Franklin MacVeagh
Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, 1837 - 1934, Chicago
MacVeagh moved to Chicago, Illinois, in 1866 and became a partner in the wholesale grocery house of Whitaker and Harmon. In 1868 he married Emily Eames, the daughter of the founder and longtime president of the Commercial National Bank of Chicago. They had five children. In 1871 the great Chicago fire destroyed MacVeagh's firm, but he was able to feed many victims of the fire and served on the relief committee. With the aid of insurance funds soon after the fire he formed Franklin MacVeagh and Company, which became one of America's largest wholesale grocery establishments, operating until 1932.
As his business grew, MacVeagh became active in Chicago reform politics. He helped to organize and later became president of the Citizens' Committee of 1874, which reorganized the fire department, unified city government, and enlarged the city's water supply. He served as vice president of the Civil Service Reform League of Chicago (1884-1885), president of the Chicago Bureau of Charities (1896-1904), and a trustee of the University of Chicago (1901-1913). MacVeagh became a director of the Commercial National Bank in 1881, serving until 1909.
Although he was a Republican, MacVeagh's interest in tariff revision caused him to support Grover Cleveland's presidential candidacies in 1884, 1888, and 1892. He was nominated by the Democratic state convention of Illinois for U.S. senator in 1894 but, despite a vigorous campaign, lost to the Republican incumbent Shelby M. Cullom. An opponent of "free silver," MacVeagh refused to support William Jennings Bryan in 1896 and left the Democratic party. He did not return until 1928, when he supported Alfred E. Smith for president.
In 1909 President William Howard Taft appointed MacVeagh secretary of the treasury. As secretary, he was an advocate of the central bank program recommended by the National Monetary Commission in 1910 and presented to Congress as the Aldrich Bill in 1911. MacVeagh worked to allay the fears that westerners and small bankers had of Senator Nelson Aldrich's plan by opposing the concentration of money and power in a few banks. The secretary advocated equal membership of all banks and called for the elimination of interlocking directorates from the program. However, partisan politics and differing views of the nation's financial needs defeated the Republican efforts at banking reform; the bill never passed, although it influenced the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.
MacVeagh favored lowering the tariff. While his efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, he did help to create the "scientific tariff board" that President Taft established in 1911. He continued the investigations of customhouse frauds that the Theodore Roosevelt administration had begun, and he recovered more than $8 million in lost tariff revenues. Perhaps his most meaningful work was done in shaping and supporting Taft's budgetary program, which would have given the president considerable power over expenditures. While not accepted by Congress at the time, it was approved in the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921.
MacVeagh supported the Taft administration's increase of the civil service list, classifying many jobs in the treasury department. He also reorganized the department, using a board of experts to eliminate 540 jobs in Washington, D.C., and 1,915 positions nationwide. He increased the department's efficiency, claiming that none of his actions were at the expense of providing adequate services. In each of his annual reports MacVeagh recommended the creation of a pension system for department employees. He did this while opposing a demand for expanded pensions for veterans of the Civil War, a position that drew fire from the Grand Army of the Republic veterans' organization. Taft ultimately did not endorse MacVeagh's position for political reasons.
Some Republicans resented MacVeagh's appointment to the cabinet because of his former associations with the Democratic party. He was not particularly active in the administration's political problems but believed that Taft should incorporate more progressive Republicans into his body of advisers. MacVeagh's support of Senator Albert J. Beveridge, who stood for reelection in 1910, angered Taft, who was displeased with Beveridge's legislative opposition to administration programs. Perplexed by his secretary's actions, Taft described MacVeagh as "tinged with insurgency" (Butt, p. 355). MacVeagh also championed Henry L. Stimson's appointment as secretary of war after Jacob M. Dickinson resigned in 1911. He viewed the selection as a conciliatory gesture toward Republican liberals and progressives.
Although MacVeagh supported President Taft in his struggle against Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, his role was inconsequential in the Republican split, which led to the defeat of Taft and the party in the general election. After leaving office MacVeagh returned to his business and civic affairs in Chicago. Having traveled widely in Europe, he became deeply interested in the study of architecture and was a founder and for many years president of the Municipal Art League of Chicago. He was active in a variety of social and educational groups and an accomplished speaker. He also published several articles in scholarly journals on governmental and historical topics. MacVeagh was considered a good companion, an intelligent conversationalist, and a gentle person. He died in Chicago.
Bibliography
MacVeagh's papers are located at the Library of Congress and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. MacVeagh's articles include "Banking and Currency Reforms," Journal of Political Economy 19 (1911): 809-18; "Civil Service Pension," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences 38 (1911): 3-5; and "How President Taft Has Followed the Roosevelt Policies--or Improved upon Them," Outlook, 18 May 1912, pp. 110-16. Information about his early life is in Robert I. Vexler, The Vice-Presidents and Cabinet Members, vol. 2 (1975). On his career as secretary of the treasury, see Annual Report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the State of the Finances, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912; Archibald W. Butt, Taft and Roosevelt: The Intimate Letters of Archie Butt (2 vols., 1930); Donald F. Anderson, William Howard Taft: A Conservative's Conception of the Presidency (1973); Paolo E. Colletta, The Presidency of William Howard Taft (1973); Henry F. Pringle, The Life and Times of William Howard Taft (2 vols., 1939); Hildreth M. Allison, "Dublin Greets a President," Historical New Hampshire 35 (1980): 202-6; and [anon.], "MacVeagh, the Administration's Political Equilibrator," Current Literature, Feb. 1911, pp. 147-50. An obituary is in the New York Times, 7 July 1934.
Robert S. La Forte
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