United States Civil Service Commission

Civil Service Commissioner Cooley applauds Postmaster Willcox on how he has applied an Executive Order regarding federal employees’ participation in political activities, in the administration of the New York Post Office. When the Civil Service Commission ruled regarding Collin H. Woodward, it simply expressed that Woodward had not violated Civil Service laws. The Commission has no jurisdiction to determine whether Woodward may have violated the Executive Order, to which Willcox has made reference. Cooley finds Woodward’s candidacy for district leadership to be inappropriate and its effect on the civil service demoralizing.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-04

Civil Service Commissioner Cooley informs President Roosevelt of William R. Willcox’s progress in depoliticizing the New York City Post Office and running it “on a business basis.” However, Willcox faces the challenge of wresting the office from the traditions of its prior administration and the inconsistencies between the rules for post office employees and those of the Treasury Department.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-04

Civil Service Commissioner Cooley is concerned by congressional interference in President Roosevelt’s order of March 11, 1905, which regulated promotions of executive branch laborers to clerk status. Pursuant to the Agricultural Appropriations Act of 1905, the Department of Agriculture assigned laborers to classified work without “examination and certification,” thereby giving these employees an advantage over employees of other departments. Cooley suggests that none of these employees be promoted in the current fiscal year.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-20

George B. Cortelyou has received William Loeb’s letter and enclosed communication from the Civil Service Commission regarding the membership of the Republican State Committee of Alabama. Cortelyou will discuss the matter with President Roosevelt as soon as he is able to visit Oyster Bay.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-07-12

Senator Beveridge fears that an emergency may exist in regards to President Roosevelt putting the Internal Revenue deputy collectors under Civil Service rules. Beveridge will not object to this change as long as it is done in the future, six to eight months from now. Beveridge requests to speak to Roosevelt in person before an order is issued.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-11-16

Civil Service Commissioner Cooley tells President Roosevelt that the salaries of the commissioners is $3,500, an amount fixed in 1883. If the President were to mention it in his message, it might spur Congress to act.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-11-06

There is a vacancy in the Chickamauga Park Commission. Civil Service Commissioner Cooley recommends General John Charles Black, who is currently serving on the Civil Service Commission, for the position.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-06-03

Civil Service Commissioner Cooley returns to President Roosevelt a newspaper clipping from The Commoner and a letter from William Jennings Bryan about the civil service. Cooley describes how Bryan’s suggestions would be impractical.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-02-11

Jacob G. Bunn provides a deposition regarding charges that he solicited money for campaign purposes while employed by the United States Post Office in violation of Civil Service Rules. Bunn denies the allegations that he solicited money, and says that while he had previously served as Chairman of the Finance Committee for the Ward Executive Committee of the Twenty-eighth Ward of Philadelphia, he was unaware that this was a violation of the Civil Service Rules. Once this violation was brought to Bunn’s attention, he immediately resigned from the Ward Executive Committee.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-27

John Grimes Walker, Chairman of the Isthmian Canal Commission confirms receipt of William Loeb’s letter regarding scheduling a meeting with Civil Service Commission President John Charles Black or U.S. Civil Service Commissioner Alford Warriner Cooley to implement Civil Service Commission rules to the Isthmian Canal Commission. Walker has already been in contact with Black, but was told to postpone the meeting for some time because Black was going to be out of town. He will try to raise the matter again in a week.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-21

Richard Henry Dana writes to Civil Service Commissioner Cooley to defend President Roosevelt’s record on civil service reform. He asks Cooley to send the details of Roosevelt’s reforms so that he can use the facts in an editorial he is preparing.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-03

Civil Service Commissioner Cooley informs President Roosevelt that he has prepared a letter about the administration of the Civil Service under Roosevelt. His research indicates that there have been fewer exemptions under Roosevelt than under previous administrations. He is traveling abroad, but he will be back in the United States the following Thursday or Friday and will draft a final version of his letter in response to Judge Alton B. Parker’s Democratic nomination letter.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-09-20

Civil Service Commission President Black responds to a letter from General Blackmar to President Theodore Roosevelt dated September 6, 1904, proposing that veterans of the Civil War and widows of such veterans should be reinstated to civil service posts at similar levels to those previously held. Black responds that under the current rules of the Civil Service Commission, such reinstatement should be made and there is no need for additional resolutions regarding reinstatement.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-09-15

Civil Service Commissioner Cooley urges a settlement of Mrs. O’Donohue’s case. O’Donohue is demoralizing the office and appropriations have been received to remove detailed clerks.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-05-18

Chronology of the daily life of Theodore Roosevelt from January 1884 to December 1891. Notable events include the deaths of Alice Lee Roosevelt and Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, Roosevelt’s time on his ranch, the completion of Sagamore Hill, Roosevelt’s engagement and marriage to Edith Kermit Carow, Theodore “Ted” Roosevelt’s birth, the “Great-Dieup” of cattle in North Dakota, and the founding of the Boone and Crockett Club.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association

Creation Date

1985

Don Arp describes the University of Nebraska’s decision to recruit Theodore Roosevelt to become its chancellor in 1891. Arp notes that Roosevelt was seen as a good fit for the Nebraska post because of his affinity for the West and his work as a historian. Arp details Roosevelt’s immersion in his work as a United States Civil Service Commissioner, and he notes that at the time of the Nebraska offer, Roosevelt was increasingly distracted by the troubles surrounding his brother Elliot Roosevelt. A portrait of Roosevelt by Johann Waldemar de Rehling Quistgaard accompanies the text. 

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2005

Two photographs from May 1995: one shows an exhibit in honor of Theodore Roosevelt’s time as a Civil Service Commissioner found in the lobby of the Theodore Roosevelt Federal Building in Washington, D.C. The other shows a group gathered at the Oval Office of the White House for the conferring of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park Foundation Medal of Honor. 

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1995

In a speech given shortly after Theodore Roosevelt’s death, George Haven Putnam discusses his friendship with Roosevelt, and he highlights aspects of his character, leadership ability, and episodes from his political career. Putnam details Roosevelt’s role in the 1884 presidential contest, his dispute with the Postmaster General during his time as a Civil Service Commissioner, and examines the effort to secure the election of Charles Evans Hughes as Governor of New York in 1908.

A photograph of Roosevelt in 1905 appears on the first page of the speech. A listing of the members of the executive committee of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA) supplements the piece along with a text box with the heading ” A Membership Honor Roll” that lists members of the TRA who have enrolled in three premium membership categories.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

The front cover of this issue of the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal features a political cartoon by Thomas Nast from 1889 depicting Theodore Roosevelt as a cowboy trying to tame a horse branded “spoilsman” in reference to Roosevelt’s work with the Civil Service Commission. The back cover has two photographs of members of the Rio Roosevelt Expedition of 1992. One of the photographs shows expedition members displaying the flags of the organizations that sponsored the journey.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1992

Buildings connected to Theodore Roosevelt make up much of this edition of the “News and Notes” section. The Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA) acquired Roosevelt’s presidential retreat in Virginia, Pine Knot, and the federal government renamed the building housing the Office of Personnel Management the Theodore Roosevelt Federal Building. “News and Notes” also highlights the premiere of a PBS documentary on the 1992 Rio Roosevelt Expedition; discusses the foreign policy focus of this issue TRA Journal; and notes the inauguration of President Bill Clinton.

Two photographs of Pine Knot and three photographs of the ceremonies at the Theodore Roosevelt Federal Building appear in the section.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal