The Cabinet

The Origin of the Cabinet

The Cabinet is a team that was developed to counsel the president on various issues and to operate the various executive departments within the national government. The Cabinet consists of the heads of the executive departments who serve as Cabinet members according to tradition. There is no Constitutional or congressional mandate that requires Cabinet members to serve. However, Article Two, Section Two of the U.S. Constitution does give the president the power to seek the opinion of executive department officers.
The first executive departments established by Congress in 1789 were the Department of State, Department of Treasury, and Department of War. The attorney general handled the functions of what was later to become the Justice Department. The State Department deals with matters of international concern, and the Treasury Department is concerned with the nation's financial resources. The War Department was established to coordinate national defense, and the attorney general focuses on domestic legal issues.
The first Cabinet members serving under George Washington were Henry Knox, who headed the War Department, Attorney General William Randolph (Justice Department), Alexander Hamilton, who served as chief of the Treasury Department, and Thomas Jefferson, who led the State Department.
As the nation and its needs grew, Congress, often at the request of the president, established new departments to handle these needs. The first new department that did not replace or incorporate some function of the four original departments was the Department of Interior, which was established in 1849.
While the Cabinet's importance has varied depending on the administration, every U.S. president has had a Cabinet. Cabinets were very important in the administrations of Presidents George Bush (1989-1993) and Bill Clinton (1993-2001) but had less of a role in John F. Kennedy's administration. In fact, Kennedy was quoted as describing Cabinet meetings as a "waste of time."