Evening star., 1920-11-21


MI disposition throughout the
country to help the Presi-
dent-elect pick his cabinet
and with Harding himself on record
as intending to have an extra cna1r
pulled in at the cabinet table for
Vice President Coolidge, the eyes OF
the country are focused upon this
little group of select advisers which
has been of ineshmable aid to the
chief executive and incalculable val
ue to the>country since the first presi-
dency. although it's existence is not
authorized by the Constitution or
statutes.
: But Harding in bidding Coolidge to
the cabinet sessions and saying.
Come. let us counsel together" is
really making no Innovation, for the
first cabinet meeting ever held in
this republic saw Vice President
Adams there and President Washing
ton absent. Although Washington
began his administration in May.
1889. it was not until April IL. 1871.
that the first cabinet meeting was
held. 1t was Washington's request
that if administration business
seemed to warrant n the cabinet should
meet during his absence on a southern
tour and that Vice President Adams
Should be invited.
Since then Vice Presidents have
frequently attended cabinet meet
ings,~ and the secretaries Of cabinet
members and other persons have oc-
casionally been called In for the benefit
OF their reports and advice on pressing
problems.
pROBABLY there is no phase of the
public service about which the
people of the country are so thor
oughly ignorant as cabinet meetings.
The most picturesque thing about the
meetings for the public, especially in
recent years, has been to see the Sec
retaries drive in their barouches into
the White House grounds for their
conference on affairs Of state. Any
one who attempts to look behind the
cu4tain of secrecy will fnd a difficult
task, for it has been an unwritten law
since the establishment of this gov
ernTnent that each sadmi nistration is
bound to have and 10 hold fts-eecrets
locked tight in the breasts and minis
OF the chief nnagistrate's intimate
counselors.
AS time melIows political events and
the asperities OF the elder days be-
come ha3ed some Of those who par
ticipated in these counsels write mem
oirs in order that the politics of
their day may, be correctly interpreted
for posterity. ThuS some day we may
get a iook-in at the cabinet meetings.
The sacredness of the. condolences
exchanged 1t q cabinet meeting WAS
perhaps best attessed in June, 1857,
when the judiciary committee OF the
House of Representative was con-
sidering the impeachnnent of Presid ent
Johnson and attempted. with sbcant
success. to Inquire lnrs the wcrkingss
AZ Johnsonso dabfnet. ~ e q - sss = =
Though existing &iths ywarSaat Of
Constitution or law, cabinet officers
rave, through. every admin nistratiefl:a Il
left their mark In the annals Of thstf
Alexander Hamilton, washington d i
Secretary OF the Treasury when he
was only thiety-three years old, ana
the youngest man who ever was a
cabinet member. was the principal au-
thor Of Washingfon's farewell ad-
dress.
Gailatin. Levi Lincoln and others
aided President Jefferson in the
Louisiana purchase.
John Quincy Adams, when Secretary
OF State. wrote the essential part OF
the Monroe doctrine, and the treaty
with Spain which gave Florida to the
United States. Long before the civil
war he "blased the path" for Lin
coins Emancipation proclamation"
Andrew Jackson's> "Nullihcafion