CHARLES J. BONAPARTE

Charles J. Bonaparte was born in Baltimore, Maryland on June 9, 1851. Subsequent to receiving his law degree from Harvard University, Bonaparte began to pursue a distinguished career in jurisprudence.

In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him the 46th Attorney General of the United States. Bonaparte soon discovered that he was hampered in carrying out President Roosevelt's "trust-busting" policies because of the absence of a permanent investigative staff. Until that time, the Justice Department had been limited to hiring only temporary investigators, usually borrowing them from the Treasury Department's Secret Service.

On July 28, 1908, acting on Presidential instructions, Bonaparte issued the order which made his special investigative force a permanent subdivision of the Department of Justice. In 1935, what had begun as a 23 man unit under Bonaparte's direction was renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In addition to his service in the Roosevelt Administration, Bonaparte is remembered for his important work as founder of the National Civil Service Reform League, and as an organizer and president of the National Municipal League.

For the last 40 years, the Italian Historical Society of America has held an annual ceremony at the Department of Justice commemorating the accomplishments of Charles Bonaparte. To see the comments of Arthur Gajarsa, Judge, United States Court of Appeals of the Federal Circuit see Bonaparte-Reformer.