Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-14
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE
ON BROWNSVILLE
Transmits to Senate Sworn
Testimony of Purdy.
ALSO REPORT OF Mr.. TAFT
The Latter's Classified Review Of the
Evidence.
DISMISSAL ORDER MODIFIED
Clause as to Further Employment In
Government Service Stricken
Out as Invalid.

President Roosevelt today sent to
Congress special message regard
ing the Brownsville incident, which
gives the additional evidence collect
ed by Assistant Attorney General
Purdy and Maj. Blocksom, who
were sent to Texas by the President
to investigate the affair. The Presi-
dent submitted with his message
various exhibits.
Secretary Taft's report, giving the
sworn testimony of witnesses, is
transmitted with the message. The
testimony of fourteen eye-witnesses
is given and the President declares
that the evidence is conclusive that
the weapons used were Springfield
rifles now used by United States
troops, including the negro troops
who were in the garrison at Browns
vile.
The Message.
The following message was sent by 'he
President today.
To the Senate:
In my message to the Senate treatlns
of the dismissal, without honor, of certain
named members of the three companies OF
the 18th Infantry, L gave the reports OF
the officers upon which the dismissal was
based These reports were made in ac-
,cordance with, the custom in such, cases.
for ii would of course, be impossible 10
preserve discipline in the army save by
pursuing precisely the course that IN thls
case was pursued. Inasmuch, however, as
in the Senate question was raised as 10
the sufficiency of the evidence, l deemed 1t
wise to send Maj. Blocksom and Assistant
to the Attorney General Purdy to Browns
willie to make thorough investigation on
the ground in reference to the matter.
herewith transmit Secretarys Taft report
and the testimony taken under oath OF the
various witnesses examined in the course
of the investigation. | also submit various
exhibits, including maps of Brownsville and
Fort Brown, photographs of various build
ings, a letter from Judge Paris to his wife,
together with bandoleer 80 empty shells,
Z ball cartridges and clips picked up in
the streets of Brownsville within few
hours after the shooting; steel-jacketed
bullets and some scraps of the castings of
other bullets picked out of the houses into
which they had been fired. A telegram
from United States Commissioner r. B.
Creager at Brownsville announces that six
additional bullets-like the others, from
Springfield rifes-taken from buildings In
Brownsville, with supporting atfidavits,
have since been sent to the Secretary of
War.
1t appears from the testimony that on
the night OF the 18th of August, 1906, sew
eral crimes were committed by some per-
son or persons in the city of Brownsville.
Among these were the following:
Ca) The murder of Frank Natus.
OBJ The assault with intent to kill the
~ lieutenant of police, Dominguez, whose
horse was killed under him and whose arm
was shot so severely that it had TO be
amputated.
(c) The assault with intent to kill Mr. and
Mrs. Hale Odin and their little boy, who
were in the window of the Miller Hotel.
td) The shooting into several private resi-
dences in the city of Brownsville three of
them containing women and children.
(e) The shooting at and slightly wounding
OF Preciadc.
These crimes were certainly committed
by somebody.
AS TO the mOtlNe LOT lEe COMMISSION OF
the crimes, il appears that trouble of
more or less serious kind had occurred be-
tween individual members of the companies
and Individual citizens of Brownsville, cul-
minating in complaints which resulted in
the soldiers being confined within the linn
its of the garrison on the evening of the
day in question.
The evidence, as will be seen, shows be-
yond any possibility OF honest question that
some individuals among the coored troops
whom / have dismissed committed the out
RACES mentioned; and that some or all of
the other individuals whom dismissed had
knowledge OF the deed and shielded from
the law those who committed 1t.
The only motive suggested as possibly in
fuencing anyone else was desire to get
rid of the colored troops, so strong that IL
fmpelled the citizens of Brownsville to
shoot up their own houses. to kill one Of
their own number. to assault their own po-
lice wounding the lieutenant, who had
been an officer for twenty years-all with
the purpose of discrediting the negro
troops. The suggestion is on its face SO
ludicrously impossible that it is difficult
to treat II as honestly made This theory
supposes that the assaiants succeeded In
obtaining the uniform of the negro soldiers
that before starting on their raid they got
over the fence of the fort unchallenged, and
without discovery by the negro troops
opened fire on the town from within the
fort that they BACKED their faces that
at least fourteen eyewitnesses mistook
them for negroes; that they disguised their
voices so that at least six witnesses who
heard them speak mistook their voices as
being those of negroes. They Were not
Mexicans, for they were heard by various
witnesses TO speak in English The weapons
they used were Springfield 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, save only
In the Springfield now used by the United
States troops, including the negro troops in
the garrison at Brownsville, and by no
other person save these troops-a weapon
which had only been in use by the United
States fronns for four five 10