." In May 1796, Cabot returned to Massachusetts and resigned from office, citing the growing bitterness and personal character of Philadelphia politics. He waited until his friend Benjamin Goodhue was elected as his successor, then promptly sent his resignation to the Massachusetts General Court. It became effective in June. John Adams era (1797–1801) Shortly after Cabot's resignation from the Senate, fellow Massachusetts Federalist John Adams was elected to the presidency. Though he did not actively participate in the campaign, Cabot supported Adams over Hamilton's preferred choice, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, the current Minister to France. Quasi-War As a private citizen, Cabot remained intensely interested in the progress of the French Revolution and intensely opposed to the Francophile policy of Thomas Jefferson, now serving as Vice President. He wrote that "the first and highest duty of the electors was to prevent the election of a French President." Hamilton and Fisher Ames each urged the appointment of Cabot as part of a three-man mission to France, but Washington and Adams each declined. Adams instead chose Elbridge Gerry, whose reputation in France, particularly with French Foreign Minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, was more positive. Cabot himself was opposed to the appointment of such a commission, believing that the time for negotiation with France had passed. After Pinckney's dismissal as Minister to France, Cabot called for war measures against France, including opposition to the establishment of any embassy whatsoever. He firmly believed that any continued diplomacy with France would only encourage Jacobinism in the United States. In the winter of 1797–98, tensions with France escalated. Cabot, along with Pickering, Ames, Oliver Wolcott, and James McHenry, formed