fbi history
The FBI: The First Century By Craig Collins
T
he FBI’s own historian, Dr. John Fox, calls it a “tempest in a teapot.” But to U.S. Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte and his opponents in Congress, the political battle that resulted in the creation of a 34-man corps of investigative Special Agents in 1908 was a barn burner – and President Theodore Roosevelt helped fan the flames. At the turn of the 19th century, only one executive branch agency had a permanent force of investigative professionals: the Secret Service, in the Department of the Treasury.
an absent-without-leave naval officer, stumbled upon the officer’s affair with a married woman, sparked a public outcry. “The husband [of the woman] ended up calling on the Secret Service detectives to testify in the divorce proceedings,” said Fox. “And so people were wondering: ‘Why is the government looking into these private matters?’” Congress, which had already engaged in several battles with Roosevelt over the limits of executive power, promptly passed a law that prevented all other executive branch agencies from hiring Secret Service operatives. With no appar-
Since the 1870s, other agencies with the authority to investigate crimes, including the Department of Justice, had hired these Secret Service detectives on an ad hoc basis. To Bonaparte – a Progressive, like his friend Teddy Roosevelt, who believed that government service should be awarded on merit, rather than political spoils – the arrangement with the Secret Service had always been frustrating. While well-trained and dedicated, the investigators were expensive, and they answered not to the attorney general, but to the chief of the Secret Service. Bonaparte wanted control of the investigations under his jurisdiction. Several high-profile cases, in 1906 and 1907, inspired a legislative power play that forced Bonaparte’s hand. “A couple of those cases had to do with land fraud out in the West,” explained Fox. But a more sensational case, in which Secret Service operatives, investigating the whereabouts of
ent option available to Bonaparte, who needed detectives to investigate federal crimes, the Attorney General appointed a force of Special Agents in the Justice Department. On July 26, 1908, Bonaparte ordered the 34 Agents to report to chief examiner Stanley W. Finch. Congressional legislators, accustomed to an ongoing battle with Roosevelt over the limits of executive power, didn’t protest Bonaparte’s move but took great umbrage at Roosevelt, well into the “lame duck” period of his administration, when he publicly taunted them over their earlier legislative move that led to the creation of the Bureau. This led to heated debate over the winter of 1908-1909 but had no impact on Bonaparte’s experiment. Soon enough, Congress found they would need the services of these detectives, whom Bonaparte’s successor, George Wickersham, had named the Bureau of Investigation.
National Archives
Congress, which had already engaged in several battles with Roosevelt over the limits of executive power, promptly passed a law that prevented all other executive branch agencies from hiring Secret Service operatives. With no apparent option available to Bonaparte, who needed detectives to investigate federal crimes, the Attorney General appointed a force of Special Agents in the Justice Department.
16 Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity
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