Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-03-30

When James Madison left the post oil
Secretary of State under Jefferson and en-
tered on the larger duties of the Presi-
dency, he kept Gallatin, of Jefferson's
Cabinet, at the head of the Treasury
Gallatin resigned after holding the Office
about FIVE wears under Madison, and thir-
teen years in all. One of his successors in
the Madison administration was William
III. Crawford, VINO afterwards became one
of the most conspicuous statesmen of his
day, and received the electoral votes OF
three States in the canvass for the Presi-
deucy in 1924, when Andrew Jackson,
John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay were
also in the field, Adams being chosen by
the House The only other name in Mad
ison's Cabinet which afterward became
celebrated was that of James Monroe, Sec
rotary of State, who went to the White
House after Madison vacated it.
Monroe's Cabinet was, on the whole, the
strongest that had ever been formed up to
his time. Among the men composing it
who then and subsequently filled large
place in the country's history were the
William H. Crawford before mentioned,
who retained the Treasury portfolio first
given him by Madison; John Quincy
Adams, Secretary of State; John c. Cal
houn, Secretary of War, and William
Writ, Attorney General. Adams went to
the Presidency when Monroe retired, and
died as member of the House of Repre-
sentatives a quarter of century after
being chosen to the higher office. Calhoun
when he entered Monroe's Cabinet, was on
the threshold of career, which closed a
third of a century later, that included
brilliant service in the Vice Presidency
and the Senate, and which left a deeper
impress, although the impress was evil, on
the politics of the time than that of any
other man then in public life Writ, who
served through the two terms of Monroe
and the one term of Adams, was one of
the most learned iurist and eloquent ora
tors of his day, and was the anti Masonic
candidate for the Presidency in 1882.
Exclusive of Writ. the only men in John
Quincy Adams Cabinet who were remem-
bered by the country in the generation
after their death were Henry Clay and
Richard Rush. The latter, who was Sec
rotary of the Treasury under Adams, had
been Attorney-General during part of the
administrations of Madison and Monroe.
The career of Clay, who was in public sta
ton for half century, who came as near
reaching the Presidency in 1914 as James
G. Blaine did in 1884, and who, like
Blaine, was defeated by New York, was
the most picturesque and dramatic in the
nations political annals.
Jackson's Cabinet first placed Roger B.
fancy on the national stage. In that
body he at first held the Treasury port
folio and afterward was Acknowledgement
for a short time, when he was made Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court by jackson,
and held that post twenty-eight years,
dying during the Presidency of Abraham
Lincoln. The other members of Jack
sons Cabinet, who were then, or after
ward conspicuous were Martin Van
Buren,, Secretary of State, and Lewis
Cass. Fate linked the careers of these two
men closely. Both were afterward rivals
for the Democratic nomination for the
Presidency for years. Van Buren,, after
serving as Vice-President in Jackson's last
term, got the party nomination in 1886,
and was elected. -Four years later he was
nominated, but met defeat by Harrison at
the polls. In 1874 Van Buren, and Cass
were the chief aspirants for the post of
standard-bearer of their party, but each
defeated the other and gave the nomina-
ton to James K. Polk. Four years suisse
quently Cass beat Van Buren, in the Con-
vention and Van Buren,, by getting the
Free Soil candidacy, SO weakened the
Democrats that New York was carried
for Taylor and Cass was beaten at the
polls.
In Van Buren's Cabinet the only names
at all conspicuous at that time were those
of Levi Woodbury. and Amos Kendall,
and neither ever filled big place in the
country's history. Both had served for a
time in Jackson's Cabinet, holding the
portfolios retained under Van Buren,,
Woodbury. being Secretary of the Treas.
ury and Kendall Postmaster General.
The Cabinet chosen by William Henry
Harrison in 1S41 was composed of more
able men than had ever been gathered to-
gether in one ministerial council up to
that date. 1t comprised Daniel Webster,
Secretary of State; Thomas Ewing, Secre-
tary of the Treasury; John Bell, Secretary
of War; G. E. Badger, Secretary Of the
Navy; John j. Crittenden, Attorney Gen
eral, and Francis Granger, Postmaster
General. All of these men, with the soli-
tary exception of Badger, stood in the
front rank of American statesmen, and all
filled out long and illustrious career.
Bell, twenty years after taking a place in
Harrison's Cabinet, was the Presidential
candidate Of the Constitutional Union
party in the year in which Lincoln was
elected.
four he afto, 1
Cabinet was disrupted, all resigning ex-
cept Webster, who retained his place until
after the extradition treaty of 1912 with
England was ratified, when he, too, re-
tired. The only strong names in the Cab
met which Tyler chose after Harrison's
advisers resigned, were those Of III. S. Lee
care and John G. Calhoun, both of whom
successfully held the post of Secretary of
State for short time, the former previ-
onsly filling the position of Attorney-G Gen
eral. Legare, who was one of the greatest
jurists of his age, died suddenly in Boston,
whittier he and President Tyler had gone
to attend the celebration held on the an
niversary of the battle of Bunker Hill.
James Buchanan, Secretary of State;
Robert j. Walker, Secretary of the Treas
ury; VIM. l.. Marcy, Secretary of War.
and George Bancroft, Secretary of the
Navy, were the members of Folks Cabinet
who were at that time and subsequently,
best known to the country. The Bancroft
named is the historian, and he alone, of
all the men composing that body, is still
living. Buchanan afterward became Presi-
dent. Walker was the author of the cele-
brated low tariff of 1916, which bore his
name. Marcy, who had previously been a
United States Senator and Governor of
New York, afterward became Secretary of
State in the Cabinet of Franklin Pierce.
1t was Marcy who first formally enunci-
ated the doctrine that to the victors belong
the spoils, which Jackson, while in the
Presidency, first put into practice.
In the term forwhich Taylor was chosen
to the Presidency the Cabinet contained
an unusually large number of noted men.
During all of the year and third which
Taylor served, John NJ. Clayton was Secre-
tary of State and Thomas Ewing was Sec
rotary of the newly created Department of
the Interior. In the two years and two
thirds of Taylor's term which Fillmore
served out, Daniel Webster and Edward
Everett successfully held the post of Sec
rotary of State, Thomas Corwin was Secre-
tary of Treasury and John J. Crittenden
was General Both Webster and