Andrew Jackson's Kitchen Cabinet Members
Kitchen Cabinet : an inner circle of unofficial advisers to the head of a government
The Kitchen Cabinet was a term used by political opponents of U.S. President Andrew Jackson to describe the collection of unofficial advisors. The kitchen cabinet reached its peak following his purge of the cabinet at the end of the Eaton Affair and his break with Vice President John Calhoun in 1831. Jackson wanted people who were actually living in the world, not careerists without perspective.
Jackson's Kitchen Cabinet included his longtime political allies Martin Van Buren , Francis Preston Blair , Amos Kendall , William B. Lewis , Andrew Donelson , John Overton , and his new attorney general Roger Brooke Taney . As newspapermen, Blair and Kendall were given particular notice by rival papers.
The first known appearance of the term is in December 1831 correspondence by Bank of the United States head Nicholas Biddle , who wrote of the presidential advisors that "the kitchen . . . predominate[s] over the Parlor." Many people opposed the kitchen cabinet, feeling that they could not make decisions as good as the pro forma cabinet.
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By tradition, historians claim that the label "kitchen cabinet" was first applied derogatorily by Jackson's opposition, to describe an informal group of advisers who maintained great influence over the President, particularly on matters of party and patronage. Claude G. Bowers, in his popular study of Jackson's presidency, called "the small but loyal and sleepless group of the Kitchen Cabinet... the first of America's great practical politicians." Jackson's interest in politics and personality, rather than in administration, naturally prompted the appearance of "a group of personal advisers, primarily concerned with patronage and party manipulation." References to the kitchen cabinet generally imply that the members worked together closely, shared similar political objectives, especially the promotion of Martin Van Buren's political fortunes, and attained their greatest influence in the first two year's of Jackson's presidency, when Jackson rarely called upon his regular cabinet officers for counsel.
This idea of a tightly-knit group of aides specializing in political manipulation, wire-working, and patronage, however, has been challenged by other historians. For example, Richard P. Longaker denied that the kitchen cabinet was "an institutional entity." To Longaker, the large number of alleged members (some of whome were also cabinet officers), as well as a lack of evidence of regular meetings, distinguished the kitchen cabinet from an authentic institution, such as a regular cabinet.
Thus, as Richard B. Latner argues, due to the ambiguity of the real political influence of Jackson's "Kitchen Cabinet," it is more useful to conceptualize the kitchen cabinet as an early model of the President's White House staff, rather than compare it with the regular cabinet. The White House staff is a group of personal aides that provides the president with a variety of services. The staff includes policy advisers, lobbyists, liason people, publicity experts, speech writers, and friends. Members are chosen to serve the President's needs and to talk his language. They share his perspective in overseeing the general direction of his administration, instead of the more limited perspective of departments heads. Latner argues that this White House staff analogy better reveals the role and function of Jackson's kitchen cabinet.
Andrew Jackson relied heavily on the counsel of his Kitchen Cabinet, as his own deficiencies in political understandings necessitated guidance from his closests friends and supporters.
Jackson kept in regular correspondence with the members of his Kitchen Cabinet; this letter is written to Francis Preston Blaire is one of the many forms of communication used by Jackson and his close advisers.
The term "Kitchen Cabinet" derives from the meeting place of Jackson's advisers - in the White House kitchen, pictured above.
Andrew Jackson's Kitchen Cabinet Members
Source: https://sites.google.com/site/jacksonianera/Home/kitchen-cabinet