The Wilmington daily Republican., 1891-05-19
NAVASsA RIOTERS.
President, Harrison Commutsa
Their Sentences.
RESULT OF THE KERsARGE INQUIRY

The President Says the Cruelties
Practised by the Bosses of the
Islands Were Calculated to Drive
Men to Desperation = The Muir
dercrs 90 BE Imprisoned for Life.
WASHINGTON, May 19.-The president
has disposed of the case of the Navassa
rioters. His action is embodied in the
following Endorsement of the application
for executive clemency:
~ have examined with care the
papers submitted in these cases, and am
not willing that the death sentesne
should be executed. The killing was, as
to each of the prisoners, satisfactorily
established, and that it was felonious is
also clear. But the conditions surround
ing the prisoners and their fellows were
of a most peculiar character. They
were American citizens under contracts
to perform labor upon specified terms
within American territory, removed
from any opportunity to appeal to any
court or public officer for redress of any
injury OF the enforcement of any civil
right.
Should Provide n Law.
"Their employers were, in fact, their
masters. The bosses placed over them
imposed fines and penalties without any
semblance of trial. These penalties ex-
tended to Imprisonment, and even to the
cruel practice of tricing men up for a
refusal to work. Escape was impossi-
BILE, and the state of things generally
such as might make men relentless and
desperate. The United States govern
ment should provide by law for the exc
cution of contracts to labor in Navassa
before n public officer, whose duty it
should be to see that the men who 20
there to labor are well informed as to
the nature of the obligations assumed,
and should maintain on the island an Of
hcer with power to hear complaints and
to adjudge controversies.
81 have within few weeks been COM
PEELED to send war vessel to the island
to investigate the complaints Of work.
man who by letter complained to me
that he was forcibly detained beyond
the time contracted for. A report upon
the case has just been received, which
finds that the complaint Of this man of
an unjust detention upon the island was
true. A board of naval officers from
the Kearearge made inquiry into the
state of affairs upon the island, and con-
Naval Officers Report.
We would desire to state further that the
discipline maintained on the leland seems to
be that Of n convict estaefishment without its
comforts and oleon linen; and that until more
attention is paid to the shipping OF the la
borers, by placing it under government super
vision, to prevent MISUNDERSTANDING and mis-
representations, and until some amelloration
is shown in the treatment Of the laborers there,
disorders will be of constant recurrence. In
this connection we desire TO say that tho fault
does not seem to lie with the superintendent,
but with the company, which neglects TO heed
hts recommendations; and further, to supply
food Of quality and at the proper time for 1t
TO be both sufficient and palatable.
"This is not case for a pardon; the
crime was very grave one; but, taking
into account all of its antecedents and
incidents, l have concluded to commute
the sentences to imprisonment for life.
The sentences in the cases of George s.
Key, Henry Jones and Edward Smith,
convicted of murder in the circuit court
of the United States for the district of
Maryland and sentenced to be hanged,
are each commuted to imprisonment for
life at hard labor in the penitentiary.
BENJAMIN HARRISON"