What Is Meant By The Term Kitchen Cabinet?

The term “Kitchen Cabinet “was coined by Andrew Jackson. The term "Kitchen Cabinet" was used in jest to refer to President Andrew Jackson's official council of advisors. The phrase has been in use for many years and is now typically used to describe a politician's informal network of advisors.

Jackson had a lot of mistrust for the official Washington when he took office following the bitter election of 1828. He started to fire government employees who had been in their positions for years as part of his anti-establishment activities. The Spoils System was the name given to his restructuring of the government.

 

Additionally, Jackson filled the majority of the positions in his cabinet with extremely obscure or ineffective persons, maybe in an effort to ensure that the president held all the authority rather than other members of the government.

 

Martin Van Buren, who was named secretary of state, was the only man in Jackson's cabinet who was thought to have any genuine political stature. Van Buren had been a key player in New York State politics, and his capacity to sway northern voters in favor of Jackson's appeal to the frontier helped Jackson win the presidency.

 

Jackson's administration was dominated by a group of friends and political allies who frequently held no formal positions.

 

Jackson was always a contentious figure, in large part because of his violent past and volatile personality. The informal committee was referred to as the "kitchen cabinet" by opposition media, who implied that it was sinister for the president to receive so much unofficial counsel. The parlor cabinet was another name for Jackson's formal cabinet.

 

Newspaper editors, political allies, and longtime Jackson associates made composed the Kitchen Cabinet. His campaigns, like the Bank War and the Spoils System's adoption, tended to receive their favor.

 

Jackson's informal circle of advisors grew in influence as he lost favor with those in his own administration. For instance, Jackson's own vice president, John C. Calhoun, resigned in protest of Jackson's policies and started to spark the Nullification Crisis.

 

Later presidential administrations began to use the phrase "kitchen cabinet" less jestingly to refer to the president's informal advisors. For instance, Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune, James Gordon Bennett of the New York Herald, and Henry J. Raymond of the New York Herald were known to contact with Abraham Lincoln while he was president (of the New York Times). Lincoln welcomed and greatly benefited from the advice (and political support) of respected editors given the intricacy of the difficulties he was facing.

 

A good example of a kitchen cabinet from the 20th century would be the group of advisors President John F. Kennedy would enlist. George Kennan, one of the Cold War's architects, was one of the academics and former government officials that Kennedy admired. Additionally, he would consult historians and academics informally for guidance on urgent domestic and international policy matters.

 

The kitchen cabinet no longer frequently evokes improper behavior in modern usage. The idea that "unofficial" people would advise the president is not viewed as illegitimate, as it had been in Jackson's day, because modern presidents are generally expected to rely on a wide spectrum of people for advice.