Cabinet, President's
A body of executive advisers authorized by Congress in the absence of a constitutional provision, and appointed by the
President at the beginning of his administration.
Unless death, personal considerations, or other circumstances prevent, cabinet officers hold their places throughout the administration.
Each
cabinet officer is at the head of a department comprising a number of executive bureaus.
The chief of the Department of Justice is the
Attorney-General of the
United States; the chiefs of all other departments are officially called secretaries of the departments.
The cabinet of a President of the
United States is somewhat similar in its functions to the ministry of a monarchical government; but there are notable differences.
As a general thing, members of a ministry have the right to urge or defend any public measure before the supreme legislature of their country, a privilege with which the
American cabinet officer has never been invested.
While cabinet officers hold their places through an administration or at the pleasure of themselves or the
President, and are in no wise affected by any legislation in Congress to which they may be officially opposed, the members of a ministry almost invariably tender their resignations when the supreme legislative body acts adversely to any measure on which the ministry has decided.
In the cabinet no one member takes precedence of another, and when the members are assembled in formal conference the
President presides.
In a ministry the spokesman is the president of the council, and usually the minister for foreign affairs is officially known either as the prime minister or premier.
The various cabinet officers receive a salary of $8,000 per annum.
The following is a summary of the organization and the functions of the eight executive departments as they existed in 1901:
The
Secretary of State has charge of what is known as the State Department.
This was created by act of Congress, July 27, 1789, having been in existence, however, at that time for some months, under the name of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
The first to fill the office was
Thomas Jefferson.
The
Secretary of State has in his charge all business between our own and other governments.
The department conducts the correspondence with our ministers and other agents in foreign countries, and with the representatives of other countries here.
All communications
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respecting boundary and other treaties are also under the direction of this department, and a special clerk compiles and preserves all statistics relating to our foreign commerce.
This department also files all acts and proceedings of Congress, and attends to the publication of the same and their distribution throughout the country.
No regular annual report is made to Congress concerning the work of this department, but special information is given whenever any unusual event or complication in our foreign relations occurs.
The first
Secretary of the Treasury was
Alexander Hamilton, who was appointed upon the organization of the department, Sept. 2, 1789.
This department
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Seal of the Treasury Department |
has charge of all moneys paid into the Treasury of the
United States, also of all disbursements, the auditing of accounts, and the collection of revenue.
It also supervises the mint and coinage of money, and has charge of the coast survey, including the erection and management of light-houses.
The marine hospitals of the government are also under its direction, and it controls the regulation and appointments of all custom-houses.
The
Secretary is obliged to make a full report to Congress, at the opening of each regular session, of the business done by the department during the year, and the existing financial condition of the government.
The department has an important bureau of statistics dealing with the foreign and domestic trade of the country.
It also
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Seal of the War Department. |
supervises the life-saving service, and has control of the National Board of Health.
The War Department dates from Aug. 7, 1789.
John Knox was its first
Secretary.
It has in its charge all business growing out of the military affairs of the government, attends to the paying of troops, and furnishing all army supplies; also supervises the erection of forts, and all work of military engineering.
The department is divided into a number of important bureaus, the
chief officers of which are known as the
commanding-general, the
adjutant-general, the
quartermaster-general, the
paymaster-general, the
commissary-general, the
surgeon-general, the
chief engineer, the chief of survey, and the
chief of ordnance.
The signal service is under the control of this department.
It is made the duty of the
Secretary of War
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to report annually to Congress concerning the state of the army, the expenditures of the military appropriations in detail, and all matter concerning the bureaus over which the department has special supervision.
This department has also in charge the publication of the official records of the
Civil War, an enormous work.
All the archives captured from or surrendered by the Confederate government are also in charge of this bureau of records.
The first
Attorney-General of the
United States,
Edmund Randolph, of
Virginia, was appointed under act of Congress of Sept. 24, 1789.
The
Attorney-General is required to act as attorney for the
United States in all suits in the Supreme Court; he is also the legal adviser of the
President and the heads of departments, and also of the solicitor of the treasury.
He is further charged with the superintendence of all
United States district attorneys and marshals, with the examination of all applications to the
President for pardons, and with the transfer of all land purchased by the
United States for government buildings, etc. The name, “Department of justice,” by which this division of the cabinet is now largely known, was given to it about 1872.
The Navy Department (1789) was at first included in the War Department, but in 1798 the two branches of the service were separated.
Aug. 21, 1842, this department was organized into five bureaus—
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the bureau of navy-yards and docks; of construction, equipment, and repair; of provisions and clothing; of ordnance and hydrography; of medicine and surgery.
To these have since been added a bureau
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Seal of the Navy Department. |
of navigation, one of steam engineering, and one of recruiting, to which last has been added the work of equipment formerly provided for in connection with the construction bureau.
It also keeps a library of war records.
The
Secretary of the Navy has charge of everything connected with the naval service of the government, and the execution of the laws concerning it, and makes annual reports to Congress of the conditions of the department.
All instructions to subordinate officers of the navy and to all chiefs of the bureaus emanate from him, while the department supervises the building and repairs of all vessels, docks, and wharves, and enlistment and discipline of sailors, together with all supplies needed by them, The first
Secretary of the Navy was
Benjamin Stoddert, of
Maryland.
The Department of the Interior was created by act of Congress, March 3, 1849.
The business of the department is conducted by eight bureaus—viz., bureau of the public lands, pensions, Indian affairs, patents, education, railroads, and labor and labor statistics.
Concerning this work report is made annually.
These different bureaus have charge, under the
Secretary, of all matters relating to the sale and survey
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Seal of the Interior Department. |
of the public lands; the adjudication and payment of pensions; the treaties with the
Indian tribes of the
West; the issue of letters patent to inventors; the collection of statistics on the progress of education; the supervision of the accounts of railroads; the investigation of labor troubles, and collection of statistics thereon.
The
Secretary of the Interior has also charge of the mining interests of the government, of the census of the
United States, and of the receiving and arranging of printed journals of Congress, and other books printed and purchased for the use of the government.
The first to fill this office was
Thomas Ewing, of
Ohio.
The Post-office Department was established May 8, 1794.
It has the supervision of all the post-offices of the country, their
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Seal of the post-office Department. |
names, the establishment and discontinuance of post-offices, the modes of carrying the mails, the issue of stamps, the receipt of the revenue of the office, and all other matters connected with the management and transportation of the mails.
Samuel Osgood, of
Massachusetts, was the first to fill this office.
The duties of the head of this department have now a scope that would amaze the ghost of the first official appointed, could he be permitted to revisit the scene of his earthly labors.
In addition to the enormous and varied detail of labors connected with mail transportation here supervised, a series of maps of all parts of the country are kept, and continually revised to secure their entire accuracy to date.
The condition of this
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Seal of the Department of Agriculture. |
department, financially and otherwise, is reported annually.
The Department of Agriculture was at first a bureau of the Interior Department; but in 1889, by act of Congress, it was made independent, and its chief, the
Secretary of Agriculture, became a member of the
President's cabinet.
This department embraces numerous divisions and sections, such as the botanical division, the section of vegetable pathology, the pomological division, the
forestry division, the chemical division, the division of entomology, the seed division, the silk section, the ornithological division, the bureau of animal industry, etc. On July 1, 1891, the weather bureau, which had hitherto been a branch of the signal service of the War Department, was transferred, by act of
Congress, to this department.
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The following is a list of all members of Presidential cabinets since the organization of the federal government:
Secretaries of State.
| Name. | Appointed. |
| Thomas Jefferson | Sept. | 26, | 1789 |
| Edmund Randolph | Jan. | 2, | 1794 |
| Timothy Pickering | Dec. | 10, | 1795 |
| John Marshall | May | 13, | 1800 |
| James Madison | March | 5, | 1801 |
| Robert Smith | March | 6, | 1809 |
| James Monroe | April | 2, | 1811 |
| John Quincy Adams | March | 5, | 1817 |
| Henry Clay | March | 7, | 1825 |
| Martin Van Buren | March | 6, | 1929 |
| Edward Livingston | May | 24, | 1831 |
| Louis McLane | May | 29, | 1833 |
| John Forsyth | June | 27, | 1834 |
| Daniel Webster | March | 5, | 1841 |
| Hugh S. Legare | May | 9, | 1843 |
| Abel P. Upshur | July | 24, | 1843 |
| John C. Calhoun | March | 6, | 1844 |
| James Buchanan | March | 6, | 1845 |
| John M. Clayton | March | 7, | 1849 |
| Daniel Webster | July | 22, | 1850 |
| Edward Everett | Nov. | 6, | 1852 |
| William L. Marcy | March | 7, | 1853 |
| Lewis Cass | March | 6, | 1857 |
| Jeremiah S. Black | Dec. | 17, | 1860 |
| William H. Seward | .March | 5, | 1861 |
| Elihu B. Washburne | March | 5, | 1869 |
| Hamilton Fish | March | 11, | 1869 |
| William M. Evarts | March | 12, | 1877 |
| James G. Blaine | March | 5, | 1881 |
| F. T. Frelinghuysen | Dec. | 12, | 1881 |
| Thomas F. Bayard | March | 6, | 1885 |
| James G. Blaine | March | 5, | 1889 |
| John W. Foster | June | 29, | 1892 |
| Walter Q. Gresham | .March | 6, | 1893 |
| Richard Olney | June | 7, | 1895 |
| John Sherman | March | 5, | 1897 |
| William R. Day | April | 26, | 1898 |
| John Hay | Sept. | 20, | 1898 |
| “” | March | 5, | 1901 |
Secretaries of the Treasury.
| Alexander Hamilton | Sept. | 11, | 1789 |
| Oliver Wolcott | Feb. | 2, | 1795 |
| Samuel Dexter | Jan. | 1, | 1801 |
| Albert Gallatin | .May | 14, | 1801 |
| George W. Campbell | Feb. | 9, | 1814 |
| Alexander J. Dallas | Oct. | 6, | 1814 |
| William H. Crawford | Oct. | 22, | 1816 |
| Richard Rush | March | 7, | 1825 |
| Samuel D. Ingham | March | 6, | 1829 |
| Louis McLane | Aug. | 2, | 1831 |
| William J. Duane | May | 29, | 1833 |
| Roger B. Taney | Sept. | 23, | 1833 |
| Levi Woodbury | June | 27, | 1834 |
| Thomas Ewing | March | 5, | 1841 |
| Walter Forward | Sept. | 13, | 1841 |
| John C. Spencer | March | 3, | 1843 |
| George M. Bibb | June | 15, | 1844 |
| Robert J. Walker | March | 6, | 1845 |
| William M. Meredith | March | 8, | 1849 |
| Thomas Corwin | July | 23, | 1850 |
| James Guthrie | March | 7, | 1853 |
| Howell Cobb | March | 6, | 1857 |
| Philip F. Thomas | Dec. | 12, | 1860 |
| John A. Dix | Jan. | 11, | 1861 |
| Name. | Appointed. |
| Salmon P. Chase | March | 7, | 1861 |
| William Pitt Fessenden | July | 1, | 1864 |
| Hugh McCulloch | March | 7, | 1865 |
| George S. Boutwell | March | 11, | 1869 |
| William A. Richardson | March | 17, | 1873 |
| Benjamin H. Bristow | June | 4, | 1874 |
| Lot M. Morrill | July | 7, | 1876 |
| John Sherman | March | 8, | 1877 |
| William Windom | March | 5, | 1881 |
| Charles J. Folger | Oct. | 27, | 1881 |
| Walter Q. Gresham | Sept. | 24, | 1884 |
| Hugh McCulloch | Oct. | 28, | 1884 |
| Daniel Manning | March | 6, | 1886 |
| Charles S. Fairchild | April | 1, | 1887 |
| William Windom | March | 5, | 1889 |
| Charles Foster | Feb. | 21, | 1891 |
| John G. Carlisle | March. | 6, | 1893 |
| Lyman J. Gage | March | 5, | 1897 |
| “” | March | 5, | 1901 |
Secretaries of War.
| Henry Knox | Sept. | 12, | 1789 |
| Timothy Pickering | Jan. | 2, | 1795 |
| James McHenry | Jan. | 27, | 1796 |
| Samuel Dexter | May | 13, | 1800 |
| Roger Griswold | Feb. | 3, | 1801 |
| Henry Dearborn | March | 5, | 1801 |
| William Eustis | March | 7, | 1809 |
| John Armstrong | Jan. | 13, | 1813 |
| James Monroe | Sept. | 27, | 1814 |
| William H. Crawford | Aug. | 1, | 1815 |
| George Graham | | Ad interim |
| John C. Calhoun | Oct. | 8, | 1817 |
| James Barbour | March | 7, | 1825 |
| Peter B. Porter | May | 26, | 1828 |
| John H. Eaton | March | 9, | 1829 |
| Lewis Cass | Aug. | 1, | 1831 |
| Joel R. Poinsett | .March | 7, | 1837 |
| John Bell | March | 5, | 1841 |
| John C. Spencer | Oct. | 12, | 1841 |
| James M. Porter | March | 8, | 1843 |
| William Wilkins | Feb. | 15, | 1844 |
| William L. Marcy | March | 6, | 1845 |
| George W. Crawford | March | 8, | 1841 |
| Charles M. Conrad | Aug. | 15, | 1850 |
| Jefferson Davis | March | 5, | 1853 |
| John B. Floyd | March | 6, | 1857 |
| Joseph Holt | Jan. | 18, | 1861 |
| Simon Cameron | March | 5, | 1861 |
| Edwin M. Stanton | Jan. | 15, | 1862 |
| Ulysses S. Grant, ad interim | Aug. | 12, | 1867 |
| Lorenzo Thomas, ad interim | Feb. | 21, | 1868 |
| John M. Schofield | May | 28, | 1868 |
| John A. Rawlins | March | 11, | 1869 |
| William W. Belknap | Oct. | 25, | 1869 |
| Alphonso Taft | March | 8, | 1876 |
| James D. Cameron | May | 22, | 1876 |
| George W. McCrary | March | 12, | 1877 |
| Alexander Ramsey | Dec. | 10, | 1879 |
| Robert T. Lincoln | .March | 5, | 1881 |
| William C. Endicott | March | 6, | 1885 |
| Redfield Proctor | March | 5, | 1889 |
| Stephen B. Elkins | Dec. | 17, | 1891 |
| Daniel S. Lamont | March | 6, | 1893 |
| Russel A. Alger | March | 5, | 1897 |
| Elihu Root | Aug. | 1, | 1899 |
| “” | March | 5, | 1901 |
secretaries of the Navy.
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| Name. | Appointed. |
| J. Crowninshield | March | 3, | 1805 |
| Paul Hamilton | March | 7, | 1809 |
| William Jones | Jan. | 12, | 1813 |
| B. W. Crowninshield | Dec. | 19, | 1814 |
| Smith Thompson | Nov. | 9, | 1818 |
| Samuel L. Southard | Sept. | 16, | 1823 |
| John Branch | March | 9, | 1829 |
| Levi Woodbury | May | 23, | 1831 |
| Mahlon Dickerson | June | 30, | 1834 |
| James K. Paulding | June | 25, | 1838 |
| George E. Badger | March | 5, | 1841 |
| Abel P. Upshur | Sept. | 13, | 1841 |
| David Henshaw | July | 24, | 1843 |
| Thomas W. Gilmer | Feb. | 15, | 1844 |
| John Y. Mason | March | 14, | 1844 |
| George Bancroft | March | 10, | 1845 |
| John Y. Mason | Sept. | 9, | 1846 |
| William B. Preston | March | 8, | 1849 |
| William A. Graham | July | 22, | 1850 |
| John P. Kennedy | July | 22, | 1852 |
| James C. Dobbin | March | 7, | 1853 |
| Isaac Toucey | March | 6, | 1857 |
| Gideon Welles | March | 5, | 1861 |
| Adolph E. Borie | March | 5, | 1869 |
| George M. Robeson | June | 25, | 1869 |
| Richard W. Thompson | March | 12, | 1877 |
| Nathan Goff, Jr | Jan. | 6, | 1881 |
| William H. Hunt | March | 5, | 1881 |
| William E. Chandler | April | 1, | 1882 |
| William C. Whitney | March | 6, | 1885 |
| Benjamin F. Tracy | March | 5, | 1889 |
| Hilary A. Herbert | arch | 6, | 1893 |
| John D. Long | March | 5, | 1897 |
| “” | March | 5, | 1901 |
Secretaries of the Interior.
| Thomas Ewing | March | 8, | 1849 |
| Alexander H. H. Stewart | Sept. | 12, | 1850 |
| Robert McClelland | March | 7, | 1853 |
| Jacob Thompson | March | 6, | 1857 |
| Caleb B. Smith | March | 5, | 1861 |
| John P. Usher | Jan. | 8, | 1863 |
| James Harlan | May | 15, | 1865 |
| Orville H. Browning | July | 27, | 1866 |
| Jacob D. Cox | March | 5, | 1869 |
| Columbus Delano | Nov. | 1, | 1870 |
| Zachariah Chandler | Oct. | 19, | 1875 |
| Carl Schurz | March | 12, | 1877 |
| Samuel J. Kirkwood | March | 5, | 1881 |
| Henry M. Teller | April | 6, | 1882 |
| L. Q. C. Lamar | March | 6, | 1885 |
| William F. Vilas | Jan. | 16, | 1888 |
| John W. Noble | March | 5, | 1889 |
| Hoke Smith | March | 6, | 1893 |
| David R. Francis | Aug. | 24, | 1896 |
| Cornelius N. Bliss | March | 5, | 1897 |
| Ethan A. Hitchcock | Dec. | 21, | 1898 |
| “” | March | 5, | 1901 |
Postmasters-General.
| Samuel Osgood | Sept. | 26, | 1789 |
| Timothy Pickering | Aug. | 12, | 1791 |
| Joseph Habersham | Feb. | 25, | 1795 |
| Gideon Granger | Nov. | 28, | 1801 |
| Return J. Meigs, Jr | March | 17, | 1814 |
| John McLean | June | 26, | 1823 |
| William T. Barry | March | 9, | 1829 |
| Amos Kendall | May | 1, | 1835 |
| John M. Niles. | May | 25, | 1840 |
| Francis Granger | March | 6, | 1841 |
| Name. | Appointed. |
| Charles A. Wickliffe | Sept. | 13, | 1841 |
| Cave Johnson | March | 6, | 1845 |
| Jacob Collamer | March | 8, | 1849 |
| Nathan K. Hall | July | 23, | 1850 |
| Samuel D. Hubbard | Aug. | 31, | 1852 |
| James Campbell | March | 5, | 1853 |
| Aaron V. Brown | arch | 6, | 1857 |
| Joseph Holt | March | 14, | 1859 |
| Horatio King | Feb. | 12, | 1861 |
| Montgomery Blair | March | 5, | 1861 |
| William Dennison | Sept. | 24, | 1864 |
| Alexander W. Randall | July | 25, | 1866 |
| John A. J. Creswell | March | 5, | 1869 |
| Marshall Jewell | Aug. | 24, | 1874 |
| James N. Tyner | July | 12, | 1876 |
| David McK. Key | March | 12, | 1877 |
| Horace Maynard | June | 2, | 1880 |
| Thomas L. James | March | 5, | 1881 |
| Timothy O. Howe | Dec. | 20, | 1881 |
| Walter Q. Gresham | April | 3, | 1883 |
| Frank Hatton | Oct. | 14, | 1884 |
| William F. Vilas | March | 6, | 1885 |
| Don M. Dickinson | Jan. | 16, | 1888 |
| John Wanamaker | March | 5, | 1889 |
| Wilson S. Bissell | March | 6, | 1893 |
| William L. Wilson | Feb. | 28, | 1895 |
| James A. Gary | March | 5, | 1897 |
| Charles E. Smith | April | 21, | 1898 |
| “” | March | 5, | 1901 |
Attorneys-General.
| Edmund Randolph | Sept. | 26, | 1789 |
| William Bradford | Jan. | 27, | 1794 |
| Charles Lee | Dec. | 10, | 1795 |
| Theophilus Parsons | Feb. | 20, | 1801 |
| Levi Lincoln | March | 5, | 1801 |
| Robert Smith | March | 3, | 1805 |
| John Breckinridge | Aug. | 7, | 1805 |
| Caesar A. Rodney | Jan. | 28, | 1807 |
| William Pinkney | Dec. | 11, | 1811 |
| Richard Rush | Feb. | 10, | 1814 |
| William Wirt | Nov. | 13, | 1817 |
| John M. Berrien | March | 9, | 1829 |
| Roger B. Taney | July | 20, | 1831 |
| Benjamin F. Butler | Nov. | 15, | 1833 |
| Felix Grundy | July | 5, | 1838 |
| Henry D. Gilpin | Jan. | 11, | 1840 |
| John J. Crittenden | March | 5, | 1841 |
| Hugh S. Legare | Sept. | 13, | 1841 |
| John Nelson | July | 1, | 1843 |
| John Y. Mason | March | 6, | 1845 |
| Nathan Clifford | Oct. | 17, | 1846 |
| Isaac Toucey | June | 21, | 1848 |
| Reverdy Johnson | March | 8, | 1849 |
| John J. Crittenden | July | 22, | 1850 |
| Caleb Cushing | March | 7, | 1853 |
| Jeremiah S. Black | March | 6, | 1857 |
| Edwin M. Stanton | Dec. | 20, | 1860 |
| Edward Bates | March | 5, | 1861 |
| Titian J. Coffey, ad interim. | June | 22, | 1863 |
| James Speed | Dec. | 2, | 1864 |
| Henry Stanbery | July | 23, | 1866 |
| William M. Evarts | July | 15, | 1868 |
| E. Rockwood Hoar | March | 5, | 1869 |
| Amos T. Ackerman | June | 23, | 1870 |
| George H. Williams | Dec. | 14, | 1871 |
| Edwards Pierrepont | April | 26, | 1875 |
| Alphonso Taft | May | 22, | 1876 |
| Charles Devens | March | 12, | 1877 |
| Wayne MacVeagh | March | 5, | 1881 |
| Benjamin H. Brewster | Dec. | 19, | 1881 |
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