Complete Life of William McKinley and Story of His Assassination: An Authentic and Official Memorial Edition, Containing Every Incident in the Career of the Immortal Statesman, Soldier, Orator and PatriotEverett, Marshall
History
Complete Life of William McKinley and Story of His Assassination: An Authentic and Official Memorial Edition, Containing Every Incident in the Career of the Immortal Statesman, Soldier, Orator and Patriot
As a result, the order for the large extension of the operation of the
civil-service law, which had been in contemplation by the President and
the commission for more than a year, and with which Mr. Roosevelt had
much to do, was not promulgated until after he had resigned from the
commission to accept the appointment as police commissioner of the city
of New York under Mayor Strong. President Cleveland, who had reappointed
Mr. Roosevelt as civil-service commissioner, though he had been
originally named for the place as a Republican by President Harrison,
strongly advised Mr. Roosevelt not to leave the commission and not to
take the New York place. The President’s letter to Mr. Roosevelt on his
resignation is full of expressions of the highest esteem and
appreciation of his services.
In the wave of reform which swept over New York in 1894–95 the men,
including Mayor Strong, who were borne into power were something of the
same stamp as the civil-service commissioner. They were of the class
which fought political rings, and they turned to Mr. Roosevelt to take a
hand in purifying the police force of New York City, which was alleged
to be a sink of political rottenness and studied inefficiency. Mr.
Roosevelt resigned as civil-service commissioner May 5, 1895, and was
appointed police commissioner of New York City May 24 following.
The uproar that followed the introduction of Roosevelt methods in the
conduct of the New York police force has never been equaled as a police
sensation in that city. Within a month after his appointment the whole
force was in a state of fright. The new commissioner made night rounds
himself, and, being unknown to the men, he caught scores of them in
dereliction of duty. He dismissed and promoted and punished entirely on
a plane of his own. Politics ceased to save or help the men, and the
bosses were up in arms. In this emergency an attempt was made to have
Roosevelt’s appointment by Mayor Strong vetoed by the city council, and
it was discovered that an act of the Legislature, passed some twelve
years prior, had taken the power of veto from the city council. Theodore
Roosevelt was the author of this act, and its passage had been secured
after one of the strongest fights he had made when a member of the State
Legislature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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