Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-03-30
TIE CABINET OFFICES.
BRIEF SKETCHES OP THE MEN
WHO HAVE FILLED THEM.
Who Have Composed the Minis
terial Councils of Presidents.

Although the Cabinet, as an advisory
body, has no regularly defined or necessary
place in the American constitutional
scheme, says the St. Louis Globe Democrat,
its members, as heads of executive depart
ments, perform important functions in our
governmental system. The Constitution
says that the President smay require the
opinion in writing of the principal officer
In each of the executive departments upon
any subject relating to the duties of their
respective offices" but he is under no obi
CATION to be guided by these opinions.
Washington consulted the Cabinet officers
on important matters, but the custom of
assembling them in joint consultation, as at
present, did not come into vogue until
kter Administrations. The meetings of
the Cabinet are secret, and no record is
kept of their proceedings.
The Cabinet now has an especial i'm
portance under the law from the fact that,
by an Act of Congress passed in 1886, the
duties of the Presidency may, in a certain
contingency, devolve upon some of its
members. In the cases in which, from
whatever cause, there is no President or
Vice-President, the members of the Cabi-
| net, in the following order, stand in the
line of succession: Secretary of State, Sec.
rotary of the Treasury, Secretary of War.
Attorney General, Postmaster General,
Secretary of the Navy, Secretary of the
Interior.
The Cabinet consists of eight officers
now, but it had only four in the early part
of the Presidency of George Washington.
AT that time the Secretaries of State.
Treasury and War and the Attorney Gen
eral composed the whole of the Presidents
ministerial council The Departments of
State, of the Treasury and of War were
created by Congress in 1889, the first year
of the Government under the Constitution.
Here are the dates at which the first Off
GERS to fill the positions comprised in the
present Cabinet were appointed: Secretary
of the Treasury, September IL, 1889; Sec
rotary of War, September II, 1889; Secre-
tary of State, Postmaster-General and At
torney- General, each September 26, 1889;
Secretary of the Navy, May q, 1898; Sec
rotary of the Interior, March s. 1S49, and
Secretary of Agriculture, February IL,
1885, The office of Postmaster General,
however, did not become a Cabinet post
until 1925, and the Attorney-G General, al
though member of the Cabinet from the
| first year of the Government did not have
the Department of Justice to preside over
until 1870.
The American Cabinet is responsible
to the Executive, and not to the law-mak-
ing power, in this respect differing radio
ally from Cabinets under the British Gov
eminent, and retires with the Executive
who created it. The salaries of Cabinet
officers are $4,000 a year, as compared
with $4,000 for President; $4,000 each
for Vice-President, President of the Senate
and Speaker of the House, and $1,000 for
Senators and Representatives. Most of
the greatest statesmen which the country
has known have served at one time or
other in their career in the Cabinet, the
greater part of them in the office of Sec
rotary of State. This post, or that which
corresponds to it, is, in the United States
and most of the other great nations, the
most important in the Ministerial council.
Nearly all the other Cabinet positions,
however, have on occasion, been filled by
conspicuous statesmen and publicists.
There were no parties in Washing
toms early days In the Presidency, but
the debates in the Constitutional Con-
vention and in the State Legislatures,
regarding certain provisions in the Con-
stitution, revealed broad differences of
opinion on many matters of national
concern. Desiring to secure for his Cab
met the ablest men to be obtained, our
first President selected Alexander Ham,
he of Il
of political thought, and Thomas Jeffer-
son, the ablest advocate of the opposing
school. Hamilton was made Secretary Of
the Treasury and Jefferson Secretary of
State. Those who agreed with Hamilton
came to be called Federalists and the
others Republicans. Washington, John
Adams and John Marshall were among
the leading Federalists, and James Mad
ison, James Monroe and Albert Gallatin
were a few of the most conspicuous Re-
publicans. The Republican party of JEFF
ferson's time was the parsnt of what has
been known since Jackson's time as the
Democratic party. The present Rcpub-
lican party is the lineal descendant of
the Federalist organization through the
Wing party.
Since Washington's Presidency the Gus
tom has been for the Executive to select
Cabinet officers in harmony with his views
on the leading issues of national policy.
During the past sixty years there has vir-
tually been no deviation from this practice.
except in the case of President Hayes,
who chose d. NJ. Key, a Tennessee Demo
crat, for Postmaster-General. Key subse-
quently became Republican Lincoln
intended to adopt Washington's plan of
calling political opponent into his coun-
Gil, but was deferred by the secession
movement, after offering unsuccessfully
Cabinet post to two Southern men. The
scheme, though, was not success in Wash
ington's case. Jefferson, finding himself
out of harmony with his chief and the
other members of the Cabinet, stepped
down after about four years of service, and
was succeeded by Edmund Randolph,
whose leanings were toward Federalism
The greatest members of Washington's
Cabinet were Hamilton, Jefferson and
Randolph. The Randolph named was
the ablest and most learned of all the
members of the celebrated family of that
name, and was cousin of the better
known John Randolph, of Roanoke Ed
mund Randolph served as Attorney Gen
| eral in Washington's Cabinet before he
became Secretary of State Jefferson be-
came President in 1901, seven years after
he retired from the State Department.
| Hamilton left the Cabinet after six years
service, and was killed in duel with
| Aaron Burr III 1904 Randolph, too, re-
tired from Washingtop's official family be-
fore the Administration ended, and went
into private life. Randolph's last days
were peculiarly sad. When he left the
cabinet he was under a cloud, caused by
the assertion of the French Minister to
| his Government to the effect that Ran
dolph limited that few thousand dollars
would secure the ratification by the Uni
ted States of treaty favorable to French
interests. The Minister afterward con-
fessed that his story was false. Subse-
quently a charge was brought against
Randolph that he had not properly ac-
counted for S49, 900 placed in his hands to
defray the expenses of foreign intercourse.
Although Randolph promptly paid over
to the Government this sum, and in doing
it stripped himself of all his property, his
name, because of an omission to observe a
technicality in the transaction, is still
borne on the books of the Treasury De-