entered upon the Presidency under no indebtedness. He at
once nominated his Cabinet as follows: Henry Clay, Secretary of State;
Richard Rush, Secretary of the Treasury; James Barbour, Secretary of
War; Samuel L. Southard, Secretary of the Navy; William Wirt,
Attorney-General. The last two were renominations of the incumbents
under Monroe. The entire absence of chicanery or the use of influence
in the distribution of offices is well illustrated by the following
incident: On the afternoon following the day of inauguration President
Adams called upon Rufus King, whose term of service as Senator from
New York had just expired, and who was preparing to leave Washington
on the next day. In the course of a conversation concerning the
nominations which had been sent to the Senate that forenoon the
President said that he had nominated no minister to the English court,
and

"asked Mr. King if he would accept that mission. His first and
immediate impulse was to decline it. He said that his
determination to retire from the public service had been (p. 178)
made up, and that this proposal was utterly unexpected to
him. Of this I was aware; but I urged upon him a variety of
considerations to induce his acceptance of it.... I dwelt with
earnestness upon all these motives, and apparently not without
effect. He admitted the force of them, and finally promised fully
to consider of the proposal before giving me a definite answer."

The result was an acceptance by Mr. King, his nomination by the
President, and confirmation by the Senate. He was an old Federalist,
to whom Mr. Adams owed no favors. With such directness and simplicity
were the affairs of the Republic conducted. It is a quaint and
pleasing scene from the period of our forefathers: the President,
without discussion of "claims" to a distinguished and favorite post,
actually selects for it a member of a hostile political organization,
an old man retiring from public life; then quietly walks over to his
house, surprises him with the offer, and finding him reluctant
urgently presses upon him arguments to induce his acceptance. But the
whole business of office-seeking and office-distributing, now so
overshadowing, had no place under Mr. Adams. On March 5 he sent in
several nominations which were nearly all of previous incumbents.
"Efforts had been made," he writes, "by some of the senators to obtain
different nominations, and to in