It started with Andrew Jackson's Kitchen Cabinet, a group of trusted intimates who he relied on significantly. This group organized a whitewashing committee charged with neutralizing Adamsite libels during the 1828 campaign. Once he became president, Jackson continued to lean on this group. Amos Kendall, for example, aided Jackson in writing his policy messages. According to Arthur Schlesinger, Kendall was skilled at documenting, interpreting, and verbalizing Jackson's intuitions. Politician Henry Wise said of Kendall, "He was the president's thinking machine..."
Mark Hanna
The great businessman Mark Hanna worked the levers of government for his success, according to H.W. Brands. He believed in cooperation of big business with government. Hanna operated behind the scenes to help elect like-minded candidates who would accept his advice. In 1891 he promoted William McKinley for governor of Ohio. In the process he forged a new political system uniting the financial resources of big business with the Republican party, according to Brands.
Hanna and McKinley complemented each other. Hanna was cunning and blunt, making enemies. McKinley was pleasant and avoided making enemies. For the 1896 presidential campaign, Hanna devised the "front porch" strategy. McKinley received admirers in a controlled environment (his home) fielding softball questions, a forerunner of the photo opportunity according to Brands. Hanna also directed a massive get-out-the-vote campaign that instructed Republican district managers to get their voters to the polls anyway possible.
Colonel Edward House
Roughly around this time, wealthy Edward House was working behind the scenes helping to elect four Texas governors. Wanting to move on to bigger things, he was looking for a presidential candidate in 1912 to support. House chose New Jersey governor Woodrow Wilson. After meeting in December of 1911, they had a good rapport. Wilson said, "his thoughts and mine are one."
Both were internationalists. Wilson chose House as his spokesman in London and Paris trying to broker a peace in Europe during WWI. House was also directed to assemble "the inquiry," a group of experts charged with devising solutions for problems of the post-war world. The "Colonel" also drafted the constitution of the League of Nations, Wilson's dream. However, their relationship soured when Wilson accused House of making compromises during the post-war peace negotiations.
Louis McHenry Howe
In the same year House and Wilson first met, Louis Howe and Franklin Roosevelt became acquainted. Howe was a newspaper writer when he first met the New York state senator. He quickly saw him as "presidential timber." Howe helped an ill FDR get reelected senator in 1912. When FDR became assistant secretary of the Navy, Howe was his top aide. Later, with FDR stricken with polio, Howe bolstered his will to recover and kept alive his political career. By 1932, Howe was running FDR's presidential campaign. According to historian Alfred Rollins, FDR and Howe "...operated as parts of one political personality."
Howe's health and influence would wane during FDR's first term, according to Jonathan Alter. FDR utilized his "Brain Trust" of academic experts in the first years of the New Deal. Howe did manage the Civilian Conservation Corps and diffused a tense situation when angry WWI veterans protested benefit cuts and marched on Washington. Howe offered to enroll them in the CCC, with 25,000 veterans eventually signing up. It quelled the uprising.
Presidential advisers have had a great impact on history. Their symbiotic relationship with their president has been powerful. When Americans vote for president, perhaps they should consider who has the ear of the candidates.
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