The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-12-14
PRESIDENT WANTS
NEGRO SOLDIERS
TO Be RE|NSTATEO
In Special Message to Senate,
Roosevelt Reopens Browns
vile Raid Incident.
BACKS DOWN ON HIS
FORMER HASTY ACTION
Recommends that All Men Elk.
cept the Participants Be Re-
stored to Their Companies.
Especial to the Evening Star.

Especial to the Evening star.1
WASHINGTON, d. c.. Dec. 14.-In a
special message to the Senate today
President Roosevelt recommends the
reinstatement of all the negro soldiers
discharged after the Brownsville raid
with the exception of the men who
actually participated in it.
The attack on Brownsville, Tex, by
the soldiers from Fort Mobrara &C.
CURED August 1874, 1906. Immediate
ly after the news Of the raid reached
Washington the President ordered the
summary discharge of all men impli-
Gated in the attack. All of the men of
the three companies involved refused
to give up any information and as a
final recourse the President had them
all discharged.
Senator Foraker and others declared
that Roosevelt had exceeded his au-
thority, and a bitter controversy occu-
pied the attention of the country for
many months. The recommendation
Of the President today is regarded as
a decided backdown from his first de-
cisive position.
His message to the Senate is fol-
lowed by a number Of affidavits OBJ
tanned by special agents of the war
department, who investigated the raid.
The message reads:
81 inclose herewith a letter from the
Secretary of War transmitting a re-
port of the investigation made by Her
bert j. Browne, employed by the de-
partment In conjunction with Captain
w. G. Baldwin to investigate as far as
possible what happened at Brownsville
on the 18th and 14th of August, 1906.
The report and documents contain
some information of great value and
some statements that are obviously
worthless, but I submit them in their
entirety.
Negroes Did Shooting.
This report enables us to fix with
tolerable defniteness at least some Of
the criminals who took the lead In the
murderous shooting Of private citizens
at Brownsville. 1t establishes clearly
the fact that the colored soldiers did
the shooting; but upon this point fur
Their record was unnecessary, as the
fact that the colored soldiers did the
shooting has already been established
beyond all possibility of doubt. The
investigation has not gone far enough
to enable us to determine all the facts,
and we will proceed with it; but 1t has
gone far enough to determine with
sufficient accuracy certain facts OF
enough Importance to make 1t adyisa-
BILE that / place the report before you.
"It appears that almost all the MEM
bers of Company B must have been
actively concerned in the shooting,
either to the extent of being partici-
pants or to the extent of virtually en-
couraging those who were participants.
AS to Companies c and d, there can
be no question that practically every
man in them must have had knowledge
that the shooting was done by some OF
the soldiers of B Troop. and possibly
by one or two others in one OF the other
troops.
This concealment was itself a grave
offense, which was greatly
by their testifying before the senate
committee that they were ignorant Oh
what they must have known Never
theless, 1t is to be said In partial ex-
tenuation that they were propaply
cowed by threats, made by the more
desperate of the men who had actually
been engaged in the shooting, as TO
what would happen to any mar VINO
failed to protect the
Moreover, there are circumstances tend
ing to show that these misguided men
were encouraged by outsiders TO per-
sist in their course of n
denial.
"I feel, therefore, hat the guilt OF
the men who, after the event, thus
shielded the perpetrators OF the wrong
by refusing to tell the truth about them'
though serious, was in part due 10 the
unwise and improper attitude or others,
and that some measure OF allow
ance should be made for the mlscon-
duct.
Reinstate Men,
"In other words, I believe we can
afford to reinstate any of these men
who now truthfully tell what has hap
pened. give all the aid they can to fix
the responsibility upon those who are
really guilty. and show that they them
selves had no guilty knowledge before
hand and were in no way implicated In
the affair. save by having knowledge
of II afterwards and failing m re-
fusing to divulge 1t.
"rJnder the circumstances, and in
view of the length of time they nave
heen out of the service and their loss Of
the benefit that would nave accrued to
them by continuous longtime service,
we can afford to treat the men who
meet the requirements given above as
having been sufficiently punished by
the consequences they brought upon
themselves when they rendered neces-
sary the exercise of the disciplinary
power.
ct recommend that a law be passed
allowing the Secretary of War, within
a fixed period of time, say a year, to
reinstate any of these soldiers whom
he. after careful examination, finds to
have been innocent, and whom he finds
to have done all in his power to help
bring to justice the guilty.
Meanwhile the investigation will be
continued. The results ave made 1t
obvious that only by carrying on the
Investigation, as the War Department
has actually carried it on, is there the
slightest chance of bringing the offend
ers to Justice or of separating not the
innocent, for there were doubtless hard
ly any innocent, but the less guilty
from those who's guilt was heinous.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
December IA, 1908"
TO FETE SUPREME CHIEF.
Representatives Of twenty-five courts
of the 1. o. +. met yesterday at 1873
Broad street, /. o. Hall, and heard