As wise a man as he was, George Washington still heeded the words of Socrates, that true wisdom comes for the realization of just how much one doesn’t know. With that in mind, the man who helped draft the Constitution of the United States of America, who famously led a raid across the Delaware River to surprise a British garrison and raise morale for his beleaguered army, decided he could not do everything himself.

On this day, February 25, in 1793, newly-elected President George Washing gathered his Cabinet of four people: Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson; Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton; Secretary of War Henry Knox; and Attorney General Edmund Randolph.

The four would become Washington’s trusted advisers, but they were hardly unanimous in the advice. Hamilton and Jefferson in particular clashed “like two fighting fighting cocks,” in the words of Jefferson. Their differences laid the foundation for the modern-day political parties.