The Politics of Race and the Development of the Law and Order President, 1790-1974
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THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA The Politics of Race and the Development of the Law and Order President, 1790-1974 A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of the Department of Politics School of Arts and Sciences Of The Catholic University of America In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree Doctor of Philosophy © Copyright All Rights Reserved By Joshua Miller Washington, DC 2019 Abstract The Politics of Race and the Development of the Law and Order President, 1790-1974 Joshua L Miller, Ph.D. Director: John Kenneth White, Ph.D. Presidents obtained the power to maintain law and order in the 1790s when they used executive branch institutions to recover fugitive slaves. However, the general public did not become aware of the concept of “law and order” at the national level until Richard Nixon’s 1968 presidential campaign. Even though Nixon’s campaign occurred over fifty years ago, political scientists have not yet determined what law and order actually means or its connection to race; when presidents obtained the power to maintain law and order; or which executive branch institutions carried out these law and order responsibilities. This research project set out to answer these questions and determined that the president’s power to maintain law and order was shaped by the actions of early American presidents when they used executive branch institutions to recover fugitive slaves. This history of law and order president not only shows how 19th- century presidents contributed to the immense power that presidents exercise over federal law enforcement today but also how race profoundly affects the institutional development of the presidency. This dissertation by Joshua Miller fulfills the dissertation requirement for the doctoral degree in Politics approved by John Kenneth White, Ph.D., as Director, and by Enrique Pumar, Ph.D., and Matthew Green, Ph.D., as Readers. John Kenneth White, Ph.D., Director Enrique Pumar, Ph.D., Reader Matthew Green, Ph.D., Reader ii Table of Contents Tables and Figures .................................................................................................................................. v Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 1 Defining Law and Order ........................................................................................................................... 6 Research Questions and Methodology .................................................................................................. 9 Chapter 1: Law and Order: From the Colonial Era to the U.S. Constitution ................................... 15 Structural Law and Order in the Colonial Era ........................................................................................ 16 Structural Law and Order and Recovery of Fugitive Slaves ................................................................... 22 Nationalizing Structural Law and Order in the U.S. Constitution .......................................................... 28 Chapter 2 Fugitive Slaves and the Development of the Law and Order President, 1790-1860 ......... 39 The Commander-in-Chief as the Law and Order President .................................................................... 40 Fugitive Slave Problem in Spanish Controlled Florida........................................................................... 46 Madison Secret Invasion and Military Missions in Florida .................................................................... 48 Monroe Sparks the First Seminole War .................................................................................................. 57 Ineffective Bureaucracy and the Fugitive Slave Problem in Florida ...................................................... 58 Andrew Jackson Sparks the Second Seminole War ................................................................................ 59 Northern Resistance and the Nation’s First Sanctuary Cities ................................................................. 62 The Law and Order Presidencies of Fillmore, Pierce, and Buchanan..................................................... 67 Chapter 3 Emancipation Proclamation: A Promise for a New Law and Order ................................. 75 Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation .................................................................................................... 76 Andrew Johnson Abandons Structural Law and Order ........................................................................... 84 Chapter 4 Ulysses S. Grant and the Justice Department's Prosecutions of the Ku Klux Klan ......... 95 The Department of Justice’s Crusade against the Klan .......................................................................... 96 Bureaucratic Barriers to Maintaining Law and Order ........................................................................... 112 Accusations of Partisan Law and Order ................................................................................................ 113 Chapter 5 The President Retreats from Law and Order: President Hayes to McKinley ................ 118 Protecting the Fifteenth Amendment .................................................................................................... 121 Retreating from Law and Order: Benjamin Harrison to William McKinley ........................................ 125 Chapter 6 The Rise of Episodic Law and Order .................................................................................. 131 Theodore Roosevelt’s Retreat and Expansion of Law and Order ........................................................ 132 Roosevelt Creates the FBI .................................................................................................................... 137 President Howard Taft and the White Slave Act .................................................................................. 139 The NAACP Pressures Woodrow Wilson ............................................................................................ 140 iii Wilson’s Expansion of Episodic Law and Order .................................................................................. 147 Harding and Coolidge’s Tepid Response to Lynching ......................................................................... 148 Herbert Hoover’s Crusade against Organized Crime ............................................................................ 151 Chapter 7 : Law and Order and the Civil Rights Era ........................................................................ 159 President Roosevelt Lays the Foundation for a New “Law and Order” ............................................... 160 Harry Truman........................................................................................................................................ 166 Dwight Eisenhower ............................................................................................................................... 168 John F. Kennedy ................................................................................................................................... 174 Chapter 8 The Politics of Law and Order, 1964 to 1974 ..................................................................... 184 Structural Law and Order in the Johnson and Nixon Years.................................................................. 185 Lyndon Johnson and the Politics of Law and Order ............................................................................. 188 Fighting Crime in the District of Columbia .......................................................................................... 191 Johnson’s NationWide Fight Against Street-Level Crime .................................................................... 193 The 1968 Presidential Campaign .......................................................................................................... 200 Richard Nixon ....................................................................................................................................... 203 Epilogue ................................................................................................................................................... 212 Explaining the rise Episodic Law and Order ........................................................................................ 215 Expansion of Presidential Power .......................................................................................................... 216 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................ 220 iv Tables and Figures Table Page Figure 1-1 States and Territories of the United States of America…................................................ 30 Figure 1-2 The Areas of Freedom and Slavery………………………………………………………. 31 Figure 4-1 Criminal Prosecutions under the Enforcement Acts…. ………………………………. 105 Figure 4-2 DOJ Convictions under Enforcement Acts in Mississippi and South Carolina……… 106 Figure 4-3 DOJ Indictments under the Enforcement Acts in Mississippi and South Carolina…. .107 Figure 4-4 Comparison of Criminal Prosecutions… ………………………………………………...108 Figure 4-5 Comparison of DOJ Enforcement Convictions…………………………………………. 109 Figure 4-6 Comparison of DOJ Enforcement Act Indictments……………………………………..110 Figure 5-1 Department of Justice Prosecutions………………………………………………………122 Figure 5-2 Department of Justice