Civil service

In two quotations by Theodore Roosevelt, taken from the Theodore Roosevelt Cyclopedia, Roosevelt discusses public officials. Roosevelt reflects that good public servants will come to feel that they are merely playing a role in the execution of good government, and that they are tools for the nation to use. Roosevelt also comments on differentiating between good and bad public servants, and of honoring individual character rather than honoring the office they hold.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1911-1913

In two quotes selected from the Theodore Roosevelt Cyclopedia, Theodore Roosevelt expresses his belief about how public officials should act. Public officials, Roosevelt writes, should not hesitate to do their duty out of a fear that it might jeopardize their future. Roosevelt additionally believes in the independence of public officials to stand by their conscience in the execution of their duty, while also recognizing that it is the duty of the public to make sure that public officials are responsible to the people in carrying out their jobs.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1899-1911

Governor Chase S. Osborn announces his willingness to serve as governor of Michigan for a second term, despite not wanting to run for office again. Osborn understands many in the state wish him to serve another 2 years. He will not seek a nomination, but if nominated, he will run a vigorous election campaign to keep the governorship in Republican hands.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-09-30

Edward Earl Britton writes his autobiography in several parts, discussing his youth and involvement in many business pursuits. He breaks briefly in 1908 before continuing in a second portion, written in 1911. After reaching the present, Britton continues on by offering a prediction for the future of economic development in Central and South America. During his life Britton became connected with the Eagle Savings and Loan Company, wand was sentenced to serve some time in prison for the company’s deeds. The final pages of his autobiography feature several letters from friends petitioning New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes for clemency.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-03

Elliot H. Goodwin and Samuel H. Ordway, Secretary and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Civil Service Reform Association, respectively, write to the members of the organization to urge them to write to New York Governor John A. Dix and ask him to not approve the resolutions from the State Civil Service Commission. The Commission, as previously appointed by Dix, was made up of people hostile towards the civil service law, and their recommendations, Goodwin and Ordway suggest, would perpetuate the spoils system, rather than improving the situation.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-03-22

Under the pseudonym Nestor, the writer addresses the people of the United States ahead of the upcoming Constitutional Convention. He outlines four main problems with the country’s current form of government and suggests changes and a new form of government to fix them. In particular, he suggests two houses of congress, an executive branch, and the federal government minting money. Nestor also desires the founding of a university to train men in all matters of politics and government.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1786-11-06

On the left side of this cartoon, President Roosevelt carries a large “public interests” scroll on his back as he walks up stairs: “courage—Monroe Doctrine upheld,” “opposition to graft—regulation of trusts,” “Cuban freedom—Northern Securities decision,” “honesty in the public service,” “Cuban reciprocity,” “Panama Canal,” “justice for capital and labor,” and “patriotic purposes.” Caption: The Roosevelt as real history will picture him. On the right side of this cartoon, Roosevelt holds a sword in his teeth and rides a horse, leaving men labeled “trust,” “Cuban,” and “Filipino” on the ground. He drags “Panama” by a rope. Caption: The Roosevelt as the demagogues now paint him.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-04

On the left side of the cartoon, President Abraham Lincoln takes off the shackles of an African American man and holds the “Declaration of Independence.” On the right side, President Roosevelt gestures to the “U.S. Govt Printing” office to a man who is kneeling at his feet. Roosevelt holds a portion of one of his letters that reads, “In the employment and dismissal of men in the government service I can no more recognize the fact that a man does or does not belong to a union as being for or against him than I can recognize the fact he is a Protestant or Catholic, a Jew or a Gentile, as being for or against him.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-11

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-02-03

Creator(s)

Bryan, William Jennings, 1860-1925

Language

English

President-Elect Taft tells President Roosevelt that he had a very pleasant talk with Horace Curzon Plunkett, for whom Roosevelt had written a letter of introduction. He promises to continue addressing the problem of a declining birth rate and the movement of population away from rural areas as best he can, and says that he will rely on Gifford Pinchot as a conscience. Taft answers Roosevelt’s question about his life and career, but does not think that Roosevelt should have taken on the burden of writing an introduction to Taft’s inaugural address. He approves of Roosevelt’s planned executive order.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-12-24

President Roosevelt was pleased with an article that appeared in the English Fortnightly Review, about the men in his administration and the personal sacrifices they make for the public good. He shares an excerpt from the article with Postmaster General Meyer.

Collection

Massachusetts Historical Society

Creation Date

1908-05-23

Senator Ball writes to President Roosevelt enclosing the party platform which differs from the Union Republican platform in regards to the Civil Service plan.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-04-21

President Roosevelt states that James Campbell can be appointed as Deputy Surveyor of Customs at the port of Baltimore without examination under the Civil Service rules.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-10

Newspaper article arguing that rural letter carriers should be part of the civil service, which would limit political patronage.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-11

President McKinley takes a break to smoke a cigar while a wax figure sits at his desk to suggest that he is hard at work reviewing applications from office seekers who are clamoring in the background, hoping to get an audience with the President. Caption: A wax-figure substitute would enable the President to get a breathing-spell, now and then, from the onslaught of the office-hunters.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1897-03-31

“G. W. Curtis” and “Jay Hubbell” appear as executioners, each wearing a mask and holding large axes labeled “Civil Service Reform Association” (Curtis) and “Republican Congressional Committee” (Hubbell). Curtis instructs the “Office Holder” seated between them to “Don’t Pay! or be Discharged” and Hubbell instructs the bewildered man to “Pay! or be Discharged.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1882-07-12

A large parrot with New York Governor David B. Hill’s face perches on a stand next to President Cleveland’s desk. The parrot fills the air with its cry, “A Public Office is a Public Trust,” repeating a statement once made by Cleveland and that appears on a sign on his desk. President Cleveland is sitting at the desk with his hands over his ears. Caption: Will this political poll-parrot ever stop imitating President Cleveland?

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1886-01-13

Print shows Puck’s figure for the “Independent Party” in a small sailboat of that name, flying a banner labeled “Independents”, sailing through icy waters among large icebergs. In the background two ships labeled “Tariff Reform” and “Civil Service Reform” have wrecked on icebergs. Among the faces in the icebergs are Rutherford B. Hayes, Roscoe Conkling, George M. Robeson, William Mahone, George F. Hoar, James G. Blaine, Jay Gould, Cyrus W. Field, John Sherman, John A. Logan, Whitelaw Reid, Samuel J. Tilden, Hubert O. Thompson, John Kelly, Charles A. Dana, Thomas Hendricks, Thomas F. Bayard, Winfield Scott Hancock, Benjamin F. Butler, Grover Cleveland, Ulysses S. Grant, Allen G. Thurman, Abram S. Hewitt, and Chester A. Arthur.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1883-11-07

John Kelly stands at the far end of a room, as Charles Dickens’s character Fagin, wearing a robe with a “Tammany Fund” money bag in a pocket. He is rubbing his hands together as a show of satisfaction. In the center of the room hangs an effigy labeled “N.Y. Tax-Payer” with three men labeled “Register, County Clerk, [and] Sheriff” who are learning to be pickpockets and have their hands in pockets filled with money. A notice hangs on the wall on the left, “Graduates of this School are sure to make from $50,000 to $80,000 a Year.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1884-02-06

William Jennings Bryan, as a puppet, uses a large stick to beat another puppet labeled “Public Duties” in a marquee labeled “Chautauqua Circuit.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-08-06