The Washington times., 1901-09-19
CHANGING OF CABINETS.
Reconsideration the Usual Policy
With the New President.

| new
The relation of Cabinet Ministers to a
new Administration brought into power
by the death of President has always
been an interesting question. and one of
the great episodes of American history.
| The quarrel between President johnson
and the Republican leaders was focused
upon this issue. To the founders Of the
| Republic It would probably have appear
cd, had they given attention to the sub
ject of a Cabinet, that its members in
such n contingency should remain with
the new President who succeeded to Of
flee, helping him to carry out the policies
of the party which had on the same ticket
| elected both him and his predecessor to
| office
| The whig party lost by death the only
| two Presidents which in its long history
it succeeded in electing. When the
| Whig National Convention met in Har-
| risburg in 1889. to nominate candidates to
! be voted for the following year. 1t aimed
| to cast as wide net possible. Ac-
| cordingly 1t adopted no platforms, and in
order to unite anti Masonic and other op-
| position elements. it set aside the claims
| of Clay and nominated for President Will
| liam Henry Harrison of Ohio. who had
been its leading candidate against Van
|
President John Tyler, of Virginia
Harrison was inaugurated, and Tyler
was inducted into that office for which
Benjamin Franklin had said the fit title
should be His Most Superfiuous High
| ness Harrison lived just one month af-
ter the Whig party had waited for years
| to get taste of power Tyler retained
Harrisons S Cabinet at first, and promised
| to carry cut his policies, but in the eX-
ira session of Congress which had been
called by Harrison, a breach soon Wild
| ened between Tyler and the Wings. !:
reached crisis when, on September 8.
vetoed biil which he himself had out
| lined, at the request of the Wing leaders.
| as one which he would approve as SUBJ
stitute for the Fiscal Bank bill. which
| he had, to their great dismay, before
vetoed.
His action in vetoing a bill drawn in
accordance with his own suggestion nat
urally aroused the unc ,ncealed indigna-
ton of the Wing party. The Cabinet,
with the exception of Daniel Webster
Secretary of State. resigned. The Whis
Members of Congress issued an address
to the people in which they declared that
''all political connections between them
| and John Tyler were at an end" Web
ster, impelled by lofty spirit of patriot
ism, decided to remain in Office to further
some diplomatic negotiations which ne
mad begun. He resigned, however, in 1913,
TWO years after the others, and was sue
ceeded by Hugh S. Legare, of South Caro-
lima, who died in office the same year.
and was succeeded by Abel z. Upsher, of
Virginia The following year Upsher was
killed on board the man-of-war Prince
ton, when gun which had been taken
down the river for trial exploded, killing
two Cabinet officers. He was succeeded
by John c. Calhoun, who was then Tyler's
fourth Secretary of State.
Tyler's break with the Whig party,
which Unexpectedly occasioned the vacat-
ing of the Harrison Cabinet. furnished the
first precedent OF this subject, and one
which has since prevailed just as his de-
cision to call himself President instead
of Acting President has never since
been challenged. Had Tyler been n subj
missive follower of his chief the chances
are that Cabinets would generally expect
to remain with a Vice President suddenly
called upon to assume the Presidential
office.
When Fillmore succeeded to the Presi-
dency he made up an entirely new Cabi-
net with the exception of Thomas Ewing,
held office until September r. or about
two months. This was an office which
had just been created and he was its fiji st
occupant. Clayton, Secretary of State un-
der Taylor, whose name Is associated with
the Clayton-Bufwer Treaty, was succeed
ed by Daniel Webster, who died in 1852
and was succeeded in the State Depart
ment by Edward Everett. Between Tay-
lor and Fillmore there was less difference
of opinion than between the President
and Vice President of the earlier Whig
administration. although their personal
differences were considerab bic. Fillmore
was silver-grey Whig of New York
while Taylor was a Louisianian and
Shareholder, who had given little or 10
thought to politics. The change in the
Cabinet at that time was probably more
due to personal inclination and prefer
ences, and to the Tyler precedent, than
any internal conflict in the party.
One of Mr.. Fillmore's Secretaries of the
Navy was John 2. Kennedy of Maryland,
who is remembered as the author of a
celebrated Revolutionary novel, Horse
shoe Robinson which had a great vogue
in its day. His brother, Anthony Ken
nedy, was the only man elected to the
United States Senate distinctly as
know-nothing." In tie classifications
of 1857 and thereabouts several Senators
appear as belonging to the American"
party, who had been elected as Wings,
but Kennedy of Maryland is believed to
be the only one originally so elected.
When Lincoln was assassinated in 1865
the Cabinet question assumed large pro-
portions Three members of his Cabinet
remained in office through Johnsons
"a
McCulloch in the Treasury, and Welles
in the Navy. Three other members, Ush-
er, Secretary of the Interior; Dennison,
Postmaster General, and Speed. Attorney
General. remained in office under him for
about fifteen months. The remaining
member. for there was then no Secretary
of Agriculture, was Edwin NJ Stanton,
Secretary of War. Although he had been
a Democrat up to the time of LincolnS s
election, about him focused the quarrel
between President Johnson and the Re-
publican party. which produced so violent
a commotion.
1t is notable that a few days before
President LincolnS S assassination Stan
ton had rendered his resignation, think
ing that the war was over and desiring
to return to the practice of his profession.
Under Johnson, he soon found ii neces-
sary, in the interest of the Republican
party. whose position on the question of
reconstruction he sustained, to remain at
the helm to prevent Johnson from ac-
complshing too much. The War Depart
ment was then tee most important exec
utive branch o. the Government. The
story of the PresIdent's long conflict with
Congress and of his appointment of Grant
and Thomas as Secretaries ad interim.
and the passage over his head of the
tenure of office bill on March 2, 1861, it
day that johnson was acquitted on the
Impeachment trial, Stanton voluntarily re-
tired from the Cabinet and General Scho-
field filed out the remainder of the term.
When Chester A. Arthur succeeded to
the Presidency, it was an occasion when
men representing opposite wings OF the
party had been elected on the same ticket |
Arthur was Il Conkling man. James C.
Blaine, whom he found as Secretary of
State, had been the great anti-Conkling
leader and, OF course. there was nothing
for Mr.. Blaine to co but to leave the Cab |
met The rest of the members wi