Origins:
1908 - 1910
The
FBI originated from a force of Special Agents created
in 1908 by Attorney General Charles Bonaparte during
the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. The two men
first met when they both spoke at a meeting of the
Baltimore Civil Service Reform Association. Roosevelt,
then Civil Service Commissioner, boasted of his reforms
in federal law enforcement. It was 1892, a time when
law enforcement was often political rather than professional.
Roosevelt spoke with pride of his insistence that
Border Patrol applicants pass marksmanship tests,
with the most accurate getting the jobs. Following
Roosevelt on the program, Bonaparte countered, tongue
in cheek, that target shooting was not the way to
get the best men. "Roosevelt should have had
the men shoot at each other, and given the jobs to
the survivors."
Roosevelt
and Bonaparte both were "Progressives." They
shared the conviction that efficiency and expertise,
not political connections, should determine who could
best serve in government. Theodore Roosevelt became
President of the United States in 1901; four years
later, he appointed Bonaparte to be Attorney General.
In 1908, Bonaparte applied that Progressive philosophy
to the Department of Justice by creating a corps
of Special Agents. It had neither a name nor an officially
designated leader other than the Attorney General.
Yet, these former detectives and Secret Service men
were the forerunners of the FBI.
Today,
most Americans take for granted that our country
needs a federal investigative service, but in 1908,
the establishment of this kind of agency at a national
level was highly controversial. The U.S. Constitution
is based on "federalism:" a national government
with jurisdiction over matters that crossed boundaries,
like interstate commerce and foreign affairs, with
all other powers reserved to the states. Through
the 1800s, Americans usually looked to cities, counties,
and states to fulfill most government responsibilities.
However, by the 20th century, easier transportation
and communications had created a climate of opinion
favorable to the federal government establishing
a strong investigative tradition.
The
impulse among the American people toward a responsive
federal government, coupled with an idealistic, reformist
spirit, characterized what is known as the Progressive
Era, from approximately 1900 to 1918. The Progressive
generation believed that government intervention
was necessary to produce justice in an industrial
society. Moreover, it looked to "experts" in
all phases of industry and government to produce
that just society.
President
Roosevelt personified Progressivism at the national
level. A federal investigative force consisting of
well-disciplined experts and designed to fight corruption
and crime fit Roosevelt's Progressive scheme of government.
Attorney General Bonaparte shared his President's
Progressive philosophy. However, the Department of
Justice under Bonaparte had no investigators of its
own except for a few Special Agents who carried out
specific assignments for the Attorney General, and
a force of Examiners (trained as accountants) who
reviewed the financial transactions of the federal
courts. Since its beginning in 1870, the Department
of Justice used funds appropriated to investigate
federal crimes to hire private detectives first,
and later investigators from other federal agencies.
(Federal crimes are those that were considered interstate
or occurred on federal government reservations.)
By
1907, the Department of Justice most frequently called
upon Secret Service "operatives" to conduct
investigations. These men were well-trained, dedicated
-- and expensive. Moreover, they reported not to
the Attorney General, but to the Chief of the Secret
Service. This situation frustrated Bonaparte, who
wanted complete control of investigations under his
jurisdiction. Congress provided the impetus for Bonaparte
to acquire his own force. On May 27, 1908, it enacted
a law preventing the Department of Justice from engaging
Secret Service operatives.
The
following month, Attorney General Bonaparte appointed
a force of Special Agents within the Department of
Justice. Accordingly, ten former Secret Service employees
and a number of Department of Justice peonage (i.e.,
compulsory servitude) investigators became Special
Agents of the Department of Justice. On July 26,
1908, Bonaparte ordered them to report to Chief Examiner
Stanley W. Finch. This action is celebrated as the
beginning of the FBI.
Both
Attorney General Bonaparte and President Theodore
Roosevelt, who completed their terms in March 1909,
recommended that the force of 34 Agents become a
permanent part of the Department of Justice. Attorney
General George Wickersham, Bonaparte's successor,
named the force the Bureau of Investigation (pictured
left) on March 16, 1909. At that time, the title
of Chief Examiner was changed to Chief of the Bureau
of Investigation.