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These men and their colleagues are presented to us from an early age as the idealistic and moral force of freedom that brought us the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution that we still rely on for the safety and stability of our government. They gave us such ideas as "all men are created equal". We are told this from our early childhood and expected to believe it, because each person has a part to play in the role of controlling our government. Most of that role is played out as a voter, but it provides equal power to each citizen. Where more work is needed however, some men must step forward and take on the burden heading the government in the best interests of the people. Fortunately there were such good and moral men as our founders to carry on the new government that had been established for a brand new nation. These men were expected to try and follow the wishes of their voters, thereby allowing the country to be run by the majority in some form or another. They were all of course elected to these positions based on their wisdom and ability to accomplish the goals of the people through their astounding rhetoric and desire to create the perfect nation. These are the ideals that we are presented with starting at a very young age in our school systems, churches, and in many of our homes. However we, as mature and aspiring adults, know that this type of idealistic government with its upstanding and moral bound men did not truly exist then, as it surely does not exist now. A good politician now is one that can grab the attention of the constituents for a long enough period of time to convince them that he/she is the best candidate to represent them. They may have to do this by showing they hold many of the same political interest as the voters, but many times it is decided by the candidate that can show he/she has fewer skeletons in their closet than their opponent. We know that once in office these politicians have the potential to increase their power if they learn how to play the game with their peers. If they can increase their power, they are more likely to achieve the goals that they have and maybe increase their chances of being elected again. At any point in time though a person of this type could be removed when elections come around. If the voters are not pleased, that politician can be replaced with no way of stopping them. What if this were not so? What if they could acquire some type of substantial power in our government and not be easily removed by those who should have that power? In this case we speak of the bureaucrat. This is a person who works under the executive branch in all of its many agencies. They are the power behind the laws created by Congress and thus have the ability to interpret how they should be enforced. Many of these positions are civil service jobs merely requiring the person to pass a standardized test. The top positions of these agencies are reserved as patronage jobs though. This means they are available to those who are friends with the men at the top. This also means as power shifts at the top someone's job could be placed in jeopardy. The only way to stay in power at this time is to prove that you are extremely useful to the new administration, unless you are a master politician and control the nation's greatest investigation agency. This gives a man a type of autonomy that is not easily controlled by his superiors for a very long period of time. There was one man who took this type of politics to a new level in the bureaucratic realm. John Edgar Hoover was a man who could project his power either quietly and "under the table" or in a manner that would present it to the public so that the FBI and especially himself could come out looking like a hero. Hoover was a very complex and confusing character, much of this stemming from the secrecy that was demanded by him as the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. With this job he had to set goals in two separate, but sometimes overlapping, areas. As the Director of the domestic investigation agency of the US, he had to set his sights on the criminal world wherever federal statutes had been violated. This was eventually expanded in many directions through the efforts of Hoover in the other area that he became an expert in. This was the realm of politics, which many bureaucrats do not have a part to play in, but Hoover seemed to enjoy his and many times created one if it did not exist. By achieving more political power Hoover was able to have such an influence on the federal government that he could many times shape its policies. It has been said that Hoover's political character is best explained by the ideas presented by Madison and Hamilton in the Federalist Papers. Some of these ideas reflect that "the basic structure of American democracy is predicated on the assumption that people in power will seek to become less accountable- that they will become more arbitrary, more resentful of criticism, that they will shy away from courtrooms, where their evidence can be contradicted, and instead retreat into secrecy and other classified forums in which they can claim the unchecked authority of kings ." There is no better excuse than the idea that these types of actions are merely part of human nature to want power over not just themselves but others as well. There has never been an excuse for exactly why this type of action was allowed, except that Hoover has probably been one of the greatest politicians of our nation's history and he was not a president, or Congressman, or any other type of an elected official. John Edgar was born to Annie Hoover on New Year's Day, 1895 at their home on 413 Seward Square in Washington DC. He was the fourth and youngest of the Hoover family and had become somewhat of a godsend since the sister born before him had died at the age of three making Annie fall into a depression. Hoover's birth however, gave her a new purpose in life and he soon became her favorite. This was part of what led to a bitter rivalry between Hoover and his older brother Dickerson Naylor Hoover, Jr. who would many times jeer at Hoover's accomplishments as if they were insignificant. Hoover's family background had once been somewhat lavish as Annie's family usually kept servants and regularly entertained their more aristocratic friends. After the death of her father in 1878 this all began to fade away as the family slowly used up their money. By the time Hoover was born his mother was hiring "help" at an hourly wage on Sundays to assist her in entertaining guests from the neighborhood Presbyterian Church. This placed the Hoover family in a group known as the "demimonde" by the brahmins of Georgetown. This meant they had the desire and knowledge of how to act as the upper class, they just no longer had the money. For this reason Annie was remained embarrassed of their situation and was determined to improve it through her sons. While her son Dickerson was good looking, strong, and athletic, her son Edgar was skinny, sickly, and considered "excessively fearful". He also had a problem with stuttering that he did not truly overcome until he was a grown man. Still his mother favored him as the one who would give her the type of life she desired. He was inspired by her want for him to succeed, and he would show this in the classroom as he constantly improved his grades. This is also where he discovered he had the ability to create an adversarial environment in the classroom always trying to keep the opposition on the defensive and many times winning them over to his side. He was many times known for chastising his fellow students with his morality that was most likely established through his hours of reading the Bible in his younger years. In the years to come he would use these skills and morals to chastise politicians, radical groups, and criminals of all types. These morals eventually led Edgar to become what everyone else considered him to be-the man of the house. This was to replace his ailing father who was suffering from what the family called a nervous breakdown. Barely considered an adult Hoover was now to take charge of his household with all of its responsibilities. After high school Hoover started working as a file clerk for the Library of Congress while at the same time taking law classes at George Washington University. Here the classes were arranged in the manner of a case-study method where one had to memorize specific court cases to learn the law. It was said to succeed in this school one needed to have respect for the law, not necessarily for abiding the law, but for the establishment of the law itself . Hoover agreed with this theory then as he did throughout his entire life. We see this later during Hoover's Directorship of the FBI as he toils to keep radicals from tampering with or adulterating the established law as he saw it, but many times utilizes illegal techniques to accomplish this task. It was around the time of Hoover's birth that the nation found itself in the middle of an industrial boom and in turn having to deal with these growing pains. Along with these industrial growths came an increase in control by the federal government. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act had been established along with provisions to prevent unpopular behavior such as the distribution of "obscene" material. Such laws were enforced, if at all, by the Justice Department's use of personnel from the Treasury Department or private detective agencies. This left a large hole in the ability of the federal government to have its own agency to conduct investigations for the purpose of enforcing federal statutes. It was for this reason that the Bureau of Investigation was created by Attorney General Bonaparte in 1908. It was promised to Congress that its actions would be limited to violations of antitrust and interstate commerce laws. It was brought under control of the Attorney General and thus under the Department of Justice. About the time of World War one Hoover found a job in civil service much like his farther had. In July of 1917 he began to work for the Department of Justice as a lowly clerk. It could be that Hoover's fear of physical harm and his extreme desire to always protect himself, led him to try and escape wartime service by joining the Department. At this time he was listed at the rank of major on reserve status. It could also be that Hoover was so emotionally bonded to his mother that he could never feel free to leave her for a long period of time. We do know that he stayed and cared for his mother all of her life in the same home where he was born and raised. Whatever reason Hoover chose not to fight in the War, this is where he became familiar with one of his life long obsessions. He was assigned to the war division of the Department and here worked with the military in preparing evidence for the deportation of "suspected and avowed anarchists." Hoover turned this job into his own crusade, surpassing the lazy patronage bureaucrats around him. He was able to out perform all others around him in making lists of "Russian-speaking immigrants, anarchists, pacifists, communists, and other deviants." It could be said that Hoover was from strong moral upbringing and his conservative political views allowed him to fit perfect into the times as a man who could lead a "backlash of the uptight" . Hoover was eventually promoted to position of attorney in the Department and his original salary of $1200 was increased so that he assumed a substantial part of his parents' support. He was also able to establish a lifestyle that his mother had desired during his childhood. He not only obtained a servant to do the cooking and cleaning; he installed an electric footbell at the dinner table to call her. This along with one of the first private telephone lines in the area was a symbol of his newly achieved status. He constantly upgraded this standard of living whenever possible, usually in a manner accommodating to his mother. After an attempted assassination on the life of Attorney General Palmer, Hoover was named special assistant to the attorney general in charge of "developing and coordinating information to be used to prosecute radicals, both alien and native-born." This brought Hoover directly under the Bureau of Investigation, which was at the core of the antiradical plan. It was at this time that John Edgar Hoover became J. Edgar Hoover that in some form seemed to try and impart grandeur. He was still young at this time, only being twenty-four years old, yet his ability to show great initiative towards the job demonstrated to his superiors what type of person he was. Also his ability to manipulate someone or something to accomplish his task proved that for him the means were not as important as the end. During the "Red round-ups" of 1919 and 1920 Hoover gathered information on 150,000 "undesirables" in the nation. This was partly due to his previous experience with the Library of Congress and its almost endless card catalogue. With it he could undertake the task of collating the information on groups considered to be a danger to the Bureau and to the attorney general. In the end he personally orchestrated the arrests of nearly 3,000 people with his research. Of these 250 aliens were deported back to their home countries, many of which were Russian and one of which was Emma Goldman. While these deportations were supposed to be made on the basis of endangering the function and stability of the nation, Hoover did not look into so much as what the people had done or might do, but who the people were and what their background was. His conservative views were beginning to shine through as liberal and radical groups began to take notice to the efforts that he was putting forth to try and weed out any harmful pieces of society. This starts the controversy that was the life of J. Edgar Hoover incorporating any means necessary to achieve his goals. Unfortunately for the eager young Hoover, the tide of politics was changing and he would soon face some very difficult hurdles. Shortly after the arrests were made of the 3000 people accused of being communist (known as the Palmer Raids), Congress began to call into question the techniques used by the Justice Department and the Bureau of Investigation. There was a hearing in the House involving both Hoover and Attorney General Palmer at that time they both passed the buck to each other claiming that neither of them had authorized any illegal arrests or violations of privacy. Palmer eventually fell out of favor with the administration, but was soon replaced anyway when Harding and the Republicans took office in 1920. The question at this time was whether Hoover would be able to survive not only the publicized hearings, but also the change in party power. 1921 had seen a decline in the Red Scare and any association with the Palmer Raids had become a liability. Hoover therefore had to separate himself from this issue and try to conform to the new administration. He bluntly denied responsibility for the raids and type of excess that went with them. Many times he let it be known that he was a Republican at heart, even though as a resident of the District he could not vote. Some how this and his ability to present himself as a type of scientific administrator that could aid in the new administration's approach at defining problems in a technical and procedural manner. Because of this Hoover became pleased with the political drift that was occurring under the Republicans. It pleased him to have a government that would try to avoid anything that would "destabilize the established order." It was during the period after the House hearings that Hoover had discovered the importance of having some type of a support base in Congress. He would start to cultivate friendships with those on important committees such as the Ways and Means, Appropriations, and the Judiciary. This would not only help him in the future, but it was also an aid in keeping his job. While he did manage to prove his worth as an insider bureaucrat, it was not easy in Harding's crony based administration. The Bureau had started to become a politicized organization. Breaking into the offices of Harding's political rivals became a usual occurrence, and corruption began to flourish. Through it all Hoover still followed quietly behind his superiors helping them in any way he could. He was always known as a hard worker, and his insider information made him a valuable asset to anyone who would use him. In 1924 Calvin Coolidge was elected into the office of president after the people of the nation had began to grow weary of the rumors and publicity of such corruption caused by the Harding administration. The new president quickly began to clean house including Attorney General Daugherty who had originated much of the corruption in the Justice Department. He was replaced by Harlan Fiske Stone who started to clean out the Department the same way the president was doing with the higher offices. He started with the Bureau that had been corrupted by men who would sell secret information or otherwise have criminal characteristics. This included many of the top officials including the Director, so that Stone was now in need of a new man. Hoover's name only came by chance through the route of then Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover. J. Edgar was eventually offered the job only after he was able to convince Stone that he was innocent of any corruption from the previous administration. Hoover accepted the job on two conditions that he created. Fist, the "Bureau must be divorced from politics and not be a catch-all for political hacks. Appointments must be made on merit. Second, promotions will be made on proved ability and the Bureau will be responsible only to the Attorney General." Hoover held the belief that those of high moral character could be trusted and expert administrators of this type could be relied on best to enforce the laws in a fair manner. Stone shared these views, but differed on exactly how these laws should be enforced. He set forth certain rules of investigation against wiretaps and investigations into political activities. Hoover began to follow these orders at first by severing ties with those that were not of the sound character he was looking for in the Bureau. It seemed as though he was working furiously to clean up the Bureau as the new Attorney General had set out to do. Through his great effort and loyalty to his superiors many people excluded the idea that Hoover would ever disregard an order from Stone. This trust was extremely misplaced by many though. Hoover had begun to reform the operations of the Bureau and was able to improve the quality of its performance, but he had had not completely ended his surveillance of radical groups that could possibly be a danger to the federal government in the future. He was able to achieve this by having his field offices name their agents as "confidential informants" in all reports. This took a large cooperation among his men who were in charge of each office. It was also a testament to their loyalty to Hoover since each of these men knew what the new rules were. The Attorney General had made several public statements assuring the public that violations of their privacy would not occur in the manner that they had in the past. These men easily acquired information that would normally not have been available under Stone's rule. Hoover's other aid in this area was his new hiring practices that allowed him to chose men of character similar to his own. In other words they wanted no part of communism or other such groups in the US. With such reliable men under his control it was no wonder that he was able to procure such a large amount of power. Hoover also proved to be a very dedicated professional, much more than his predecessors. This gained him respect in the Department of Justice and throughout many other agencies. Hoovers most obvious achievement in his lifetime was the creation of the FBI as the greatest investigative agency in the world. For him to accomplish such a thing, he had to be able to pull it out of the shadows that it was living in. The Bureau had been employing men of very questionable character for the purpose of information gathering. Most of them were not very professional in their actions or in their appearance. Hoover of course changed hiring practices, but he also instituted a dress code for all agents. A suit and tie were to worn in conjunction with good hygiene (hair cut, fingernails trimmed, etc). This appearance gave the Bureau agents a nickname that has stuck with them for a long time. They became known as G-men in their banker-like attire. This was Hoover's start at standardizing everything in the Bureau to create a more efficient and professional environment. It was very common practice that agents had to have a degree in either law or in accounting to be suitable for hiring. Hoover once said "I want the public to look upon the Bureau of Investigation of the Department of Justice as a group of gentlemen and if the men here engaged can't conduct themselves in office as such, I will dismiss them." This ideal has survived even to the present as the FBI holds on to the well-known G-man look and their professional attitude. There were many other important standardization acts that not only allowed the Bureau to become more efficient, it also gave Hoover explicit control over the actions of every single agent. A specific filing system had been created for each office to use in its storage of reports and data such as fingerprints. This was for the purpose of having interchangeable agents among districts if it was so called for. These files were also susceptible to inspection at any time, usually by a man under direct control of Hoover. Control of Bureau information was also kept by forbidding any type of information to given to the press or unauthorized persons. It was all to be sent to the Seat of Government in Washington so that Hoover may have the only authority to release, leak, or suppress any information that pertains to the Bureau. The work of each agent was also evaluated based on quality and quantity every six months by the Special Agent in Charge of a particular district. Each of these reports covered twenty categories that ranged from dependability and leadership to personal appearance and habits. There was a stringent emphasis on detail made by Hoover on these reports as well as all other aspects of being an agent. All decisions came from the top, and all agents were personally responsible to Hoover himself. All major policy directives were sent under his signature. The senior officials reported directly to the Director where he soon earned the nickname "The Boss." Hoover's moral values were also imposed on the agents and their cooperation was a necessity to remain in the Bureau. Some values to be observed were no drinking of intoxicating beverages at any time and no visitation in hotels of a lower class (brothels). Many of these ideals were written down in the first manual of the Bureau and authored by Hoover himself. In this he also emphasizes the importance of himself as the Director and expresses his intolerance of individuality. Many times the type of control that Hoover exercised created a tension between the men in the field and the men in Washington, but they did as they were told as any insubordination could quickly end their career. This may have been somewhat of an extreme, but Hoover commanded respect and order in the Bureau. There was an established stability in the Bureau now, but Hoover wanted to use his new creation in a more open environment. The beginning of this came in the form of the Dyer Act being upheld by the Supreme Court in 1925. This allowed the Bureau to help police interstate traffic of stolen cars. While most cars were recovered by local authorities, Hoover also took credit because of the information exchange that they had taken part in. This gave Hoover more leverage when it was budgeting time in Congress. He of course used many of his contacts to try and increase it each time. Although little else occurred within the next several years, it did seem that the public opinion was swaying to the belief that the nation was being overridden by crime. For this reason some began looking towards the federal government for help in the rising crime, although not much else could be done until the election of a new administration. Just before the election of Herbert Hoover and the oncoming depression, Hoover lost his right hand man Associate Director Frank Baughman to marriage. (Married men were not acceptable in the Bureau because they could not always be at the beckon call of the Director) His replacement was Clyde Tolston who had been an aide to the Secretary of War. He was a clean-cut athletic man with the attitude that Hoover looked for in his agents. It was said he was no stranger to women, but he also realized the extent that a wife could be cumbersome. He was willing to be a subordinate to Hoover's ambitions and he would be for the rest of his life. Their relationship was not merely official though, as they became inseparable companions. They spent a large amount of their free time together whether it be working, relaxing at the Bureau, dining, or traveling. Their travel included both inspection tours of district offices and leisurely vacations as well. It was because of this companionship that rumors of Hoover's homosexuality flew from all directions. It was even alleged that the reason for his slow movement to prosecute men of the mob was due to photos of he and Tolston in "flagrante delicto." He was of course extremely defensive of this type of accusation. He utilized the agents of the Bureau to try and put down these rumors before they spread far. Many times threats of physical harm came about for the purpose of gaining assurance that a person would not repeat such a horrible lie. There has never been any proof that such rumors were true. In fact it was well known that Hoover always preferred the company of men in such organizations as his fraternity Kappa Alpha and eventually in the Masons. Most testaments of people close to him seem to think these rumors were a result of "people unable to believe that two men could be as dedicated to their country as those two were." They recount that "they were good friends and Tolston was his equal-but subordinate." Although some issues do point to the idea that the two men could have been having some sort of romantic relationship, there is no disputing the fact that Tolston had almost as much power as Hoover. He could easily have made many of the decisions without Hoover, but normally consulted him beforehand. This only proves that even the Director's closest friend still expected him to be the last word on all issues. Another of Hoover's tests of his power and his ability to act as a politician was during the next change of guard from Herbert Hoover to Roosevelt after the election of 1932. Since this was once again a change in political parties, and Hoover held a patronage position from a Republican administration, his job security had again come under question. He used everything at his disposal to try and save his position. Harlan Stone, who had by now been appointed to the Supreme Court, came to aid his earlier protégé by writing to an advisor of Roosevelt to praise the Director's administration of the Bureau. Apparently the Justice had never found out about Hoover's secret dealings that were in contradiction to Stone's rules as attorney general. Hoover himself made use of his contacts in Congress by calling the Democrats that he knew to try and gain some insurance against being removed. As Director he also removed several agents that had been in the Bureau for years to replace them with southern Democrats so that by the time Roosevelt was inaugurated there were over one hundred Democrats already on the payroll. Even with these types of efforts, it seemed that Hoover would still be replaced as Roosevelt named a former senator that had been on the committee hearings of the Palmer raids. This new man was determined to replace most of the patronage jobs in the Department of Justice. He would have accomplished this and quite possibly been able to discover many of Hoover's secrets had he not died while away with his new wife. This left a gap open for Hoover to jump into by using his talent of seeming completely loyal to his superiors. In this case it was the newly appointed attorney general Homer Cummings. He was somewhat of an unscrupulous man, and the only real convincing that he needed from Hoover was that one of his rivals would be investigated. Hoover had now overcome one of the largest threats to his career and more importantly to his empire. He had spent the last several years quietly behind the scenes gaining influence with constituencies in the nation's police and judicial systems, powerful lobbies like the National Association of Manufacturers and veteran's groups, as well as his elected friends in Congress. By keeping his position in the Roosevelt administration he found a large amount of publicity surrounding him. Before he had "not gone beyond A. A. Berle's second degree" by enjoying power "but without being seen." Now he was able and readily prepared to enter into the field of politics on a much more Bibliography: Word Count: 5199
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