<P> He also addressed the subject of amending the Constitution to include a Bill of Rights, urging Congress </P> <P>... to decide how far an exercise of the occasional power delegated by the fifth article of the Constitution is rendered expedient at the present juncture by the nature of objections which have been urged against the system, or by the degree of inquietude which has given birth to them . Instead of undertaking particular recommendations on this subject, in which I could be guided by no lights derived from official opportunities, I shall again give way to my entire confidence in your discernment and pursuit of the public good; for I assure myself that whilst you carefully avoid every alteration which might endanger the benefits of an united and effective government, or which ought to await the future lessons of experience, a reverence for the characteristic rights of freemen and a regard for the public harmony will sufficiently influence your deliberations on the question how far the former can be impregnably fortified or the latter be safely and advantageously promoted . </P> <Table> <Tr> <Th_colspan="3"> The Washington Cabinet </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Office </Th> <Th> Name </Th> <Th> Term </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="3"> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> President </Td> <Th> George Washington </Th> <Td> 1789--1797 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Vice President </Td> <Th> John Adams </Th> <Td> 1789--1797 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="3"> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Secretary of Foreign Affairs </Td> <Th> John Jay </Th> <Td> 1789 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="3"> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Secretary of State </Td> <Th> John Jay </Th> <Td> 1789--1790 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Thomas Jefferson </Th> <Td> 1790--1793 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Edmund Randolph </Th> <Td> 1794--1795 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Timothy Pickering </Th> <Td> 1795--1797 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="3"> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Secretary of Treasury </Td> <Th> Alexander Hamilton </Th> <Td> 1789--1795 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Oliver Wolcott Jr . </Th> <Td> 1795--1797 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="3"> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Secretary of War </Td> <Th> Henry Knox </Th> <Td> 1789--1794 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Timothy Pickering </Th> <Td> 1794--1796 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> James McHenry </Th> <Td> 1796--1797 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="3"> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Attorney General </Td> <Th> Edmund Randolph </Th> <Td> 1789--1794 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> William Bradford </Th> <Td> 1794--1795 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Charles Lee </Th> <Td> 1795--1797 </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Th_colspan="3"> The Washington Cabinet </Th> </Tr>

He served as secretary of the treasury while washington was in office