Upon his ascension to the Presidency, George M. Dallas began updating his Cabinet. With the Secretary of State position open following the death of James Buchanan, Dallas felt the need to fill the spot with a fellow believer in Manifest Destiny. However, because the Mexican-American War was seen in the North as an excuse to grab land for the expansion and extension of slavery, Dallas wanted to find a candidate who was both an expansionist and an ardent opponent of slavery, seeing this as a path toward appeasing Northern Whigs and Democrats. To this end, the new President of the United States settled upon George Bancroft, the Secretary of the Navy.
A native of Massachusetts, Bancroft was a firm believer in the importance of education and had previously served as a tutor at Harvard. While having failed in his 1844 campaign for the Massachusetts governorship, James Polk appointed Bancroft to his cabinet in 1845. While serving as the Secretary of the Navy, Bancroft established the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. Previously, Congress had not been open to the idea of creating a naval academy. However, ever the scholar, Bancroft poured through the laws surrounding his position and determined that, as the Secretary of the Navy, he was able to direct midshipmen to await for orders in a specific place, that he could direct naval instructors to instruct midshipmen while at sea, and that naval instructors could follow midshipmen to their place of common residence. By combining these three things, as well as determining that the expenses could be funded through the funds his department had already received, Bancroft established the Naval Academy in an abandoned military post that was ceded to the Navy by the Secretary of War. Congress thereafter accepted the Academy and began to properly fund it.
As a result of his success as Secretary of Navy, Dallas was thoroughly impressed by Bancroft and believed that his anti-slavery attitudes combined with his pro-expansionist beliefs would enable him to pass through Congress in order to become the new Secretary of State. While there was minimal opposition, Dallas was correct that Bancroft’s beliefs paved a middle path between Whigs and Democrats and he was confirmed as the Secretary of State on June 24th, 1846.
Secretary of State, George Bancroft
In order to replace Bancroft as Secretary of Navy, President Dallas nominated William Orlando Butler, who had lost his race for the Kentucky governorship in 1844 to the Whig Party candidate by 4,634 votes. There was more debate over Butler joining Dallas’s cabinet than there had been for Bancroft’s appointment as Secretary of State; however, ultimately Butler was confirmed as the new Secretary of the Navy on June 30th, 1846.
Secretary of Navy, William Orlando Butler