Arizona republican., 1904-06-14
lie Urges the President to
 Set Him Right
BY ADMITTING HIS ERROR
He Recalls to the President That His Verdict Given Before Trial Has Been Superseded by One After a Trial by Jury.

Washington, June 13.-James N. Ty- ner, who was removed from the office of assistant attorney general for the postoffice department during an investi- ~ation of the department and who was recently tried and acquitted by the jury addressed letter to President Roose- welt, which is in part as follows: Tn November, 1903 on the strength of cor tain charges contained in a report by MT. Bristow. fourth assistant postmas ter general, you gave to the press of the country a statement to the effect tha. gross corruption in the case of Assist ant Attorney General Tyner has gone on for a number of years and after re- ferring to me as the chief offender you say that in my case corruption took form of favoring get-rich-quick coH- cerns and similar schemes; in othe" words, criminals whom it was his (myi sworn duty to prosecute, paid him (me) for permission to fleece the public un molested. After thus giving your of ficial opinion as chief magistrate of the nation as to my guilt you referred to the fact that there were three indict- ments pending again't me and you call ed upon the jury to Go it's duty.
 No verdict of the jury nor sentence 0f the judge could have had such far reaching or irremediable consequences for me as this extraordinary official proclamation of guilt by you, and the ordinary machinery of justice is prob . ably pOwerless fully to rectify the in Justice done. Immediately upon see | ing your charges in the press. I ad- dressed you d letter protesting that on the mere say-so of Mr. Bristow yoI had no right. without at least first giv- 1 ing me a chance to be heard in my de- fense or without confronting me with the charges or evidence, thus Drema- .urely and rashly to prejudice me and perhaps forever blast my good name and character which for nearly eighty years I have endeavored to establish. l When I wrote this letter l had little hope that a merciful and just God would spare my life long enough to enable me to face a jury of my peers, and I wished merely to record what l | believed to be a deathbed prot est against your unusual, unjust and arr bitrary action. Fortunately, have now had my day in court, And according to inc law of the land have established iry | innocence of any crime or of any mis . conduct in office. The jury without a moments hesitation pronounced me mot guilty on the indictments.
 "Such a verdict in trial brought in good faith would ordinarily be a suf- ! iicient vindicatiOn of an accused party, but unfortunately in this case your of- | fctal proclamation of my assumed | guilt has such weight. and is entitled
 10 have such weight, that tC many it practically overrides the verdict Of the | jury.
 | "i notice that many of your friends
 do not hesitate to say that your yer dict given before the trial is more to be relied upon than the verdict of the
 court and jury given after the trial. Against such injustice, I have no re- course, except by appealing to you: l sense of right and fair dealing. I do not mean for a moment to question the i good faith and entire sincerity of your proclamation; I wish merely to em-
 phasize the fact that you have been deceived and that your laudable zeal fol public and official decency has been i'm posed upCn. You accuse me of gross corruption, but the attorneys for the government constantly disclaimed any sHch charge before the jury. You charge that I was paid by criminals not to prosecute them. Not a scintilla ot evidence was introduced to sustain such a charge; nor was a single docu- | ment produced to show special favors
 to swindling schemes or a single viola
 iiOn of my duty. Every charge in the | BristOw report in any wise rehectinG upon me has been disproved by recent
 irial-disproved not by virtue of the
 verdict, but by the sworn evidence oi
 the governments own witnesses.
 My remaining hours are few, and though my house is in order, and with
 (. clear conscience, I await from day
 tn day the irrevocable summons, nev-
 actheless, I cannot close my eyes with
 out first appealing to you, MT. Presi-
 dent, as my chief accuser, to endeav-
 or, in so far as you can, to right the
 great wrong, which you have unwit- | tingly done"
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