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William Allen White has heard that Representative Victor Murdock’s bill regarding mail rates will fail, and would like President Roosevelt to assist Murdock if he can, as the postal service is in great need of reform. White would visit Roosevelt himself, but his wife Sallie Moss Lindsay White is ill.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-02-16
President Roosevelt agrees with the removal of August W. Machen and is not concerned with newspaper criticism. Roosevelt and Postmaster General Payne are not responsible for the post office corruption, but it was discovered on their watch and they will remove it.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-05-11
President Roosevelt has received Henry C. Payne’s first rate letter and is pleased with Payne’s statement. Roosevelt requests that Payne wait on the Machen decision until it can be discussed at their meeting.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-04-29
President Roosevelt copies a letter originally written to James N. Tyner, but never sent. Tyner requested that the president right the wrong that has been done to him, in light of his recent acquittal of all criminal charges. Although Roosevelt respects the decision of the Grand Jury, he will not support Tyner’s re-instatement to office because of the moral charges against Tyner. Roosevelt provides evidence by copying reports and letters regarding Tyner’s actions.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-09-19
President Roosevelt is not in favor of himself or other involved parties making a statement to the press, including William Allen White’s Emporia Gazette, regarding accusations against Joseph L. Bristow, chief investigator into the ongoing post office scandal. Accusations have been made against everyone associated with the scandal and investigation, including himself. He has already taken strong action in New York to address the scandal, but the public, influenced by Democratic and mugwump newspapers, may confuse his actions as complicity with the wrongdoers. Roosevelt worries that this will damage Republican candidates in the fall elections.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-04-04
President Roosevelt informs Postmaster General Payne that the investigation into the Post Office Department has taken an unexpected turn with the resignation of George W. Beavers before evidence was even presented. August W. Machen is favored by the Civil Service Commission and many Congressmen, and Roosevelt has been annoyed at the newspaper efforts to show that Assistant Postmaster General Robert John Wynne is disloyal to Payne.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-03-31
Attorney General William H. Moody suggests that President Roosevelt might consider commuting the sentence of George E. Lorenz, a man who served as a witness for the government in the case against August W. Machen, Samuel A. Groff, and Diller B. Groff.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-21
John Bell Brownlow explains to President Roosevelt how he came to be the representative of the Post Office Department on the U.S. Government Board of Management of several expositions. After serving well, Brownlow suddenly learned that then-Postmaster General Henry C. Payne was displeased with his work due to false statements against him. Brownlow was subsequently investigated on his own request to prove the falseness of the statements against him, but while the investigations seem to have vindicated him he has been negatively impacted by being excluded from the Portland board. He asks Roosevelt to consider the matter and review the inspections, which show that his record is clean.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10-28
James Bruns describes the corrupt practices, investigation, and trial of August W. Machen, a high ranking official of the Post Office Department. Bruns details the various schemes, bribes, and kickbacks that enabled Machen to become a rich man on a meager salary, and he covers the 1904 trial that led to Machen’s conviction, along with others involved in his schemes. Bruns highlights President Theodore Roosevelt’s pleasure in the outcome of the investigation and trial.
The essay is illustrated with seven courtroom drawings by Clifford Kennedy Berryman and one political cartoon.
The article criticizes President Roosevelt’s conduct regarding the trial of several post office employees accused of corruption and misconduct. Roosevelt condemned them in a special message to Congress before they had been tried, which may have influenced the jury towards a guilty verdict.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-03-02
In the first vignette, Postmaster General Henry C. Payne points at a “Post Office scandal” stick of dynamite and says, “Aw! — It’s only a squib” as Perry S. Heath and August W. Machen look on. In the second vignette, the stick of dynamite explodes, sending Payne, Machen, and Heath flying.
Henry Clay Payne served as President Theodore Roosevelt’s Postmaster General. Regarded by history as an undistinguished appointment, Payne was a railroad and streetcar entrepreneur from Milwaukee whose activities both benefited the city’s expansion and leisure opportunities for the working poor, and, somewhat typically of the day, was less than generous with workers’ pay and conditions. In the Roosevelt cabinet he was a loyal Republican organizer — Postmasters General still dispensed patronage in large measure — and largely was a functionary.
In early 1904 he assumed the additional duties of Chairman of the Republican National Committee upon the death of Marcus Alonzo Hanna. He resigned that portfolio after four months in favor of George B. Cortelyou.
Perry S. Heath sits on a “higher up” stake as August W. Machen, James N. Tyner, the Bureau of Promotions, and “Rural Free Delivery” are swept along in the current of the river. The United States Capitol building can be seen from afar.
President Theodore Roosevelt’s determination to confront the recently revealed but long-festering incidents of corruption in the Post Office department involved firings, reforms, investigations, and outside help. In the latter regard, the president invested James Garfield and Charles Bonaparte with investigatory powers, and encouraged the crusading zeal of Fourth Assistant Postmaster General Joseph Bristow.
Some of the major obstructions, however, were with naïve associates like Postmaster General Henry Clay Payne (whom Roosevelt regarded as honest but not always competent) and mid-level officials. One such was Perry S. Heath, onetime associate of Roosevelt and publisher of the Salt Lake City Tribune; he was also Secretary of the Republican National Committee and First Assistant Postmaster. A clerk names Seymour Tulloch had claimed as far back as 1900 that Heath was acting corruptly, both in financial matters, and handling improper activities of Senator Marcus Alonzo Hanna.
President Roosevelt intends to settle the Post Office matter when he returns to Washington, D.C., and he is thankful that August W. Machen is an inheritance from Grover Cleveland. Roosevelt believes that his western trip has been successful, but he is glad that the trip is almost over, even though William H. Moody has been “a real comfort.”
Massachusetts Historical Society
1903-05-22
Postmaster Frank Wyman had a daunting task, to clean up the “spies and lies” when he took over the St. Louis post office. Wyman’s actions, firing one of former Postmaster F. W. Baumhoff’s close associates and closing many of the substations, show a new regime is in place.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-03
Charles J. Bonaparte reports that he will return to Washington, D.C., as soon as his current case comes to trial. Bonaparte also warns President Roosevelt not to entertain the idea of a pardon for Joseph H. Cling, who was convicted of census fraud, as this would be perceived by the public as intended to prevent Sydney Emanuel Mudd’s further exposure of the fraud. Mudd was implicated in the case, although no positive evidence could be produced against him.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-02-28
Postmaster General Payne reviews the indictments in the postal investigation and is pleased with the work of Assistant District Attorney Oliver E. Pagan.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-08-01
Postmaster General Payne informs President Roosevelt that he has provided a copy of a letter from George E. Green to Assistant Postmaster General Joseph L. Bristow. Payne has also prepared copies for investigators Charles J. Bonaparte and Holmes Conrad, but he notes that Bonaparte and Conrad are away on vacation, and they will surely wish to devote sufficient time to reviewing the relevant documents, thereby delaying their report. Unless instructed otherwise, however, Payne will ensure they receive the letter on their return.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-08-15
Holmes Conrad, an attorney, reports to President Roosevelt on charges in the post office affair that were begun by charges made by Seymour Wilcox Tulloch. Conrad comments on the progress of the investigation, and the status of the indictments indictments currently found.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-07-21
It is expected that August W. Machen will be indicted for bribery. Postal inspectors have returned to the investigation of the division of salaries and allowances, formerly headed by George W. Beavers.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-06-05
Senator Lodge writes to President Roosevelt about a variety of subjects, appointments, issues within the Republican Party. Lodge encloses a letter from Lucius Tuttle, President of the Boston and Maine Railroad, expressing concern about the appointment of someone new by Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw to handle transportation matters.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-06-27