serious trouble came in July and August in the badly neglected medical department. Shortages, low priorities, poor distribution, nightmarish sanitary conditions, and epidemic tropical diseases mounted to inflict upon the army what one authority has called a “shattering medical disaster.” At Santiago, Cuba, the Fifth Corps suffered so badly from medical, supply, and morale problems that McKinley prepared orders to return the unit to the United States.

But before he could act, a group of officers in Cuba, including Theodore Roosevelt, circulated a round robin letter to newspapers at home in which they warned that the Fifth Corps “must be moved at once or it will perish” and accused the government of inefficiency and corruption. The letter so upset McKinley that he hastened the unit's return and billeted the sick and demoralized soldiers at a half-completed camp on Long Island, where new chaos quickly set in.

Alger bore the blame in the public's eye for this and other misadventures during the war. Even as the army began to pull itself together and overcome its early difficulties, he remained the butt of bitter resentment and outrage, within the army and without. Indeed, the term "Algeria became a popular synonym for incompetence. Despite a rising cry for his ouster, Alger refused to step aside, and McKinley did nothing to force him out of office. Probably the President realized that the firing of Alger could be construed as an admission that the administration had mismanaged the war. 

As the Dodge Commission prepared to undertake its inquiry, McKinley gave it instructions akin to a charge to a grand jury: 

He assured Dodge that he would put no limit on the scope of the investigation. Doubtless, McKinley was concerned about possible corruption and criminal negligence in the war effort, although his views as to what the inquiry might achieve in a positive way were vague. 

In February, 1899, the Dodge Commission issued a nine-volume report, containing an enormous body of conflicting testimony and very little in the way of conclusions as to why the war had been mismanaged. The commanding general of the army, Nelson A. Miles, proved to be the witness most unfriendly to Alger and McKinley, with both of whom he had been at odds on practically everything throughout the war. Miles's testimony included a sensational charge that the War Department had foisted tainted and grossly inferior meat— “embalmed beef”—on the troops, and the commission spent long hours running down the charge before concluding that Miles could not substantiate it. 

The report noted that many complaints and charges against the army were rooted in the

rumors and tall tales that soldiers naturally circulate among themselves. The commission concluded, finally, that the army was guiltless of deliberate negligence and major corruption and that, under very difficult circumstances, it had probably done its best in the war. 

As for Alger, the commissioners could not agree among themselves as to his competence or incompetence. The report acknowledged that he was an honest and hard-working official, but also noted that he had failed sufficiently to understand the need for efficiency and discipline in the army.

Thus cleared of official wrongdoing, Alger remained only a political problem for McKinley, rather than a possible source of major scandal embarrassment. Alger persisted in his refusal to give up his cabinet post, holding on with a tenacity that exasperated other members of the administration. When he finally resigned in August, 1899, it was under conditions totally unrelated to the war and the investigation. 

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Adapted from a longer essay which originally appeared in Presidential Misconduct: From George Washington to Today, edited by James M. Banner, Jr. Published by The New Press. Reprinted here with permission.