Senator Foraker Fights On

Senator Foraker “beats the President” to announcing new information on the Brownsville affair and proposes an amendment to a bill that will give soldiers a greater chance of reenlistment.

Senator Foraker preceded the President a trifle in point of time yesterday in springing the information that detectives had been employed during the summer to obtain testimony leading to the conviction of members of the battalion of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, discharged without honor on account of the shooting up of the town of Brownsville. Those statements of Mr. Foraker concerning the work of the detectives may have been mere coincidences, but there were a number of smiling senators later on when the message was read who enjoyed the way the Ohio senator ‘beat the President to it.” The Brownsville discussion was not due until tomorrow and had it not been precipitated by the message, there would have been nothing said yesterday beyond the few worlds by Mr. Foraker in connection with an amendment to the pending bill creating a tribunal of five retired army officers to hear charges against the discharged men. The officers are named in the bill, and the measure is so drawn as to take the matter out of the hands of the executive and give it to the tribunal, which, through its findings, is to provide for the reenlistment of the men. The personnel of the tribunal, as set forth by Mr. Foraker’s amendment, is Lieut. Gen. Adna R. Chaffee, Lieut Gen. John C. Bates, Maj. Gen. George W. Davis, Maj. Gen. Jesse M. Lee and Brig. Gen. Aaron S. Daggett. The language of the proposed amendment puts up to the administration the duty of ascertaining who were the guilty members of the battalion. In other words, the senator adroitly suggests that some one acting for the President become the prosecutor of the Negro troops. Mr. Foraker said it was an elementary proposition in American law that the accused may have an opportunity to confront the accuser, and to appear in person and answer evidence with evidence. He said that he had not expected it would be necessary to enter on a new investigation of the Brownsville question, but that during the summer letters had been coming to him from these discharged Negro soldiers declaring that detectives were constantly engaging them in conversation. “These men,” said Senator Foraker, “are not secret service detectives, of course, for they would have no right under the law to engage in such service.” Continuing, the senator spoke of the activities of the detectives, as outlined by his correspondents, saying that in many cases they went so far as to take up their dwelling with the discharged soldiers for the purpose of securing their confidence and spying upon their movements. The senator read some extracts from the letter, a large batch of which he held in his hand as he spoke. One of the soldiers wrote to Senator Foraker that he was questioned by a detective in respect to any letter he might have received from the senator. “There seems to be a good deal of interest about my correspondents,” added Mr. Foraker, with a sarcastic smile. The soldier told the detective that he had one letter from the senator, and when he showed it to him he remarked that there was “nothing in it to hurt.” Mr. Foraker approved ferreting out the facts about the Brownsville affair, but declared that there was a right way to do it. The accused, he said, ought to have a right to answer testimony with testimony. On the conclusion of Mr. Foraker’s remarks, Mr. Culberson asked that the President’s message on the Brownsville affair, but declared that there was a right way to do it. The accused, he said, ought to have a right to answer testimony with testimony. On the conclusion of Mr. Foraker’s remarks, Mr. Culberson asked that the President’s message on the Brownsville affair be read, and this was done. All senators present remaining in their seats and listening attentively to the reading...

“Senator Foraker Fights On,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed December 11, 2025, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/1080.