Quote:
“The last cabinet member I can remember resigning was William Jennings Bryan in 1915 when he refused to sign a diplomatic note that Wilson wanted to him to send to the Germans.”
That is interesting.
I recall reading years ago (10-15 years) where at one time it was “traditional” that every one or two years the cabinet members would offer to resign - verbally and directly to the President.
The offer was likely to be refused, but the intent was to keep the President from asking a sitting cabinet member to resign that he had once appointed.
I do not recall the source, as it has been so long since seeing that, and when (or if) the “tradition” died off.
The first thing that cabinet members do upon being sworn in is submit an undated letter of resignation to the Chief of Staff..