The news-democrat. (Providence, R.I.) 1906-1909, 1907-01-16
SENATOR CARMACK
SHARPLY PRODS
THE PRESIDENT

senate today on the BroWnsNllle ARRAY
Senator Carmack announced that h'
heartily supported the president In his
action in discharging the negro soldiers
Mr.. Carmack then paid his respects &c
the president as follows: II think II
proper 10 say that any report that SEN
ators may have heard that the president
personally solicited my support I'm this
matter that he urged me 10 forgive and
forget certain energetic personal remarks
and begged me TO stand between him and
those twin enemies OF his administration
the senators from South Carolina and
Ohio is a gross exaggeration will not
say that II is an Infamous falsehood be-
cause such language belongs To the vo-
cabulary Of presidential controversies
rather than 10 that OF senatorial debate
Nor Is It true that l have been moved
10 undertake the presidents defence be
cause of my infatuated devotion TO the
man. / have a great admiration for the
strong brave. large minded gentleman
the secretary OF war My admiration for
the president is moro temperate and sub
dued In the language OF Hamlet III
waits upon the judgment.
THE president once said that he would
see a certain member of the Tennessee
delegation I'm Hades before he would DO
anything for him--a remark entirely gra-
tuitous i'm view Of the fact that the per
son supposed TO have been referred 10
had never asked a favor at his hands.
care so little for the hasty ebullltons OF
that remarkable man that / can see
what he himself could never see I'm any
man who expressed an opinion contrary
to his own--I can see the good as well as
the bad in his public conduct and judge
both without passion or prejudice
"In this case IL seems TO me that he
has acted with remarkable freedom from
l.s.aH "a IA
suspicion that the president was the more
careful TO ascertain the facts and to
within the limits OF the law because the
offenders were colored than he would
have been IL they were white.
so far as the negro race Is concerned
the only charge that can be justly lndd'
against the president Il that he has loNet
the negro not too wisely but too well
There Is something pathetic IN the plcsl'
dents plaintive recital OF all that he ha'
done and attempted for the negro race
Yet. there IL no man in TINS country to'
day not even the senator from South
Carolina. who is so universally ana so
bitterly hated by the negroes as the man
who abolished the Indianola postonioc
and dined with Booker +. Washington.
"Au that he has done for the negro.
all the evidences of friendship ne mas
shown in the past. have been utterly 1oI-
gotten simply because he has not shown
that sympathy with the criminal negro
which pervades the negro population OF
this country from one end of the country
TO the other
negro meeting justifying the action of the
negro troops Mr.. Carmack said no more
damaging Indictment of "A race could ne
secured than this one. written by itself.
lie then referred to Senator Foraker s
criticism OF Maj Blocksom, winch, ne
said, was due TO the fact that mis- rather
was a Democrat
He declared that the Senator from
y,a ln1iu a h.
lican party of ohio, but not for the uni
verse"
Continuing. he said Il can remember
with what frantic energy he used to wave
the bloody shirt-a shirt dyed with the
crimson current of his owen rhetoric. |
would not have to so back 40 years, or
make any inquiry into the senator's pedi-
gree TO prove by such evidence that the
senator from Ohio is the last ,nan To sit
i'm Judgment in a case Of murder where
a negro was the murderer and a South
.ern white man was his victim
"But will not do the senator such
gross injustice as TO Judge his heart by
the testimony OF his own mouth"
Discussing the right Of the president TO
act Mr.. Carmack said that wherever the
chief executive does an act that Is within
the scope Of his exclusive powers, he Is
necessarily the sole and exclusive judge
OF the facts upon which his act is based.
Nevertheless, for his own purposes and
with view 10 possible future legislation
the senator has right TO inquire into tho
facts of the case Whatever might be our
opinion Of these facts tney could not AFFECT
the legality Of the presidents action
Maintaining that the president had no
alternative in his action. Mr.. Carma ck
said:
1T may be a sound maxim in criminal
jurisprudence that II is better that ninety
nine guilty men should escape than thai
one innocent man should be hanged. bu'
II is not true that il is better that ninety
nine murderers shall wear the Uniform o
the United States army and carry its
guns TO slaughter peaceful citizens thar
that one innocent soldier shall be dis
charged.
! such a maxim would destroy the dis
| Cipline OF an army