captioning performed by vitac and the attorney general who didn't have a department at the time but who was the government's lawyer who was edmund randolph. >> when did the secretaries first meet collectively and why? >> so the secretaries met as a group for the first time in april 1791. president george washington was leaving the capital at the time, which was philadelphia, and going on a tour of the southern states. this was the first tour he had done of the southern states and he was planning to be gone for a couple of months. he knew there was a possibility that something might come up that would need an immediate response and he might not be able to give an media answer

because the post took a long time at that point. he gave them the power to meet as a group and then to send their decision to him and he would basically ratify the decision. and that happened in april 1791. >> what precedent did washington set? >> washington set so many precedents as president. he established the title of president. he established how to nominee supreme court justices. in terms of the cabinet, that's one of the most important precedents because we obviously still have a cabinet today. washington established that each president would have to the opportunity to decide who his advisers were going to be. the department secretaries were always going to exist because those were in the constitution. but how closely they were going to work with the president or if they were going to be really intimate advisers or if the president was going to work with someone else outside of the administration, washington

really established that legacy and we still see that legacy today because the president determines if he's going to work really closely with the vice president as the past president has done or with department secretaries or with the national security adviser. these are all things that trace back to washington. >> what does the constitution say about the cabinet? >> the cabinet is not in the constitution. the word is nowhere to be found. interestingly, no additional legislation has been passed that determines the confines of the cabinet or how the president will interact with them. there's just that one clause that says the president can request written advice. it still is vanish up to the president's discretion and there's not a lot of public oversight as well. >> how did you get into this topic? >> so when i was in graduate school, i've always been really interested in the power of individuals over politics and government and early america is perhaps -- there's no more acute

time when individuals have the ability to really shape what was happening. so i started to read about washington's administration and i was curious about how the cabinet worked and i was looking for a book on the subject and i couldn't find one. and so i kept researching and kept researching and there was nothing to be found. i got very excited and i decided that i would write the book and fill the gap. it's an excellent opportunity that i'm grateful to have. >> what resources do you use for this research? >> as a historian of early america, i'm very lucky. all of the people who participated in the cabinet did a pretty good job of preserving their letters. i use all of the private papers of the first cabinet, washington, jefferson, hamilton, and most of those have been published as well which has been great. and for things like public opinion, we look at newspaper articles and maybe private correspondence or diaries. >> thank you for speaking with us. >> thank you.

weeknights this month, we're featuring american history tv programs as a preview of what's available every weekend on c-span3. tonight, we look at the cherokee nation. in the 1830s, under president andrew jackson, the cherokees were forcibly removed from their lands in the southeastern u.s. in what became known as the trail of tears. oklahoma city law professor lindsay robinson discusses the decisions issued by the united states supreme court involving the cherokee nation. watch tonight beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern and enjoy american history tv every weekend on c-span3. >> american history tv on c-span3. every weekend documenting america's story. funding for american history tv comes from these companies who support c-span3 as a public service.

c-span's long-running series "book notes" is back as a podcast. hear compelling interviews with authors and historians, new episodes are available every tuesday. this week on the inaugural episode of book notes plus, find out which u.s. presidents were caught in context scandals. eleanor herman joins us to discuss her book. get information about all the c-span podcasts at c-span.org/podcasts. selected by president george washington in 1789, alexander hamilton served as the first secretary of the treasury until january 1795. n