The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-11-29
UNION VET ! GIVES VIEWS Investigated the Browns
 vile Affair. PRAISES PRESIDENTS STAND Gen. Nettleton's Lifelong Repub-
 liean Plain Talk. says Efforts to Make Martyr. Ont sa UnEfOrmed Negro Thugs woHIa
 Be Appalling If Not
 Grotesane.
PRAISES PRESIDENTS STAND

 of the apparent misunderstanding in portions of the country o< tho facts which called forth the order for the discharge of the three companies 0f colored troops recently stationed here. and in view of the resulting criticism or the Presidents course in the matter, the Citizens Committee of Brownsville recently requested General A. B. Nett tleton of Chicago, former As5istaus Secretary of the Treasury. now here on business to make in his own way a thorough and disinterested investiga- ton of the Brownsville tragedy of Au- gust I3, and report his conclusions.
 General NettIeton has embodied his findings in a letter to the Secretary of War. He says in part;
 sAs a citizen of Illinois, as antl- slavery advocate when that phrase had a meaning. and as a lifelong Republi- can, who served in the Union army throughout the civil war, shall at least not be suspected of prejudice against men of color as such.
 ''L feel sure that only carefully dis- seminated transformation as to the facts can account of the present gross misapprehension on the part of many persons and journals.
 without rehearsing details. l wish to assure you that this absolutely uns prejudiced investigation, made after io-
 
 in every particular, the conclusions reached by the two army officers sent here by the War Department on the strength of which the President took his action, as well as the very clear and temperate statement published iIs- mediately after the tragedy by Chair man Kelly of the Brownsville Citizens Committee"
 After summarizing the facts. hfther- to published as to the killing of one citizen, the maiming Of the chief of police the firing of yOlleys into andi through hotels. saloons and many pri-' vate residences and the terrorizing of the entire town the letter continues: ''The well attested evidence. .controvert- cd by none, is that the eolored troops ware treated here with the aafae cone sfderation with which eoIored soldtcf1 of like bearing are treated in most garrison towns Of the Northern States.
 Conduct Was IRsoIent.
 "rhat on the other hand the street conduct of some of them was often aggressively and eauseiesSiY insolent, against white men and women: thnt there was no provocation for the mur- derous raid by the soldiers, unless it can be called a provocation that the drinkers among them were provided with separate bars in certain saloons and that on two occasions individual insolence was resented by individual citizens. both of whom happen 10 have been Republican Federal officials.
 There was no riot and no streel rows as many newspapers persist in calling the occurrence It was simply a most cowardly conspiracy to ter- rlfy, wound and kill unofGending men. women and children at the hour Of midnight when defense or resistanceI was impossible and was not even at tad mn nF4 mg4 shot was fred"
 General Nettleton's letter sharply raised the question what were the. white officers Of the garrison doing on the night of the raid and closes thus: Tn view of the facts as I find them here. the present attempt on the part of some to make martyrs of any por- ton of the discharged men would be appalling, if it were not grotesque. The conspiracy of silence on the part of all members of the battalion pre- vents the Government from punishing the previous conspiracy of violence and murder and the separation of ali alike from the service which they have dis graced becomes inevitable
 T believe no course other than the one which the President has pursued was. or is open to him. unless all semb- lance of q decent discipline in our army is to be ended, and unless every Amer lean community. North and South alike, is to be given cause to dread. the proximity of the negro garrison aa 1t would that of an encampment of armed and uniformed assassins. sym pathize deeply with the colored people in their upward struggle in America against fearful odds. but believe the most damaging service that can ba rendered them as race in their period of test and transition is that of cham pioning or excusing the criminal ele- ment in their ranks"