(gentle violin music)
- Interesting question,
because there's nothing
that requires him to create
what we consider the modern
Cabinet in the Constitution.
The Constitution creates
the executive offices of
Secretary of the Treasury,
Secretary of State,
and Secretary of War.
There's also the Attorney General,
who isn't the head of
any executive department.
Washington decided to work with these men
on an intimate basis,
on a face to face basis,
which ultimately would
become the operation
with Presidential Cabinet.
He could have, for instance,
used the Vice President,
John Adams, who was the
president pro tem of the Senate,
who sits in the Senate, as
something like a Prime Minister,
who was kind of doing the bidding
of the Executive Branch
in the Legislative Branch.
As sort of a speaker for the Executive.
But, he very much didn't do that,
and it's somewhat of a mystery why,
except for the fact that
it was clear that he wanted
to separate Executive powers
from Legislative powers.
Washington had experience
in managing his generals
and taking their thoughts,
their perceptions,
and really listening
to what they had to say
about any situation before he made a move.
He was a very deliberate man
and he liked to hear all
sides of the argument.
He also was very good at, kind of,
managing his estate from afar.
So, he would require constant reports
from the managers at Mount Vernon
while he was away from the estate.
So, he was used to receiving
reports from different people
that he was trying to get
to execute his commands.
And so, he really kinda
combines these two roles
of management style, really,
in his Executive Cabinet,
what becomes known as
the President's Cabinet.
Because he would ask the different,
Secretary of State or
Secretary of the Treasury,
Secretary of War, their
opinions on pressing matters
of affair, on legislation, on diplomacy,
and he would hear their opinions.
And he would let them argue it out,
and then he would,
ultimately, make a decision.
Interestingly, his
Cabinet emerged over time
to become, really, a team of rivals,
in the way that we think of
Lincoln having a team of rivals.
But, it wasn't by design.
Washington really wanted
people that he could trust,
that he knew were capable,
but that also represented
the diversity of regional interests.
Alexander Hamilton,
Secretary of the Treasury,
he's from New York.
William Knox, the Secretary
of War, is from Massachusetts.
Thomas Jefferson, the Secretary
of State, is from Virginia.
Edmund Randolph, the Attorney General,
had been Governor of Virginia,
had actually been the personal attorney
of Washington in many issues,
and had also served as
aide-de-camp during the war,
the Revolutionary War.
So, he really had a group
of men that he knew,
and knew quite well, but
what happened over time,
as people had different visions
about the direction of the country,
as the French Revolution erupted
and really almost forced the United States
into war overseas,
different rivalries emerged
within his Cabinet that
ultimately would break it apart.
Thomas Jefferson, of course,
representing a point of view
that agricultural interests
were the key to America's future,
Alexander Hamilton
representing the point of view
that closer ties with
the British trade system,
with British capital,
and with the development
of America's own financial
system was crucial
for the future development of the country.
Really came to see the state of affairs
in very different ways, and
were constantly, sort of,
in Washington's ear, trying to get him
to support their point of view.
Edmund Randolph sort
of stood in the middle,
between these two poles, and in fact,
Jefferson would call Randolph
basically a weak reed
who would blow with the wind,
and was constantly frustrated
that his fellow Virginian
wouldn't go along with his point of view.
But Washington was able to
manage these personalities
and these point of views particularly well
for most of his tenure as president.
Ultimately, they all resigned,
and they resigned both from exhaustion,
but also because they more
and more were unproductive
in terms of working together,
and Washington would have a
difficult time replacing them
with men of equal stature.
(gentle violin music)
