The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1899-08-31
AS TO THE CARTER CASE.


Carter case, chapter numDer tnree. 40
before stated, the trial OF Captain Carter
by the court martial occupied four months
The accused was represented byepble coun-
sci. and was furnished with evWy facility
and opportunity to meet the charges
against him. Many witnesses were exam
ined and several thousand pages of tes-
timony taken.
When the case was closed the court oc-
cupied two days In deliberation, and then
reached conclusion Although there has
been no official PRONUNCIATION of the sem
tence and findings, II is well understood
that the accused, by unanimous vote oil
the court, was found guilty of all the
charges and specifications and was sem
fenced to dismissal from the army, to pay
a fine of $4,000 and undergo term OF
Imprisonment There could be no other
outcome in view .of the testimony and
the high character of the court.
The result was evidently .plainly fore
seen by the accused and his counsel. Be
fore the record reached Washington, Frank
p Blair, one of Carter's counsel, called
at the White House on the way from Sa-
vannah, made an appeal for his client
and urged the president to send the record
when received to some able lawyer out
side of the war department for examina-
ton and review This was an unusual
proceeding, but 1t was not remarkable in
view of what had previously been done in
an irregular and extraordinary way In
connection with the case. When the rec
ord was received by the secretary of war
1t was sent to the Judge advocate general
for examination and review, which Is the
regular method of procedure.
~
1t was given careful examination by that
officer who found the proceedings regular,
the findings In accordance with the testi-
mony, the sentence in accordance with
the law and the findings. The approval
of the findings and the execution of the
sentence was recommended to the execu-
tive. Following the regular channels the
record should have gone next to the COM
handing general, but instead of this 1t
was sent directly to the secretary of war.
who carried it to the president, presum
ably with his formal approval.
1t was at this point that the powerful
influences that had been eXerted for Car
ter from the outset again made them
selves manifest. Instead of giving the
case personal examination the president
referred the record to former Senator
George f. Edmunds, with instructions to
prepare a brief touching the regularity
of the proceedings and the righteousness
of the findings for the benefit of the presi-
dent Mr.. Edmunds, it is understood re-
ported that some of the papers intro |
duced in the trial were improperly intro |
duced, notably what was known as Car
ter's private papers, but that the facts
established outside of those papers were
sufficient to convict on a number of the |
charges, for which the penalty was dis !
missa. 1t is further understood that Mr. |
Edmunds suggested that the sentence be !
mitigated to simple dismissal from the |
army
The persistent cutlery of Carriers coun-
sci over the so-called private papers
would lead to the suspicion that the |
prosecution had seized by improper and |
accused of personal and private char
acter, and having no relation to the issues |
he was cited before court martial to
answer
This plea will not hold water. Those |
papers were turned over voluntarily by |
Captain Carter to the three engineer Off |
GERS sent by General Wilson to investigate
the charges made by Captain Gillette.
rms action on the part of Carter in SUBJ
hitting the papers to a quasi judicial
board, that they might be used as basis
for partial official judgment, Invested |
them of the character of secresy. The |
properly contended that, no
matter how the papers came into the
possession of the judge advocate, whether
lawfully or unlawfully, the court could |
pf ma Of Eel
becoming possessed of them. AS matter
Of fact the papers were for the most part
retained vouchers for the expenditure OF
public moneys. One of the papers was a
cipher code which Carter had arranged
that he might deceive his superior officers
when absent from his proper station with
out authority. This offense constituted
one OF the charges brought against him.
~
After receiving the report of Mr.. Ed
munds the. president sent the papers to
the attorney general, who still has them
in charge. An abstract of the evidence
and an elaborate argument was filed with
the attorney general by Messrs Walter q.
Abram ]. Rose, Frank P. Blair
and William w. Mackall, counsel for Cap
tain Carter and subsequently Wayne Mac
' Sa6H AiSu al argument OH peuulI OIL the
accused. To these efforts on the part of
Carter's counsel, Colonel Barr was called
upon to make answer. which he did, the
paper being submitted May IS, 1899 In
this answer all the points of Carter's
counsel were fully covered and he left
them not a leg to stand on. Space forbids
me to quote some of the strong points
made by Colonel Barr, but they are posi-
lively convicing to any man who is not
and who is Not interested in
The release of a convicted thief.
From the foregoing necessarily brief
statement Of the merits of thu remark
able case, together with the short nara
i've OF the methods adopted before and
after the trial for saving the accused from
lust punishment for his crimes, 1t will
be inferred that the lnfuneces that have
prevented the president from
performing plain duty and promptly act
ng upon the findings Of the court martial
must have been OF the most potential
guess they were. We do not
lnow all OF the influences that have been
It work on Mckinley but / think / know
l few of them.
~
In the first place, Tom Plat has ever
been one of Carriers mainstays fhrougb