Political Controversies
As a result of his business dealings, Roach found himself involved in a number of political controversies during the course of his career, as business competitors and political opponents alike sought to malign his reputation. He also attracted criticism as a consequence of his subsidy campaigns.
A staunch Republican and generous donor to the Republican Party, Roach enjoyed the patronage of successive Republican administrations, but the Democrats continued to suspect him of obtaining government contracts not through merit but from favoritism and jobbery with a corrupt Navy Department. While Roach may indeed have benefited from a degree of favoritism under Republican administrations, no credible evidence was ever presented to substantiate the allegations of corruption made against him, and indeed his ability to regularly undercut his competitors sometimes saved the government considerable sums of money. Suspicions persisted however, and when the Democratic administration of Grover Cleveland assumed office, it repudiated a partly completed set of government contracts with Roach, driving the Roach shipyard into receivership.
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“Despotism can only exist in darkness, and there are too many lights now in the political firmament to permit it to remain anywhere, as it has heretofore done, almost everywhere.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)