Charles Joseph Bonaparte

This 1906-09 portrait of Charles Joseph Bonaparte by Cecile Smith de Wentworth hangs in the Maryland Historical Society Museum in Baltimore Maryland.

"Charles Joseph Bonaparte, (born June 9, 1851, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.—died June 28, 1921, Baltimore) lawyer and grandson of Jérôme Bonaparte, youngest brother of Napoleon; he became one of President Theodore Roosevelt’s chief 'trust-busters' as U.S. attorney general.

After graduating from Harvard Law School (1872), Bonaparte began the practice of law in Baltimore in 1874. He was active in organizations advocating municipal and civil service reform, which gained him the admiration of Roosevelt, who was then a member of the U.S. Civil Service Commission. Upon Roosevelt’s accession to the presidency, Bonaparte served as secretary of the navy (1905–06) and as attorney general (1906–09). In the latter post he established the Federal Bureau of Investigation (originally the Bureau of Investigation) and prosecuted numerous antitrust suits, most notably that which resulted in the dissolution in 1911 of the American Tobacco Company." -- Encyclopedia Britannica

The label in an exhibit on his grandmother, Betsy Patterson Bonaparte, reads this way:

"Cecile de Wentworth painted this portrait of Charles Joseph Bonaparte between 1906 and 1909 when Charles was Attorney General of the United States under President Theodore Roosevelt. Wentworth was a highly acclaimed American portrait artist who worked primarily in France and painted many of the most prominent men of the early twentieth century, including Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft."-- Maryland 
Historical Society

Joseph Bucklin Bishop in his 1922 biography of Charles Joseph Bonaparte has photos of Charles at ages 4 and 7.

Charles Joseph Bonaparte at age four.

The off-the-shoulder dress 4-year old Charles is wearing reminds us that the past is a  foreign culture.  

Charles Joseph  Bonaparte at  age seven.

 

In 1885,  the Cincinnati  Enquirer carried a story entitled "Two Dandies" describing a fist-fight between two Baltimore lawyers in court. Charles J. Bonaparte and  Charles C. Rhodes both got black eyes in the affair.

McKee Barclay drew this caricature of Bonaparte speaking on municipal government, sharing a platform with Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt in 1896. (MD Hist. Mag. 1942.)

Mr. Bonaparte: "As well talk of picking  pockets as  'Financiering'"

Here Barclay draws Bonaparte in 1905 standing in opposition to the Poe Amendment that would have created a "Grandfather clause" to prevent freedmen, their descendants, and perhaps recent  immigrants, from voting in Maryland. The Poe Amendment was soundly rejected by the Maryland voters. (MD  Hist. Mag. 1959.)

The  Louisville Courier-Journal published this illustrated interview with Charles J. Bonaparte in 1905.

As Attorney General in 1908 Charles Bonaparte organized the Federal Bureau of Investigation which became the FBI. The FBI's  'brief history', says “It all started with a short memo, dated July 26, 1908, and signed by Charles J. Bonaparte, Attorney General, describing a ‘regular force of special agents’ available to investigate certain cases of the Department of Justice.” Read that memo here. 

This sketch of Charles Bonaparte, by Siegel, appeared in the  Baltimore Sun in 1911.

"Charles J. Bonaparte Lawyer, Orator, Reformer: Grandson of a King And Nephew of an Emperor, He is a Figure Unique Among Baltimore's Citizens a Republican by Birth, Education And Conviction But Above All an American Citizen, a Reformer and a Lawyer Who Prefers The Seclusion of His Library to The Social Round."

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An historical  marker in front of the Enoch Pratt Library shows this photo of Charles J. Bonaparte and a caption discussing his somewhat strangely expressed position on race relations. 

 "Charles J. Bonaparte continuously fought for the rights of African Americans. While he was Attorney General, he expressed his underlying beliefs about race relations in America, 'Every race of people is driven to the woods or die out that comes in contact with the Caucasian race. The Negro race is the only one race on the globe that has lived, thriven, flourished and multiplied by the side of the Caucasian race. This one fact bespeaks volumes in the Negro's favor, and no eloquence can be stronger than that single fact to prove the Negro's greatness.'"

 David Newton E. Campbell, c 1909, expands that quotation to include Bonaparte's contention that "The Caucasian or white race is like the red rats of Europe." 

Der Nordstern

See Also:

The Portrait Gallery: Dorcas Spear Patterson  (Charles' great-grandmother)

The Portrait Gallery: William Patterson (His great-grandfather)

The Portrait Gallery: Betsy Patterson Bonaparte (His grandmother)
The Portrait Gallery: Jerome Napoleon  Bonaparte (His father)

The Portrait Gallery: Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, Jr. (His brother)

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