kitchen cabinet

A group of unofficial advisers to the head of a government.

[From the story that President Andrew Jackson met with his unofficial cabinet in the White House kitchen.]

Small group of close advisers to a prime minister or president, who informally gather to take decisions on government policy. The term was first used to describe the meetings in the White House kitchen between President Andrew Jackson and his friends to discuss government business. There is often tension between members of a kitchen cabinet, who are able to influence policy in an informal way, and those ministers who have direct and official responsibility for government departments but see themselves cut out of the decision-making process.

A case or box-like assembly consisting of doors, drawers, and shelves primarily used for storage for food, utensils, linen, etc.

The kitchen cabinet is the name given to Presidential advisers who do not hold high public office but who wield great influence in the White House. President Andrew Jackson, upset because his cabinet secretaries did not rein in their wives during the Peggy Eaton affair (in which the wife of the secretary of war was accused of a prior adulterous act), relied on two newspaper editors and three minor officials in the Treasury Department instead of convening cabinet meetings. His political enemies accused him of using a “kitchen cabinet” instead of the real one.

Earlier, Thomas Jefferson had been accused of forming an “invisible cabinet” that dealt in “backstairs influence” at the White House. Later, Theodore Roosevelt had a “tennis cabinet” and Warren Harding a “poker cabinet” of advisers. Harry Truman was criticized for relying on his Missouri Gang, and he struck back at critics by claiming to have organized his own kitchen cabinet, which included a secretary for inflation, secretary of reaction, secretary for columnists, and secretary of semantics. President Ronald Reagan invited a group of California business entrepreneurs who had been active in funding his campaigns to serve as informal advisers, but after some bad publicity the White House staff got Reagan to distance himself from them.

See also Brains Trust; Cabinet; Jackson, Andrew

Sources

• William Safire, Safire's Political Dictionary (New York: Ballantine, 1978)

"Kitchen Cabinet," a title derisively applied by President Andrew Jackson's political enemies to an informal group of advisers who were credited with exercising more influence on the president than his regular cabinet. From 1829 until 1831, when the cabinet was reorganized, the Kitchen Cabinet, or "lower cabinet," as it was often called, was especially influential. Thereafter, Jackson re-lied less on his informal advisers and more on regular members of the cabinet. The most important members of the Kitchen Cabinet were Amos Kendall, Francis Preston Blair, Sr., William B. Lewis, A. J. Donelson, Martin Van Buren, and John H. Eaton.

Bibliography

Latner, Richard B. "The Kitchen Cabinet and Andrew Jackson's Advisory System." Journal of American History 65 (September 1978): 367–388.

For cabinets used in kitchens, see kitchen cabinet.

The Kitchen Cabinet was a term used by political opponents of President of the United States Andrew Jackson to describe the collection of unofficial advisers he consulted in parallel to the United States Cabinet (the "parlor cabinet") following his purge of the cabinet at the end of the Eaton Affair and his break with Vice President John C. Calhoun in 1831.^[1][2]

In an unprecedented dismissal of five of the eight Cabinet officials in the middle of his first term, Jackson dismissed Calhoun's allies Samuel D. Ingham, John Branch, and John M. Berrien as well as his own supporters, Secretary of State Martin Van Buren and Secretary of War John Eaton. However, Jackson retained Van Buren in Washington as the minister to Great Britain.

Jackson's Kitchen Cabinet included his longtime political allies Martin Van Buren, Francis Preston Blair, Amos Kendall, William B. Lewis, Andrew Jackson Donelson, John Overton, and his new Attorney General Roger B. Taney. As newspapermen, Blair and Kendall were given particular notice by rival papers.^[2][3]

Blair was Kendall's successor as editor of the Jacksonian Argus of Western America, the prominent pro-New Court newspaper of Kentucky. Jackson brought Blair to Washington, D.C. to counter Calhounite Duff Green, editor of The United States Telegraph, with a new paper, the Globe. Lewis had been quartermaster under Jackson during the War of 1812; Andrew Donelson was Jackson's adoptive son and private secretary; and Overton was Andrew Jackson's friend and business partner since the 1790s.^[3][4]

Contents 1 Coinage 2 Popular use 3 In Britain 4 See also 5 References 6 Further reading

Coinage

The first known appearance of the term is in December 1831 a place in the most degraded prints of the Union.^[2]Many people opposed the kitchen cabinet, feeling that they could not make decisions as well as the pro forma cabinet. Jackson wanted people who were actually living in the world, not careerists without perspective.^{[citation needed]}

Popular use

Look up kitchen cabinet in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

In colloquial use, "kitchen cabinet" refers to any group of trusted friends and associates, particularly in reference to a President's or presidential candidate's closest unofficial advisers. Clark Clifford was considered a member of the kitchen cabinet for John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson before he was appointed Secretary of Defense. Robert Kennedy was uniquely considered to be a kitchen cabinet member as well as a Cabinet member while he was his brother's Attorney General.

Ronald Reagan had a kitchen cabinet of allies and friends from California who advised him during his terms. This group of ten to twelve rich businessmen were all strong proponents of the free enterprise system. His wealthy, conservative California backers included: Alfred Bloomingdale, Earl Brian, William French Smith, Charles Wick, auto dealer Holmes Tuttle, beer baron Joseph Coors, philanthropist Earle Jorgensen, and about four to six others. Coors was the major funder and most active participant. He also funded many think tanks and policy institutes at about this time, including the Heritage Foundation.^{[citation needed]}

In Britain

The term was introduced to British policies to describe British Prime Minister Harold Wilson's inner circle during his terms of office (1964-1970 and 1974-1976); prior to Tony Blair, Wilson was the longest ever serving Labour Party Prime Minister. Members included Marcia Williams, George Wigg, Joe Haines, and Bernard Donoughue. The term has been used subsequently, especially under Tony Blair, for the sidelining of traditional democratic cabinet structures to rely far more on a close group of non-elected advisors and allies. Examples of this practice include Blair's reliance on advisor Andrew Adonis before his appointment to the cabinet. Traditionally, the role of creation of education policy would have rested on the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when formulating policy.

See also

• Black Cabinet
• Brain Trust

References

1. ^ Wilentz, Sean (October 24, 2005). The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln (hardcover ed.). W. W. Norton. ISBN 0393058204. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} Remini, Robert V. (September 1, 2001). The Life of Andrew Jackson (Perennial Classics ed.). Harper Perennial Modern Classics. ISBN 0060937351. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Wilentz, Sean (December 27, 2005). Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.. ed. Andrew Jackson (BCE Edition ed.). Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 0805069259. 
4. ^ John Overton Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture

Further reading

• Latner, Richard B. "The Kitchen Cabinet and Andrew Jackson's Advisory System". The Journal of danny American History, Vol. 65, No. 2 (Sep., 1978), pp. 367-388
• Longaker, Richard P. "Was Jackson's Kitchen Cabinet a Cabinet?" The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 44, No. 1 (Jun., 1957), pp. 94-108

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

It was the name given to President Andrew Jackson's unofficial group of advisers, who reportedly met with him in the White House kitchen. The group included the then secretary of state Martin Van Buren (1782-1862), who went on to become vice president (during Jackson's second term) and president from 1837 to 1841; F. P. Blair (1791-1876), editor of the Washington Post, who was active in American politics and later helped get Abraham Lincoln elected to office (1860); and Amos Kendall (1789-1869), a journalist who was also a speech writer for Jackson and went on to become U.S. postmaster general. The Kitchen Cabinet was influential in formulating policy during Jackson's first term (1829-33), many believe because the president's real cabinet, which he convened infrequently, had proved ineffective. But Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, drew harsh criticism for relying on his cronies in this way. When he reorganized the cabinet in 1831, the Kitchen Cabinet disbanded.

Jackson's favoritism to his circle of friends did not end with the Kitchen Cabinet, however. During his presidency the "spoils system" was in full force: Jackson gave public offices as rewards to many of his loyal supporters. Though the term spoils system was popularized during Jackson's terms in office (it was his friend, Senator William Marcy, who coined the phrase when he stated, "to the victor belong the spoils of the enemy"), Jackson was not the first president to grant political powers to his party's members. And the practice continued through the nineteenth century. However, beginning in 1883 laws were passed that gradually put an end to, or at least limited, the spoils system.