Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-28
Accusations Declared False.

Your unqualified statement that l was
guilty of gross corruption and of accept
ing brides, etc. while assistant attorney
general for the Post Office Department was
not made in message to Congress-" as
you now assert. Congress was not even in
session. For obvious reasons it was
made in a "proclama ton" direct to the
public, with the usual limelight accessories.
If your statement had been made to Con-
gress in the course of and as part of your
official duties-though no such duty could
devolve upon the President under our Con-
stltution, as you well KNOW should not
have addressed you personally; but as you
went outside your rights and duties as
chief magistrate, and in defiance of every
established principle of law, and even with
out hearing or without evidence, rashly
ana impetuously pronounced me guilty of
these grave crimes, and to these. charges
lent the weight of your great office, felt
that you should be given the opportunity
to Justify yourself or to retract. Your ac-
cusa tons are false and have been proven
false, but l have no further means of es-
tabhshing this except by haling into the
courts, and l have too much respect for
the high office which you occupy to do this.
My object in writing you was to give you
the opportunity to do a just and manly
act, and to vindicate yourself, not me. /
do not need your vindcation. / can face
my Eternal Judge with entire peace of
mind.
Your effort to override the verdict of
court and jury by specfbus distinction be-
tween the crimes you say you referred to in
your proclamation and conspiracy to
commit those crimes might be less con-
temptible if its unfairness and its intent
were notso obvious. and if you did not know
that every act referred to in the Bristow
report was fully before the jury on the
barge of corruption" bribery and mis-
conduct in office" Had there been any
evidence of wrongdoing it would have been
offered and admitted but there was none;
and you know it
In my letter to you of December 1893,
protesting against your unwarranted proc
lansation,'I defied you to produce a scintilla
Of evidence to support your accusations,
and prayed that my life might be spared
to face these charges; and now after l have
and official life has been laid bare and not a
particle of evidence has been produced
against me, you seek to shield yourself by
saying that l was not tried for what you
accuse me of, but for something else. lhat
this is false the records show; and you
know it.
Ready to Stand Any Trial.
If am guilty of crimes other than those
charged in the indictments found against
me, then why was l not indicted and tried
for them also? And as my life is still
spared me I am ready now, groundless and
unjust as l know your charges are, to
stand trial Executive pressure secured
three indictments against me; may be 1t
can procure others. No technicalities nor
pleas of limitation will be interposed to
prevent you from proving your serious
charges. Naturally, at my age and in my
condition, 1 have no desire to be again
hailed into the criminal court; but in order
to preserve my record of forty years OF
public service untarnished l am willing to
undergo, if necessary, any ordeal. l know
/ am innocent. and you know there is no
truthful evidence against me. And your
statements ought not to stand.
In my several letters addressed to you
/ merely demanded what l conceived to be
my rights as an American citizen. l am
asking no favors. / wanted neither your
sympathy nor that of a jury; but as for
eighty years of my life l tried to do right
unto others, so / hoped that you might do
right unto me. If any citizen of our re-
public can stand convicted by presidential
proclamation, then law is farce and no
mans reputation is safe. You preach "a
square deal to every man. why not prac
tice it? Asking that this protest may be
filed with the record of my case, / am very
respectfully,
(Signed) JAMES N. TYNER.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT,
President of the United States.