New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-05-31

port of the Court. The Professor cr1tlclses
the course pursued by the Court and declares
that the purpose of the officers OF the Acad-
emy from the start was to vindicate the IN
stitution by the conviction of the colored ca
det; with this view, evidence was manutac-
tured and testimony was distorted. lie is
firmly convinced that Whitaker Is guiltless
and that his innocence will be made manifest
A STAR CHAMBER PROCEEDING.
rHE AIM OF THE COURT TO PROVE WHITAKER
GUILTY-TRE MYSTERIOUS TRoUsERs-GARBLED
EXTRACTS FROM HIS LETTERS AND DIARY-HlS
INNOCENCE TO DE MADE CLEAR.
lBY TELEGRAPH TO THE TRIBUSEl
WAsHINGToN Nav 3O.-Professor r. I. GTeener
has returned from West Point, where for several
weeks he has been attending the Whitaker Court
of Inquiry Since his arrival Professor Greener has
seen the Secretary War and received an assurance
that he shall be heard in reply to the argument OF
Recorder Sears before final action is taken on the
findings of the Court of Inquiry.
Professor Greener is anxious that Whitaker should
demand q trial by court martial. In conversation
with TRIBUNE correspondent tonight, Professor
Greener after expressing his gratitude 1or the
course taken by The TRIBUNE during the progress
of the case. made the following statement OF the
impressions made upon his mind by the proceedings
of the Court of Inquiry:
"Whittaker has been tried in strict Star
Chamber style; and, so far as having
O chance to present his view of bis own
case or to destroy the numerous hypoth-
eses invented against him, he might as
well have been i'll the inquisitors room.
Whatever license military law gives for trampling
on all the rights of person self-accused for pur-
poses of investigation was cOarsely and persist
emily taken advantage Of The Recorder became
viz nraSident
asked no question, except to inculpate Whitaker
while the savage asperity of both toward Whitta-
ker and Mrs. Simpson dsgusted the impartial
visitors and the newspaper reporters. By process
of ratiocination peculiarly military, insinuatons
and sneers became usual were finally assumed as
legal evidence. and in the end were exhibited as
proof.
"When it suited his purpose, Captain Recorder
Sears became a witness to his own huTnil-
iation, or betrayed uncOnsciOusly his bias.
He fshed through Whittakers correspondence.
read garbled extracts from the privafe~
letters of his friends having bearing the case,
and distorted their meaning to bolster up a rotten
theory. Access has been had at all times to Whit
takers room since the inquiry began detectives
and officers have not failed to that advantage
as Whitaker and know. The day left the Point
WhittakePs room was entered while he
was at drill, every letter he had received
from sympathetic friends was carried off, and
a pair of citizens trousers suspiciousy found
Just where they were probably put by whoever took
them from the trunkroOm in the third story Of the
building
"Whittaker must have been reading Uncle
Toms Cabin ,; for the trousers were found, like
Miss Ophelia's ribbon the sleeve of his overcOat
Why were they not found before WhittakeTs
word as a cadet had not gained him any immunity
of search hitherto. This last shift of broken down
prosecution is as transparent as it is cow
ardly. The trunk-room, quite a distance
off, is under lock and key. Whitaker has not had
access to it officers and his prosecutors have. The
trousers in question have not been in Whittakers
room since he was on furlOugh last June. can
swear that they were not there on the 10th of May
for examined several times before, and on that
day, everything in his room, suspecting some such
trickery.
"He was trapped at the beginning into calling q
court of inquiry himself, and was treated like a
convicted felon afterward. Not satisfied with
having the burden of guilt shifted from the should
ers of the corps to Whittaker's, he was also pre-
sumed and assumed to be guilty, was required to
prove negative, and was made to answer all sorts
of absurd conjectures, hypothesis and couundrums.
"In aletter to my wife, April 25, he wrote: In
closed please find $40, simple gift from one who
feels grateful for the many noble acts OF your dear
husband The money was promptly returned, and
humored him by keeping it until left West Point,
when without his knowledge sent it to his mother
as a present from him; yet this grateful act Of
friendless boy is construed as perjury under West
Points distorted magnlfying-glass The fact Is not
offered by Recorder Sears even as evidence; but it
is used inferentially to break down Whittaker's
credibility as witness.
"a love affair, while not allowed to come in evil
dence is vugarly and insultingly used in the same
way to prove disordered mind. His private jour
nal is paraded to public view, but none of the de-
nunciations of West Points treatment of colored
cadets in the many letters he has received have.
observe, been furnished to the press; and yet the
authorities who regaled themselves on private cor
respondenee must have found some precious morses
"The present court Of inquiry called to in
vestigate the affair April @. If twenty pairs of
pantalOons and other contraband goods were found
in Whittaker's room they would have nothing what
ever to do with this case. 1t would be strange if,
in an examination as long, tedious and cruel as
Whittaker's, there were not some slight dscrepan-
ces. There were. however, no material variations
in bis testimony.
81 am reported as saying: Il have no personal
reason for suspectiDg the parties mentioned in my
note TO Lieutenant Knight and see no reason to oc
cupy the time of the Court with following up the
investigation. Part is true; / had no personal
EeaeOn but wrote Second. the fact that the
inquiry up to this point has failed to inn
plicate any cadets as the guilty parties
gives rise to the thought that perhaps the
Court had inadvertently omitted. in the course of
its very minute Investigations. 70 inquire what
know ledge or suspicious officers, soldiers even
men iD the printing office might have of this mystic
r1ous affair, all of which pertinent to me if
the truth can thereby be reached?
ssAs TO the expert testimony have only to say
that the Recorder furnished ali the papers, directed
the specific inquiries of the experts and as is ac
knowledged, showed to Expert Southworth before
his testimony q known specimen of Whittakers
handwriting charge that an unfair advantage
was taken of Whitaker. in placing among the
Of cadet Handwriting the letter Wfiffe