Presidents do not accomplish their goals and policies on their own, but rather depend on the best advice and counsel of their cabinet members.
Since the Presidential Cabinet idea was formulated by George Washington and the first Congress under the Constitution, we have had the creation over time of 15 Cabinet agencies, and some of those who have held Cabinet posts under Presidents have had a dramatic impact on their times.
Below is a list of what the author believes are those 30 Cabinet officers who have had the greatest effect on American history, without ranking them in any order:
Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury under George Washington
Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison
John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State under James Monroe
William Seward, Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson
Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State under Ulysses S. Grant
Carl Schurz, Secretary of the Interior under Rutherford B. Hayes
John Hay, Secretary of State under William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt
James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture under William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and William Howard Taft
Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior under Woodrow Wilson
Charles Evans Hughes, Secretary of State under Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge
Herbert Hoover, Secretary of Commerce under Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge
Cordell Hull, Secretary of State under Franklin D. Roosevelt
Harold Ickes, Secretary of the Interior under Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman
Henry A. Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture under Franklin D. Roosevelt
Henry Morgenthau, Jr, Secretary of the Treasury under Franklin D. Roosevelt
Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor under Franklin D. Roosevelt
George C. Marshall, Secretary of State under Harry Truman
Dean Acheson, Secretary of State under Harry Truman
Stewart Udall, Secretary of the Interior under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson
Robert F. Kennedy, Attorney General under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson
W. Willard Wirtz, Secretary of Labor under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson
Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State under Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford
George Romney, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under Richard Nixon
Cecil Andrus, Secretary of the Interior under Jimmy Carter
Elizabeth Dole, Secretary of Transportation under Ronald Reagan
Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton
Donna Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services under Bill Clinton
Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of the Interior under Bill Clinton
Richard Riley, Secretary of Education under Bill Clinton
Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush and Barack Obama
Note that 25 Presidents and 12 of the 15 Cabinet Departments are included in this list. Nine Secretaries of State; three Secretaries of the Treasury; one Secretary of Defense; one Attorney General; six Secretaries of the Interior; two Secretaries of Agriculture; one Secretary of Commerce; three Secretaries of Labor; one Secretary of Health and Human Services; one Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; one Secretary of Transportation; and one Secretary of Education make up the list.
Also note that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had five cabinet members who made the list; Bill Clinton had four; and Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson had three each!