Theodore Roosevelt Quotes
Head Devil
Roosevelt was then one of the 3 Civil Service Commissioners of the Harrison administration.
Theodore Roosevelt, 1858-1919, 26th President of the United States (Republican, NY), Name for Postmaster General John Wanamaker who was the leading dispenser of political patronage in the Harrison Administration, Letter to Cecil Spring Rice, May 3, 1982
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
First woman to receive the British Order of Merit. Nightingale was a great and prolific writer, and nothing attracted her ire worse than bureaucracy. See {614057}.
This quotation illustrates another political advancement instituted by Queen Victoria. In this case it was Merit Appointments which were almost unheard of. The Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, was notorious for his crony appointments and the use of appointments to gain political support for himself. (He was good at it and became prime minister 4 years later.0 However, under the Queen’s constant insistence and pressure, merit began to be the major factor in selection and appointments. Ironically, even in the United States, diplomats though often very qualified, are one of the last vestiges of patronage appointments with many ambassadorships going to campaign contributors.
We shall have a system where When Roosevelt became Police Commissioner, virtually every appointment, promotion, and disciplinary action was controlled politically. Nothing could be more shocking to the police and the politicians than Roosevelt’s statement. But he implemented that policy and the result developed into the finest urban police department in the country. The political influence however returned a few decades later.
Mason historically is a bit of a celebrity. Confederate Commanding General Robert E. Lee graduated 2nd in his class at West Point. The man who beat him was Charles Mason who was a military engineer and left the military and became a patent attorney.
The then President Rutherford Hayes was an aggressive reform advocate who had instituted Civil Service reform which eliminated a large proportion of the patronage appointments of the Federal Government. Conkling a classic political boss of the era felt that Hayes’ motives were just pandering to voters and saw him as a scoundrel. See {589693}.
Reacting to criticism that political appointees were being given civil service jobs toward the end of an administration:
Frederick the Great
Kennedy’s pro Nazi and pro Hitler stance and statements when Ambassador to England, destroyed him politically in the United States. However, we transferred his political ambition to his sons, and JFK became the first Catholic President of the United States.
He had recently appointed Holmes to the Court who then ruled against the President on a case.
Theodore Roosevelt Jr., often referred to as Teddy or his initials T. R., was an American statesman, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer, who served as the 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909. He previously served as 33rd governor of New York from 1899 to 1900 and the 25th vice president of the United States from March to September 1901. Roosevelt emerged as a leader of the Republican Party and became a driving force for anti-trust and Progressive policies.
