Connecticut western news., 1906-12-27
WOULD KILL NEGROES
President Roosevelt Declares Members of Dismissed Regi-
 ment Deserved Death.
DEFENDS ACTION IN CASE.

Special Message to Congress, In Re-
 sponse to Senate Inquiry, Recites
 Facts on Which Order of Discharge
 Was Rased-caIIs Soldiers Conduct
 "Atrocious."
 Washington, Dec. 26.-In concluding . message to the senate in reply to its Inquiries regarding the discharge of three companies of the Twenty-fifth infantry President Roosevelt says:
 "I challenge as a right the support of every citizen of this country, whatever his color, provided only he has in him the spirit of genuine and farsighted patriotism"
 The president, whose tone through out is absolutely uncompromising, says he acted in the exercise of his consti- tutional power and in pursuance of his constitutional duty. He denounces as sinister the counsel that has induced colored people to attempt to deny or condone the Brownsville crime because the culprits were of their race.
 Denying that their discharge was or 1ered as a punishment, the president asserts that the only adequate punish ment for the Brownsville assault is death. He declares his keen regret at not being able to infiict that penalty.
 Act of Unparalleled Infamy."
 That the shooting up of Brownsville was done by a party of from nine to fifteen negro soldiers the president says there can be no doubt whatever, and he brands their act as one "unpar- alleled for infamy in the annals of the United States army"
 After breaking from their barracks, the president says, they shot at whom ever they saw moving and into houses where they saw lights. They fired into houses where they must have known there were women and children. They killed barkeeper and wounded the lieutenant of police, who lost his arm.
 These raiders, says the president. were not schoolboys on a frolic. Not withstanding full warning of the con- sequences their comrades entered into a conspiracy of silence to prevent the ends of justice, so it became necessary to discharge them all.
 The Presidents Message.
 Some of the more striking portions of the presidents message are as fol lows:
 It appears that in Brownsville, Tex, there had been considerable feeling be- tween the citizens and the colored troops of the garrison. My impression is that there was blame attached to both sides. but this is wholly unimportant, as noth- ing that occurred offered any excuse or Justification for the atrocious conduct of the troops when in lawless and murder ous spirit and under cover of the night they made their attack upon the citizens.
 The attack was made near midnight on Aug IS. The following facts as to this attack are made clear by Major Block som's investigation and have not been and, in my judgment, cannot be success fully controverted. From nine to fifteen or twenty of the colored soldiers took part in the attack. They leaped over the walls from the barracks and hurried through the town. They shot at whom ever they saw moving, and they shot into houses where they saw lights. In some Of these houses there were women and chill dren, as the would be murderers must have known. In one house in which there were two women and five children some ten shots went through at a height of about four and a half feet above the floor, one putting out the lamp upon the table.
 These soldiers were not schoolboys on h frolic. They were full grown men in the uniform of the United States army. armed with deadly weapons, sworn to uphold the laws of the United States and under every obligation of oath and honor not merely to refrain from criminality, but with the sturdiest rigor to hunt down criminality.
 Conspiracy to Shield Assassins.
 It is vital for the army to be imbued with the spirit which will make every man in it and, above all, the officers and noncommissioned officers, feel 1t matter of highest obligation to discover and pup tsh and not to shield the criminal in uni- form. Yet some of the noncommissioned officers and many of the men of the three companies in question have banded to- gether in a conspiracy to protect the as- sassins and would be assassins who have disgraced their uniform by the conduct above related.
 People have spoken as if this discharge from the service was a punishment. l deny emphatically that such is the case. because as punishment it is utterly mad equate. The punishment meet for mutt neers and murderers such as those guilty of the Brownsville assault is death, and a punishment only less severe ought to be meted out to those who have aided and abetted mutiny and murder and treason by refusing to help in their detection. I would that it were possible for me to have punished the guilty men. I regret most keenly that I have not been able to do so.
 Any assertion that these men were dealt with harshly because they were colored men is utterly without foundation. Off, cers or enlisted men, white men or col pred men. who were guilty of such con- duct would have been treated in precisely the same way. for there can be nothing more important than for the United States army in all its membership to understand that its arms cannot be turned with inn punity against the peace and order of the civil community.