Without checking Adams's friendly overtures, Jefferson soon brought him to agree that it would not be proper for the Vice-President to accept such a post.
Adams then proposed that Madison should go.

On March 6, Jefferson reported to Adams that Madison would not accept.

Then for the first time, according to Adams's own account, he consulted a member of his Cabinet, supposed to be Wolcott although the name is not mentioned.
Adams took over Washington's Cabinet as it was finally constituted after the retirement of Jefferson and Hamilton and the virtual expulsion of Randolph.

The process of change had made it entirely Federalist in its political complexion, and entirely devoted to Washington and Hamilton in its personal sympathies.

That Adams should have adopted it as his own Cabinet has been generally regarded as a blunder, but it was a natural step for him to take.