The Penn's Grove record., 1907-01-18
PRESIDENT LIFTS BAN
OFF NEGRO SOLDIERS
Reyokes Order Barring Them
From Civil Service.
MAINTAINS RIGHT TO DISMISS
In Message Reasserts Soldiers Guilt
of Brownsville Crime and Sends
Testimony to Prove It-Convinc-
ing Exhibits Before Congress.

Washington, D. c. President
Roosevelt sent to the Senate a special
message regarding the discharge of
the negro troops of the Twenty-ffth
Infantry, which gives the additional
evidence collected by Assistant Attor-
ney-General Purdy and Major Block
som, who were sent to Texas by the
President to investigate the shooting
and killing at Brownsville.
The President stands pat on his or
der dismissing the troops, but admits
rs an error that part which bars the
ldiers from all civil employment
Under the Government.
This section the President revokes.
Concerning it he says:
81 am now satisfied that the eff
feet of my order dismissing these
men without honor was not to bar
them from all civil employment I'M
der the Government, and therefore
that the part of the order which con-
sisted of a declaration to this effect
was lacking in validity, and 1 have di-
rected that such portion be revoked"
Continuing President Roosevelt
says:
"As to the, rest of the order dis
missing the individuals 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 navy, there is no doubt of
my constitutional and legal power.
The order was within my discretion,
under the Constitution and the laws,
and cannot be reviewed or reversed
save by another executive order"
THE facts did not merely warrant
the action l took-they rendered such
action imperative unless 1 was to
prove false to my sworn duty.
IF any n of the men discharged
hereafter shows to my satisfaction
that he is clear of guilt, or of shield
ing the guilty, I will take what action
is warranted; but the circumstances
l here detail most certainly puts upon
any such man the burden of thus
clearing himself"
Strong language is again used by
the President in dealing with The col
ored soldiers, he referring to the
guilty mes as midnight assassins."
1.-THE evidence shows beyond am
possibility of honest question that
some individuals among the colored
troops whom l have dismissed COM
mitted the outrages mentioned; and
that some or all of the other indi-
yiduals whom I C.smissed had kncwl-
edge of the deed and shielded from
the law those who committed it.
"The only motive suggested as pos
sibly influencing any one else was a
desire to get rid of the colored troops,
so strong that it impelled the citizens
of Brownsville to shoot up their own
houses, to kill one of their own num-
Der, to assault theiI own police,
wounding the lieutenant, who had
been an officer for twenty years-all
with the purpose of discrediting the
negro troops"
The President submitted with his
message various exhibits, including
maps of Brownsville and Fort Brown,
a bandoleer, thirty-three empty
shells, eve ball cartridges picked
up in the streets a few hours after
the shooting, three steel-jacketed bull
lets and some scraps of the castings of
other bullets picked out of the houses
into which they had been fired.