Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-12-07
TYNER ASKS JUSTICE
Ex-Assistant Attorney Gen. eral Addresses Roosevelt.
DENIES ALL ACCUSATIONS MADE.

| Calls Action of President Nm Conn
 menting on Bristovv Report Xn His l Case "Premature and Unwar- ranted" In Assuming Guilt.
 WASHINGTON, Dec. 7-Mr. James l N. Tyner, who was assistant attorney l general for the postoffice department until deposed on account of matters connected with the postoffice investi- l gation, has sent the following letter to President Roosevelt:
 'In your official statement as presi- dent of the United States, addressed to the American public, in connection with the report of Fourth Assistant Postmaster General Bristow on the al- leged postal frauds, you make certain 1 statements concerning my supposed l connection herewith, which | take the liberty of answering fQA order that I may properly go upon your official rec ords
 T do not desire to question your good faith or sincerity in accepting the conclusion of your subordinate, MT. Bristow, and in dignifying them with the weight of your high official l position, but has it occurred to you that pending the trial of the three indict- ments against me, based on the alle- , gations of the report and without hav- ing heard one word from me in my de- l fense, your premature and unwarrant- ed announcement of my assumed guilt l and your call to the court and jury to I indorse the same is, to say the least, extraordinary and dangerous? I am not even asking that should be pre- stunned innocent or that before | am l condemned by you or the department I should be confronted by proofs and witnesses or given an opportunity to be heard in my defense, or that in the trial which confronts me should have a fair trial All am asking is that, in view of the uncertainty of my life and the fact that my lips may at any moment be forever sealed, this letter be filed among your official records of my case, together with my letters of July 27, 1903, to Mr. .Bristow, a copy l of which attach
 l T desire again specifically to deny every one of the yelled charges made | by MT. Bfistow in his report and to :. call your attention to the fact that not one direct or specific charge is made against me in the conduct of my high office, nor has, nor can, one cent of l gain be traced to me. If my life is spared shall fully refute all the sur mises and insinuations of MT. Bristow and shall be able to show the reasons l which led him to withhold from you full data and to garble, misquote and falsify that which he did submit. to l you
 l Il also desire to state that if any of the friends of Tyner' have, as you al legged, advanced the theory that in this case the chief offender was my nephew Barrett and that my alleged offenses ! were due to my failing mental and l bodily powers they did so without my knowledge or assent. It is true that, owing to two strokes of paralysis, my bodily powers have failed me- and I may have to face truer and sterner Judge ere many days, but my mental I powers, thank God, have never suf- fered and | trust will not fail me un- l til have convinced the American pub ] lie and you, as chief executive, that I my acts have been honest honorable and straightforward in the sight of 1 God and man. am confident that the relations of MT. Barrett with me and my department were as innocent and honorable as I am sure were all my motives and acts
 T also wish to deny your utterly un- l warranted statement that the gross corruption in the case of Tyner has gone on for number of years You should know, and your subordinates 1 do know, that no single act of corrup- I ton, gross or mild, has been discov- cred against me- and the United States government, with it's forty inspectors and its chief inquisitor, MT. Bristow, l will be unable to discover one.
 T have tried by forty odd years of faithful service to my country to prove my zeal for faithfulness and honesty in the public service and I now say to you, the president of the United States, my chief accuser, as if it were 1 the last word shall ever utter, that in your well recognized and honorable zeal for the public good you have all l lowed yourself to be deceived and i'm posed upon, and while I cannot hope for hearing at your hands shall at 1 least give myself the wretched solace of having denied these wrongs and of l having demanded that hearing which I riphf and iuSfice ol1pht fo accord mo :"