Nobody Remembers Elihu Root and the ‘Invisible Government’

Nobody Remembers

Elihu Root was the Secretary of War (1899-1903) under McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt and Secretary of State(1905-1909) under Roosevelt. After that he became a Senator from New York (1909-15) and received the Nobel Peace Prize. At the Constitutional Convention of the State of New York, on August 30, 1915, he had a lot to say about the evils of the “invisible government” that he said had run New York for many years. He said that the government was not elected but was responsible only to the party boss in control of the state.  He wanted to change the system that he viewed as corrupt.

Here’s a few excerpts from his speech:

What is the government of this state? What has it been doing during the forty years of my acquaintance with it? The government of the constitution? Oh, no: not half the time or halfway.  For I don’t remember how many years, Mr. Conkling was the supreme ruler in the state: the governor did not count, the legislature did not count, comptroller’s and secretaries of state and whatnot did not count. It was what Mr. Conkling said, and in a great outburst of public rage he was pulled down.

Then Mr. Platt ruled the state: for nigh twenty years.

The party leader is elected by no one, accountable to no one, bound by no oath of office, removable by no one. I don’t criticize the men of the invisible government. How can I? I have known them all, and among them have been some of my dearest friends.  But it is all wrong. It is all wrong that a government not authorized by the people should be continued superior to the government that is authorized by the people.

How it is accomplished? Mr. Chairmen it is done by patronage. The elected officer or the appointed officer, who is to be held responsible for the administration of his office desired to get men into the different positions of his office who will do the work in a way that is creditable to him and his administration. Whether it be a president appointing a judge, or a governor appointing a superintendent of public works, whatever it may be.

How is it about the boss? He has to urge the appointment of men whose appointment will consolidate his power and preserve the organization. The invisible government proceeds to build up and maintain it power by a reversal of the fundamental principle of good government, which is that men should be selected to perform the duties of the office,

The true one, looks upon appointment to office with a view to the service that can be given to the public. The other the false one, looks upon appointment to office with a view to what can be gotten out of it. A great number of men are put on the payrolls as a matter of patronage not of service, but of party patronage.

(Can you say Ambassador to Norway?)

Both parties are alike, all parties are alike. The system extends thorough all.

At the end of his speech this:

I have been told forty times since this Convention met that you cannot change it. We can try, can’t we? I deny that we cannot change it. I repel that cynical assumption which is born of the lethargy that comes from poisoned air during all these years. I assert that this perversion of democracy, this robbing democracy of its virility can be changed.

We can take this one step toward, not robbing the people of their part in government  but toward robbing an irresponsible autocracy of its indefensible and unjust and undemocratic control of government, and return it to the people to be exercised by the men of their choice and their control. We cannot change it in a moment but we can do our share.

When I read it, I thought of the Bushes, the Clinton’s, Reid and Boehner…because as I have said, it’s the leaders of both houses that control everything.  And the best man at stacking the deck against the common man with his invisible government is our current ‘President’, Barack Obama.

And here, way back in 1915, Elihu Root, wanted to do something to break the monopoly of the ‘invisible government.”

Nobody Thinks Mr. Root was right, and yet…things remain the same these 99 years later.

February 20, 2014 Posted by Joyanna Adams | American History, tyranny, Uncategorized | corruption, History, tyranny | 1 Comment