Before becoming attorney general, Bonaparte had been navy secretary in early 1906 when he expressed concern about whether he was doing a good enough job. Roosevelt wrote back to his fellow progressive Republican, “You are a trump!” — a term for a dependable or admirable person — and disclosed plans to nominate Bonaparte to be attorney general that year.
Bonaparte created the forerunner to the FBI because the Justice Department didn’t have its own investigators when enforcing federal laws. As a wealthy lawyer in Baltimore, he had fought corruption as head of the National Civil Service Reform League. When Roosevelt appointed Bonaparte navy secretary, cartoonists were quick to note the 1805 drubbing of Napoleon’s French naval fleet by the British in the Battle of Trafalgar off the coast of Spain. One cartoon showed the “Spirit of Napoleon” reading a telegram from Roosevelt, which stated, “I have made your grandnephew Secretary of the Navy”; Napoleon replied, “I hope he does better with ships than I did.”
As attorney general, Bonaparte led Roosevelt’s trustbusting drive, breaking up such giants as Standard Oil Company. He personally argued dozens of cases before the Supreme Court. The press gave him the nickname “Charlie the Crook Chaser.” But when it came to enforcing federal laws, he complained to Congress that the department had “no permanent detective force under its control.” Instead, he had to borrow Secret Service agents from the Treasury Department.
In May 1908, Congress banned the outside use of the Secret Service investigators — a move that just so happened to occur after two lawmakers were jailed as the result of such probes. Bonaparte saw his opening. He created a “Special Agent Force” of 31 investigators, including eight former Secret Service agents. He issued an order that “All matters relating to investigations under the Department” will be referred to the chief examiner, Stanley Finch, to decide “whether any member of the force of special agents under his direction is available for the work to be performed.” The order was dated July 26, 1908, now considered the birth date of the FBI.
The standards for special agents resembled today’s requirements. According to Finch, the Washington Star later reported, the agents “were to be well educated — preferably graduates of some college and members of the bar; they were not to be unusual in appearance, so that they could pass unnoticed in a crowd.” In a 1908 report to Congress, Bonaparte declared the force was “absolutely indispensable” to the proper discharge of the Justice Department’s duties.