Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1907-01-15
STILL ANOTHER MESSAGE
President Roosevelt and the Browns
vile Affair.
4 MAsTERLY DEFENSE OF MS ACTION.
Willing To Take Action For The Protec.
ton Of Any Proved TO Be
Clear of Guilt.

President Roosevelt sent another
message TO Congress yesterday in
which he again defends bis action in
regard to the Brownsville affair. The
gist of the message is as follows:
The evidence shows beyond
any possibility OF honest question
that some individuals among the col
ored troops whom ! have dismissed
committed the outrages mentioned, and
that some or all OF the other individ-
nals whom I dismissed had 1nowl-
edge Of the deed and shielded from
the law those who committed il.
The only motive suggested as pos
sibly influencing any one else was a
desire To get rid Of the colored troops
so strong that il impelled the citi-
zens of Brownsville TO shoot upon their
own houses, TO Kill one Of their
own number, TO assault their own
police. all with the purpose Of dis
crediting the negro troops. The sng-
z sfion is on its face So ludicrously
Impossible that il is difficult to treat
il as honestly made.
The weapons used were Spring
field rifles, for the ammunition which
they used was that of the Springfield
rifle and no other, and could not
have been used in any gun in Texas,
or any part of the Union or in Mexico,
or in any other part Of the world :.
This Of itself establishes the fact
that the ASSISTANTS were United States
soldiers, and would be conclusive on
this point if not one soldier had been
seen or heard by any residents in
Brownsville on the night in question,
and if nothing were known save the
finding of the shells, clips and bullets.
Fourteen eye-witnesses testi-
fed that they saw the assailants or
some of them at varying distances, and
that they were negro troops, most Of
the witnesses giving their testimony
i'm such shape that there is no posi-
bility of their having been mistaken.
1.-THE testimony Of these eye and
ear witnesses would establish beyond
all possibility or contradiction the
fact that the shooting was committed
by ten or fifteen or more of the
negro troops from the garrison, and
this testimony of theirs would be
amply sufficient in itself If not car
fridge or n bullet had been found: ex-
actIy as the bullets and cartridges that
were found would have established
the guilt OF the troops even had not
a single eyewitness seen them or
other witnesses heard them.
THE careful examination of MIR.
Purdy. assistant to the Attorney GEN
eral, resulted merely in strengthening
the reports already made by the reg
ular army authorities. Indeed,
the fuller details as established by the
additional evidence taken since / last
communicated with the Senate made
il likely that there were very few, if
any, of the soldiers dismissed who
could have been Ignorant of what oc-
Cured. IT is we'll nigh impossible
that any of the non-commissioned Off
GERS who were at the barracks should
not have known what occurred.
i am now satisfied that the effect
of my order dismissing these men
without honor was not to bar them
from all civil employment under the
Government, and, therefore, that the
part of the order which consisted of a
declaration to this effect was lacking
in validity and / have directed that
such portion be revoked. As TO the
rest of the order dismissing the indi-
viduals in question without honor and
declaring the effect of such discharge
under the law and regulations to be a
bar To their future re-enlistment either
in the army or the navy, there is no
doubt of my constitutional and legal
power The facts did mot merely
warrant the action ! took; they rem
dered such action imperative unless
was to prove false to my sworn duty.
IF any one of the men discharged
hereafter shows to my satisfaction that
he is clear of guilt, or of shielding the
guilty, / will take what action is
warranted, but the circumstances /
have above detailed most certainly
put upon any such man the burden of
Tins clearing himself -