W. H. Harrison Administration - Harrison's Advisers
Harrison's Advisers
The biggest issue surrounding the Harrison administration was the extent to which the new president would be merely a figurehead for more powerful personalities in the Whig Party. Opposed to the imperial style of executive leadership exercised by President Andrew Jackson and continued by Van Buren, the Whigs were committed to a redefinition of the relationship between the president, Congress, and the cabinet so that the executive abuses of the past would be reigned in. In accordance with this goal the Whig philosophy of presidential-cabinet relations asserted that the cabinet should guide and direct the president. While the president presided over his official advisers in name, decisions were to be reached by majority with the president accorded one vote equal in stature to those of the cabinet members.
Even before Harrison had taken the oath of office rumors circulated that he was destined to become little...
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