Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1889-02-21
THE EIGHTH CHAIR.
Tribune. February 13.

THE EIGHTH CHAIR.
New York Tribune February 13.
As was expected, the nomination of
the Hon. Norman S. Colman as first Sec
retary of Agriculture was confirmed by
the Senate yesterday. 1t may safely be
taken for granted that there will never
again be less than eight members of the
Presidents Cabinet. The wisdom of
having Department of Agriculture
has been questioned by many, but this
is road upon which there seems to be
no steps backward The Department
has been created, and the future tenden-
cy will undoubtedly be to enlarge its
sphere so>as to render it more worthy of
the name rather than to reduce it to its
former position.
The addition of another to the Exec
utive Departments is in itself an incl
dent of considerable Importance. 1t is
interesting to trace the process of expan-
sion that has gone on slowly since Presi-
dent Washington began his first Admin
istration one hundred years ago with a
Cabinet of only four members, or one
half the new number. The State Depart
ment,which was originally known as that
of Foreign Affairs, was the first to be es-
tablished. The War Department, at
that time of great Importance, included
the Navy also, which was not erected
into separate Department until 1898.
The Treasury, which was then small
bureau with a few clerks, gave small
promise of the great development it has
since undergone along with the growth
of the country, but without, it should be
remembered, departing materially from
the system devised by the genius of
Hamilton. The Attorney General was a
member of the Presidents Cabinet from
the beginning, but the Department of
Justice was not formally created until
1870, when the necessity of a uniform
construction and application of the laws
which had been impossible Heretofore,
with several law officers acting indie
pendently of each other, could not be
longer ignored. 1t is an interesting
fact, as Illustrating the slOwness with
which the Government first organized
itself, that the delay of the Presidents
Inauguration from March to April 30,
1889, owing to the tardiness of MEM
bers of Congress in reaching their posts,
was more than exceeded by the delay in
creating the Departments and setting
them in motion. The first nomination
made to fill one of them was that of
Hamilton as late as September II, 17o9.
The other places were filed during the
same month. The office of Postmaster
General was established at the time the
first Cabinet was formed, but the De-
partment was not constituted until five
years later. Even then the Postmaster
General was not considered a Cabinet
officer, and it was not until 1929 that he
was invited by President Jackson to
Cabinet meetings, which he has ever
since attended. Up to that time he
had been considered a subordinate of
the Treasury Department. In the tenth
wear of the existence of the Government
the Navy was erected into separate
Department.
Then for period of half century
there was no further expansion, but by
that time various branches of the public
business, related especially to domestic
affairs, had grown to a such a point as
to suggest the formation of new De-
partment in imitation of those of Inter
nal Affairs or of the Interior under
European Governments. In 1S49, there
fore, the Home Department was created,
for that is the title given in the act,
which seems, however, never to have
been used. 1t took patents, the census
and public documents. from the State
Department; the public lands, mines
and mining and judicial accounts from
the Treasury; Indian affairs from the
War Department, and pensions from the
War and Navy. To these have been
since added the public surveys, the Ter
ritories, the Bureau of Education, the
Pacific railways, ETC., until the Interior
has now become one of the most i'm
portant of the Departments.
The effort to enlarge the Department
of Agriculture by adding several bu-
reaus now under other Departments
was defeated in Congress. The crea-
ton of the Department, however, in
creases by one the influential body known
in practice as the Presidents Cabinet,
but not known under any name to the
law, and it is likely that, in the course
of time. other bureaus, whose work is
related to agriculture, will be merged in
it. Now the public is chiefly interested
in the selection the incoming President
will make for the place. The office Will
have little patronage or power, but 1t is
obvious that the man holding it Will
stand on level with she other advisers
of the President, and may WELD an