Perth Amboy evening news., 1908-12-14
PRESIDENTS
MESSAGE ON
BR0WNV|LLE
Special oy United Press Wire.

Special by United Press Wire.
Washington, Dec. 14:-President
Roosevelt, today, sent to the senate
a report of the investigation of the
Brownville affair as conducted by
the war department, including vol
umnous correspondence regarding 1t.
1t was accompanied by a special
message which is as follows:
To the Senate:
l inclose herewith a letter from
the secretary of war transmitting a
report of the investigation made by
Mr.. Herbert j. Browne, employed by
the department in conjunction with
Captain w. G.. Baldwin to investi-
gate as far as possible what happen
ed at Brownsville on the 18th and
14th of August, 1905 The report
and documents contain some infor-
nation of great value and some
staten ents that are obviously worth
less, but l submit them in their en-
tirety.
This report enables us to Ak with
tolerable def1niteness at least some
of the criminals who took the lead
In the murderous shooting Of private
citizens at Brownsville. 1t establish
es clearly the fact that the colored
soldiers did the shooting; but upon
this point further record was un-
necessary, as the fact that the color
ed soldiers did the shooting has al
ready been established beyond all
possibility of doubt. The investiga-
tion has not gone far enough to en-
able us to determine all the facts,
and we will proceed with it; but it
a 20 to dot ,t,,a
with sufficient accuracy certain facts
of enough Importance to make 1t ad-
visable that l place the report before
you. 1t appears that almost all the
members of Company B must have
been actively concerned in the shoot
ing, either to the extent of being
participants or to the extent of vir-
tually encouraging those who were
participants. AS to Com panies G and
D, there can be no question that
practically every man in them must
have had knowledge that the shoot
ing 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
aggravated by their testifying before
the senate committee that they were
ignorant Of what they must have
known. Nevertheless, it is to be said
in partial extenuation that they were
probably 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 man who failed to protect
the wrongdoers. Moreover, there
are circumstances tending to show
that these misguided men were en-
couraged by outsiders to persist in
their course of concealment and de-
nial. l feel, therefore, that 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 to the unwise and
improper attitude of others, and
that some measure of allowancel
should be made for the misconduct.
In other words, / believe we can af-
ford to reinstate any of these men
who now truthfully tell what has
happened, give all the aid they can
to fix the responsibility upon those
who are really guilty, and show that
they themselves had no guilty
beforehand and were in
no way implicated in the affair, save
by having knowledge of it after
wards and failing and refusing to di-
vulge 1t. Under the circumstances.
and in view of the length of time
CONTINUED on page A.