Feb. 25, 1793: President Washington held the first cabinet meeting. It consisted of four people: Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson; Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton; Secretary of War Henry Knox; and Attorney General Edmund Randolph. All four, of course, were the president's trusted advisers, but that didn't stop them from disagreeing among themselves. Hamilton and Jefferson in particular clashed "like two fighting fighting cocks," as Jefferson put it. It was such differences that laid the foundation for the eventual creation of our political parties.
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