Which president created the cabinet

On November 26, , two-and-a-half-years into his presidency, Washington convened the first cabinet meeting. Ellis in the Winter issue]. Washington selected these secretaries, and their eventual successors, very carefully. He weighed three criteria.

First, like all presidents, he wanted a personal relationship with them. Second, he wanted secretaries that had expertise, knowledge, and experience that were different than his own. Washington intended to ask for their advice and follow it — they needed to know what they were talking about. For example, Jefferson had extensive diplomatic experience, while Washington had only left the country once to go to Barbados as a teenager.

Similarly, Randolph had legal training and practice, and was widely regarded as one of the top legal minds in the country. Third, Washington used cabinet appointments to represent the different geographical and regional interests in the new nation. Washington selected secretaries for each of these positions. While the Department of Justice would not be created until , Washington appointed and included Attorney General Edmund Randolph to serve in his first cabinet.

It was not until almost five months later, on Sept. This Act granted the Supreme Court the jurisdiction to hear appeals of decisions that were rendered by the highest court from each of the individual states when the decision addressed constitutional issues that interpreted both federal and state laws.

This provision of the act proved to be extremely controversial, especially among those who favored states' rights.

Washington waited until September to form his first cabinet. The four positions were quickly filled in only 15 days. He hoped to balance out the nominations by choosing members from different regions of the newly formed United States. Alexander Hamilton — was appointed and quickly approved by the Senate as the first secretary of the treasury on Sept.

Hamilton would continue to serve in that position until January He would have a profound impact on the early economic development of the United States. On Sept. Department of War. Knox was a Revolutionary War hero who had served side-by-side with Washington. Knox would also continue in his role until January He was instrumental in the creation of the United States Navy. The country struggled to negotiate alliances with Britain and France; at home, the Americans who just fought for independence chafed at a new centralized government demanding, among other things, direct taxes.

The U. So how did George Washington create one of the most powerful bodies in the federal government? Neither the Constitution nor Congressional legislation created key structures of the U. So how did the Cabinet first come into existence? So much of our government requires people following what the person before them did. Article II is very short. There's not a whole lot of guidance about what day to day governing should look like.

Maybe the delegates to the [? Maybe Washington was in the room, and they were uncomfortable discussing limitations to his activities. It's hard to say because they didn't necessarily write it down, but whatever the reason, much was left up to him to determine what to do once he was in office and to figure out what worked best.

The delegates basically gave the president two options: One was that he could consult with the Senate on foreign affairs, the other was that he could request written advice from the department secretaries about issues pertaining to their departments. Washington very quickly concluded that those options just weren't sufficient or prompt enough.

They didn't allow for the complex dialogue that was necessary to deal with the issues in front of him. So he created the cabinet to provide the support and advice that he needed. No legislation, no constitutional amendment created any of these things. The idea of direct reports is pretty common, and it would have been the management style that Washington was familiar with as a general.

Why wasn't that the obvious way to proceed from the beginning? The government form that these people were familiar with at the time was the British system, which had ministers that held seats in Parliament, while at the same time they were serving as the king's advisors. They had a seat in power in the legislature while also serving as advisors.

That was something that Americans were very cautious to try and avoid. They really thought of the department secretaries as being mini-bureaucrats that would help take care of some details and would report on those issues to the president.

Initially, they didn't want the secretaries meeting with the president secretly and providing advice because they thought that that would encourage corruption and might allow them to avoid taking responsibility for their decisions. If decisions were made behind closed doors, there wouldn't be transparency at the highest levels of government. So the delegates put very clearly [in the Constitution?

He wanted a system where he could issue an order, and the secretaries would give him their opinions or at least if they needed more time, then they would write a written opinion.

He needed something that was more immediate, because the issues facing the executive were incredibly complicated and unprecedented. When historians write about this period of the United States, after the Constitution was adopted and the formative years of Washington's administration, they often use terms like energy and efficiency.

Is that to draw a contrast with the old, baggy, loose central government under the Articles of Confederation? Under the Articles of Confederation, legislators? So Washington and many of the initial office holders, including many members of the cabinet, were really pushing for an executive that had the ability to put forth a solution and pursue that solution with energy.

They felt that in times of crisis, you needed that energetic, quick moving president. They had a great sense that having most power delegated to the states on a day-to-day basis was fine and made sense, but in times of crisis, they couldn't have 13 governors competing to establish policy because then [the nation would] have this very conflicting approach to what's going on.

Every President has a lot to do -- especially a modern-day United States President. He or she must:. How can one person do all this? One "trick" a President has is to delegate jobs. He or she assigns or turns over much of the day-to-day work to others.