The “Weakened Spring of Government” and the Executive Branch: The Department of Justice in the Late 19th Century

Abstract

Recent research on American government and public life in the late 19th century suggests that the extensive growth of the American state during this time did not necessarily involve a corresponding expansion of national authority or effective executive bureaucratic administration. Rather, the American polity was characterized by what Wallace Farnham termed the “weakened spring of government,rdquo; a government that “failed to use the powers it had.” This study examines how the late 19th century Department of Justice exemplified this problem. Despite increased personnel, resources, and responsibilities, effective law enforcement by the department was often frustrated by corruption, partisan political activity by department personnel, and by traditional reliance on local, decentralized responsibility for law enforcement. Examples of this were the attempts by the Justice Department to protect federal timber lands and enforce the federal election statutes in the south. Moreover reforms within the department were little more than “patchwork” efforts to achieve effective enforcement capacities.