he was the cleverest politician and, next to Calhoun, the ablest man,
in the Democratic ranks. When offered the chief place in the Cabinet
he promptly accepted. Edward Livingston was given his choice of the
remaining positions, but preferred to accept an election to the
Senate. With due regard for personal susceptibilities and sectional
interests, the list was then completed. A Pennsylvania Congressman
Samuel D. Ingham, became Secretary of the Treasury; Senator John H.
Eaton was made Secretary of War; a Calhoun supporter from North
Carolina, John Branch, was given the Navy portfolio; Senator John M.
Berrien of Georgia became Attorney-General; and William T. Barry of
Kentucky was appointed Postmaster-General, after the incumbent, John
McLean, refused to accept the policy of a clean slate in the
department. The appointments were kept secret until one week before
the inauguration, when they were announced in the party organ at the
capital, Duff Green's _United States Telegraph_.

Everywhere the list caused consternation. Van Buren's was the only
name of distinction in it; and only one of the appointees had had
experience in the administration of national affairs. Hamilton
pronounced the group "the most unintellectual Cabinet we ever had."
Van Buren doubted whether he ought to have accepted a seat in such
company. A crowning expression of dissatisfaction came from the
Tennessee delegation in Congress, which formally protested against the
appointment of Eaton. But the President-elect was not to be swayed.
His ideas of administrative efficiency were not highly developed, and
he believed that his Cabinet would prove equal to all demands made
upon it. Not the least of its virtues in his eyes was the fact that,
although nearly evenly divided between his own followers and the
friends of Calhoun, it contained not one person who was not an
uncompromising anti-Clay man.