The Department of Justice turned 141 on Thursday. On June 23, 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant signed into law a bill creating the DOJ, elevating the office of Attorney General from a part-time post to a full-time job. Now, the Attorney General sits atop a vast bureaucracy of some 115,000 people.
The DOJ says its “true beginning” dates from passage of the Judiciary Act, passed by Congress in 1789 and signed by President George Washington on Sept. 24 of that year. Part-time employees though the early Attorneys General were, they were supposed to be “learned in the law.”
The present Attorney General, Eric Holder, is the latest of 82 “distinguished Americans” to hold the position, according to the DOJ website. Some were more “distinguished” than others, of course.
The first “modern” AG was Amos T. Akerman, who served under Grant until late 1872. One of his successors was Charles Joseph Bonaparte (1906-1909), a nephew of Napolean.
A decade later, the AG was A. Mitchell Palmer (1919-1921), best known for his “Palmer raids” that went after red, commies and other troublemakers, often without regard for little technicalities like civil rights. Palmer was succeeded by Harry M. Daughterty (1921-1924), who resigned amid questions over his integrity in connection with the Teapot Dome scandal.
Fast-forward to John N. Mitchell (1969-1972), who went to prison in connection with the Watergate scandal, and his successor, Richard G. Kleindienst (1972-1973), who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of testifying falsely to the Senate in a Watergate spin-off.
All right, some of the Attorneys General weren’t so distinguished. But it should be said that the list of 82 contains people of both major parties who became distinguished Supreme Court justices and were pillars of rectitude.
