286 ANDREW JACKSON 



eral ; W. T. Barry of Kentucky Postmaster-general. 

 With the exception of Van Buren, as compared with 

 members of earlier cabinets, not merely with such 

 men as Hamilton, Madison, or Gallatin, but with 

 such as Pickering, Wolcott, Monroe, or even Craw- 

 ford, these were obscure names. The innovation 

 in the personal character of the cabinet was even 

 more marked than the innovation in the presidency. 

 The autocratic Jackson employed his secretaries as 

 clerks. His confidential advisers were a few intimate 

 friends who held no important offices. These men 

 W. B. Lewis, Amos Kendall, Duff Green, and 

 Isaac Hill came to be known as the "kitchen 

 cabinet." Major Lewis was an old friend who had 

 much to do with bringing Jackson forward for the 

 presidency. The other three were editors of parti- 

 san newspapers. Kendall was a man of considerable 

 ability and many good qualities, including a plentiful 

 supply of those virtuous intentions wherewith a cer- 

 tain part of the universe is said to be paved. He 

 was what would now be called a " machine politician." 

 On many occasions he was the ruling spirit of the 

 administration, and the cause of some of its worst 

 mistakes. Jackson's career cannot be fully under- 

 stood without taking into account the agency of 

 Kendall ; yet it is not always easy to assign the 

 character and extent of the influence which he 

 exerted. 



A yet more notable innovation was Jackson's treat- 

 ment of the civil service. This was the great blunder 

 and scandal of his administration, and because we are 

 still suffering from its effects it is in the minds of the 

 present generation more closely associated with Jack- 



