Richard Henry Dana III (January 3, 1851 – December 16, 1931) was an American lawyer and civil service reformer.

Early life

Dana was born in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...

on January 3, 1851, the son of lawyer and politician Richard Henry Dana, Jr. and Sarah ( Watson) Dana (1814–1907). His paternal grandfather was poet and critic

Richard Henry Dana Sr. Richard Henry Dana Sr. (November 15, 1787 – February 2, 1879) was an American poet, critic and lawyer. His son, Richard Henry Dana Jr., also became a lawyer and author. Biography Richard Henry Dana was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Novem ...

Dana graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. In 1874, he looked back on those years: "Days in college were happy-go-lucky times, even for the most studious and athletic."

Career

Dana was the author of the Massachusetts Ballot Act of 1888, the first state

Australian ballot The secret ballot, also known as the Australian ballot, is a voting method in which a voter's identity in an election or a referendum is anonymous. This forestalls attempts to influence the voter by intimidation, blackmailing, and potential v ...

(secret ballot) act passed in the US. Dana wrote a substantial biography of his father, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. He became a friend and financial adviser to

Hosea Ballou Morse Hosea Ballou Morse (18 July 1855 – 13 February 1934) was a Canadian-born American British customs official and historian of China. He served in the Chinese Imperial Maritime Custom Service from 1874 to 1908, but is best known for his scholarly p ...

, whom he introduced to

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

. He was a major leader of

Mugwumps The Mugwumps were Republican political activists in the United States who were intensely opposed to political corruption. They were never formally organized. Typically they switched parties from the Republican Party by supporting Democratic ...

, especially through his editorship of the ''Civil Service Record''. His people took credit for passing the state's 1884 civil service law, which was a stronger version of the federal Pendleton Act of 1883. Both laws were enacted to limit the effect of political patronage, thus disrupting the spoils system. The goal were improved morality and increased efficiency. It was also designed to contain the rising political power of the Irish Catholics. He died at his home in Cambridge on December 16, 1931.

Legacy

The papers and photographs of Dana, together with material relating to him collected by his son, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana, and his sister, Elizabeth, are held at the

Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site The Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site (also known as the Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow House and, until December 2010, Longfellow National Historic Site) is a historic site located at 105 Brattle Street in Cambridge ...

. Some family financial records are held at the

Houghton Library Houghton Library, on the south side of Harvard Yard adjacent to Widener Library, is Harvard University's primary repository for rare books and manuscripts. It is part of the Harvard College Library, the library system of Harvard's Faculty of ...

, Harvard, these include correspondence between Dana and William Penn Cresson, relating to the Cresson's biography of

Francis Dana Francis Dana (June 13, 1743 – April 25, 1811) was an American Founding Father, lawyer, jurist, and statesman from Massachusetts. He served as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1777–1778 and 1784. A signer of the Articles of Confederati ...

. A number of letters are in the Abernathy Collections at the Middlebury College library, though these may be by his father. A substantial collection of family papers (including 293 bound volumes and 81 boxes) is held at the Massachusetts Historical Society. Family papers are also found at the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library.

Personal life

On January 10, 1878, Dana married Edith Longfellow (1853–1915), the daughter of poet

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include " Paul Revere's Ride", '' The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely tran ...

. Before her death in 1915, they had four sons and two daughters. Edith's brother, Ernest Longfellow, disinherited some of their children for holding socialist and pacifist beliefs. Their children were: * Richard Henry Dana IV (1879–1933), a

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

conscientious objector and architect. * Henry "Harry" Wadsworth Longfellow Dana (1881–1950), who became a gay liberationist, previously acquitted of a 1935 morals arrest. * Frances Appleton Dana (1883–1933), who married Henry Casimir de Rham, a grandson of Charles de Rham, in 1905. She befriended Franklin Roosevelt but died in 1933 of suicide. * Allston Dana (1884–1952) * Edmund Trowbridge Dana III (1886–1981), who married Jessie Halladay. She committed suicide in 1915. * Delia Farley Dana (1889–1989), who became a socialist and feminist; she married fellow socialist Robert Hare Hutchinson in 1913. After Edith's 1915 death, he remarried Helen Ford Mumford (1865–1934) in 1922.''Cambridge Tribune'', March 4, 1922

References

1851 births 1931 deaths American lawyers Harvard University alumni Civil service reform in the United States Lawyers from Cambridge, Massachusetts Dana family {{US-law-bio-stub