Charles Joseph Bonaparte

Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, he served in the cabinet of the 26th U.S. president, Theodore Roosevelt. He was a descendant of the House of Bonaparte: his grandfather was Jérôme Bonaparte, brother of Emperor Napoleon.

Charles Bonaparte
46th United States Attorney General
In office December 17, 1906 – March 4, 1909
President	Theodore Roosevelt
Preceded by	William Moody
Succeeded by	George W. Wickersham
37th United States Secretary of the Navy
In office July 1, 1905 – December 16, 1906
President	Theodore Roosevelt
Preceded by	Paul Morton
Succeeded by	Victor H. Metcalf
Personal details
Born	Charles Joseph Bonaparte (1851-06-09)June 9, 1851 Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Died	June 28, 1921(1921-06-28) (aged 70) Baltimore County, Maryland, U.S.
Resting place	Loudon Park Cemetery
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Ellen Channing Day ​ (m. 1875)​
Relatives	Jérôme Napoléon Bonaparte (father) Susan May Williams (mother) See Bonaparte family
Education	Harvard University (BA, LLB)

Bonaparte was the U.S. Secretary of the Navy and later the U.S. Attorney General. During his tenure as Attorney General, he created the Bureau of Investigation (now the FBI). Bonaparte was one of the founders, and for a time the president, of the National Municipal League. He was also a long-time activist for the rights of black residents of his native city of Baltimore.

 

Bonaparte was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on June 9, 1851, the son of Jérôme ("Bo") Napoleon Bonaparte (1805–1870), and Susan May Williams (1812–1881), from whom the American line of the Bonaparte family descended, and a grandson of Jérôme Bonaparte, King of Westphalia, the youngest brother of French emperor Napoleon. However, the American Bonapartes were not considered part of the dynasty and never used any titles.

Bonaparte graduated from Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1871 and lived in Grays Hall during his freshman year. He then continued to Harvard Law School, where he later served as a university overseer. He practiced law in Baltimore and became prominent in municipal and national reform movements.

In 1899, Bonaparte was the keynote speaker for the first graduating class of the Roman Catholic women's institution run by the Order of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, the College of Notre Dame of Maryland (now Notre Dame of Maryland University). He spoke on "The Significance of the Bachelor's Degree".

 

Bonaparte lived in a townhouse in the north Baltimore neighborhood of Mount Vernon-Belvedere and had a country estate in suburban Baltimore County, Maryland, which surrounds the city on the west, north and east. His home, Bella Vista, was designed by the architects James Bosley Noel Wyatt (1847–1926) and William G. Nolting (1866–1940), in the prominent local architectural partnership firm of Wyatt & Nolting in 1896. It lies east of the Harford Road (Maryland Route 147) in an area called Glen Arm. The house was not electrified since Bonaparte refused to have electricity or telegraph lines installed from a dislike of technology, verified by his use of horse-drawn coach until his death in the early 1920s.

Politics

Bonaparte was a founder of the Reform League of Baltimore, organized in 1885. The League gained a clean sweep of municipal elections in 1895: long-time minority progressive liberal Republicans ousted many Democratic machine politicians in heavily Democratic wards. The League men governed with clean hands for a brief time, providing a certain amount of efficient municipal government.

Bonaparte was a member of the Board of Indian Commissioners from 1902 to 1904, chairman of the National Civil Service Reform League in 1904, and appointed a trustee of Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

In the 1904 United States presidential election, Bonaparte was named one of eight Republican candidates for presidential elector. Maryland at this time chose electors individually, in an at-large election. In an unusual result, Bonaparte got the most votes of any candidate, narrowly outpolling the eight Democrat candidates, who narrowly outpolled the other seven Republicans. Thus Bonaparte was the only Republican elector from Maryland, which may have reflected his personal reputation.

In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Bonaparte Secretary of the Navy. In 1906 Bonaparte moved to the office of Attorney General, which he held until the end of Roosevelt's term. He was active in suits brought against the trusts and initiated the suit which broke up the monopolistic American Tobacco Company. He became known as "Charlie, the Crook Chaser". In 1908, Bonaparte established a Bureau of Investigation (BOI) within the Department of Justice, under the direction of the Attorney General himself. The BOI later became the FBI.

In the 1912 United States presidential election, Bonaparte supported the Bull Moose party of Theodore Roosevelt.

On September 1, 1875, Bonaparte married Ellen Channing Day (1852–1924), daughter of attorney Thomas Mills Day and Anna Jones Dunn. They had no children.

In 1903, he was awarded the Laetare Medal by the University of Notre Dame, the oldest and most prestigious award for American Catholics.

Bonaparte died in Bella Vista at age 70 and is interred at southwest Baltimore's landmark Loudon Park Cemetery. He died of "Saint Vitus' dance", a nonspecific term used at the time to refer to chorea. A nearby street in Baltimore County bears the name of Bonaparte Avenue.

After Bonaparte's death, the house was later owned by bootleggers Peter and Michael Kelly. After they left, it was destroyed in a fire caused by faulty wiring on January 20, 1933. The site was replaced by a poured concrete mansion, but a large carriage house, dating back to 1896, is still on the estate.

• Bishop, Joseph Bucklin (1922), Charles Joseph Bonaparte: His Life and Public Services, New York: C. Scribner's Sons
• Goldman, Eric F. (1943), Charles J. Bonaparte: Patrician Reformer, His Earlier Career, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press