During and after his term in the Senate, Cabot was a major figure in the Hamiltonian faction of the Federalist Party and was a vocal supporter of war with Revolutionary France.

George inherited 600 pounds and rather than become a charge on his father's estate, dropped out to go to sea, where he became a cabin boy on the ship of his brother-in-law Joseph Lee.

Cabot ships served as privateer vessels, raiding British merchants to support the revolutionary cause and turning a profit in the process.

[8][9] Some time after the Revolution, Cabot's business took him to New York City, where he was acquainted with Alexander Hamilton, who became a lifelong friend and political ally.

[8] In 1777, the town of Beverly voted to reject the proposed Massachusetts Constitution, and Cabot was a member of a committee selected to draft objections.

Populist Governor John Hancock, who supported the failed 1778 Constitution, accused his conservative opponents of being controlled by an "Essex Junto," including Cabot, which soon became a popular invective metonym.

[14] In 1789, President George Washington breakfasted with Cabot at the latter's Beverly home when he was in town inspecting the country's first cotton mill and the new Essex Bridge.

During his time in the Senate, he was principally concerned with finance and commerce, and was a supporter of his friend Alexander Hamilton's policies as Secretary of the Treasury.

[19] In his second Congress, Cabot opposed Secretary Jefferson's attempts at establishing favorable trade with France, blocking the election of Jeffersonian Albert Gallatin of Pennsylvania to the Senate.

[21] 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.

"[24] In May 1796, Cabot returned to Massachusetts and resigned from office, citing the growing bitterness and personal character of Philadelphia politics.

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.

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, along with Pickering, Ames, Oliver Wolcott, and James McHenry, formed the faction of "war Federalists" led by Hamilton.

[31] The revelation of the XYZ affair effectively silenced all opposition and enabled Federalists to pass legislation creating a separate Department of the Navy.

Former President Washington suggested Hamilton, Pinckney, and former Secretary of War Henry Knox, in that order, serve as major generals.

[34] In 1799, Adams, without consulting his cabinet, appointed Minister to the Netherlands William Vans Murray to lead a commission to renew peace negotiations with France, disappointing the war Federalists.

[47] Though he supported the appointments of James Madison and Albert Gallatin to Jefferson's cabinet, Cabot saw the 1800 election as the total defeat of the Federalist Party, and his mantra became, "Things must grow worse before they are better.

[50] Cabot opposed Jefferson's acquisition of the Louisiana Territory and his removals of Federalist appointees and judges, but resisted Timothy Pickering's calls for dissolution of the Union.

He reluctantly led a committee of Boston merchants opposed to British policy of seizing American ships in commerce with France.

[56] Cabot published and distributed a letter on behalf of Timothy Pickering, now representing Massachusetts in the Senate and the most prominent Federalist in public life.

[57] Cabot, however, feared that Pickering's approach could revitalize accusations the Federalists were a "British faction" and wrote to him urging caution.

Though Federalists did not win a resounding victory in Massachusetts, the party won sufficient seats in the General Court to elect Cabot to a one-year term on the Governor's Council.

[59] In the concurrent presidential election, Cabot advised against a union with the Clintonian faction of the Republican Party and any strategy that might suggest that Federalists supported dissolution of the Union or regional separatism, including Pickering's proposal to hire a French engineer to fortify the port of Boston, traditionally a duty of the national government.

Though the Federalists were unsuccessful in electing a President, the party did succeed in forcing repeal of the Embargo Act, after which Cabot withdrew from public life again.

[61] Cabot was elected as a delegate to the Hartford Convention, organized in 1814 by Federalist politicians of New England who were unhappy with the conduct of the War of 1812, in particular the conscription of state militias into national service.

The Treaty of Ghent, signed while the convention was meeting, effectively ended both the Federalist Party and Cabot's political career.

He was an active member of Boston society and devoted much of his time to his wife, daughter Elizabeth, and son Henry who lived nearby with his family.

[22] In 1803, to permit his daughter Elizabeth to enter society, Cabot sold his Brookline estate and moved to Boston, where he spent the rest of his life.