The first member of a President’s cabinet to resign before the term of office was over was of course the first Secretary of War Henry Knox. General Knox served as George Washington’s Secretary of War in his first cabinet serving which such luminaries as Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Secretary Knox was really the only “Washington” man in the cabinet as he put the Presidents interest before his own while his fellow cabinet secretaries were locked in mortal combat over their desire to chart the course of the new republic.He appealed to the President to enforce a minimum level of civility and comity in the discussion, but the President said to just ignore it and to not reply and the sniping and nonsense would stop of it's own accord. The chubby cabinet minister knew that would not work and was forced to resign and leave the cabinet to return to his mansion in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn where pursued his vocations of book binding, art and his intense interest in toilet water.
(I Quit, the History of Resignations in American History by Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pocket Books 2007)
8 comments:
Ya'know he bagged a moose up at Moosehead Lake, but he didn't skin it. He sold it to pay for glue.
The Tory, Sir Jeremy, followed him everywhere, and was a royal pain in the ass. Then, in a twist of fate, Sir Jeremy died suddenly from a conniption fit induced by an argument over a fine point of his beloved King George's policies.
There was much rejoicing.
Nobody's a quitter at Trooper Yorks. This post needs a "things are not what they seem" tag.
Are you back in your element yet?
What was Knox's position on DADT? I guess they were pretty open about it back in the day, going by continental soldiers flinging their balls over their shoulders and all. My eyes glazed over reading the impassioned DADT thread over at you know where.
Yeah, I miss Palladian, too, but what the heck. When you quit, you quit I guess?
Sure he can pop his head in now and then. It will make him feel good. Not to mention that the rest of us would work really hard to make him feel even better. But really, it would never be the same. Would it?
Maybe that's why quitters quit?
The "same" just doesn't suit them so well anymore.
Well that, or they find out that their love has a damn strap-on monkey on her back that gave up pitching for short stop.
You need to ask. Does every god-damned monkey need to be self actualized?
Are you mean Sarah is just following in the footsteps of Palladian et al? :)
You bitches!
Palladian! Yay!
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