Startling Report From Washington.
July 13, 1907
Summary
A Senate Committee has proposed a course so that discharged colored soldiers can re-enter the army.
Transcription
Startling Report From Washington.
Senate Committee Will Recommend Restoration to the Army.
Washington, July 7.-The settlement of the Brownsville investigation and the report of the investigating committee will be a compromise that will be approved by the President and Senator Foraker, to the end that the Negro race may thereby receive the greatest possible benefit, and the racial issue, which was so accentuated by the unfortunate incident, will be given a lasting quietus. This inquiry will be a lasting quietus. This inquiry will be a unification of the Republican elements to the discomfiture of the Democrats.
More than this, the report will bring about a more advanced step by President Roosevelt’s administration in the recognition of the colored race, so far as the army is concerned.
The report will not be made until Congress convenes, but it will fall to uphold President Roosevelt’s course in all particulars and will pave the way for the discharged colored soldiers to re-enter the army. This much has been disclosed.
Senator Foraker will not win on every point, but he may be so well satisfied that he will make no minority report. There are assurances also, President Roosevelt will be satisfied.
Politics and Mercy Combined
There is politics as well as the quality of mercy in this decision. There has been no doubt since the action of the administration in the Brownsville case that the Negro race has been stirred to a resentment that it has at no time felt since emancipation. There are intimations that the President has been advised by Booker T. Washington that his resentment did not extend beyond the Negro politicians and would soon blow over.
Further investigation, however, has shown that it extends from the more advanced Negroes of the border states to the field hands on the plantations of the South and the farms of the Central West.
The Brownsville incident and the terrible punishment meted out constituted the first blot upon the record. It has been insisted by the Negroes, Senator Foraker being their spokesman, that such punishment should not be visited without positive proof of guilt. This is the view the Senate Committee will take.
The approval by President Roosevelt of such a decision by the Senate Committee will be accepted the country over as a renewed adherence to his doctrine of the “square deal.” He asserted that his order would stand unless convincing proof was submitted to him of the
innocence of the Negro soldiers.
Senate Committee Will Recommend Restoration to the Army.
Washington, July 7.-The settlement of the Brownsville investigation and the report of the investigating committee will be a compromise that will be approved by the President and Senator Foraker, to the end that the Negro race may thereby receive the greatest possible benefit, and the racial issue, which was so accentuated by the unfortunate incident, will be given a lasting quietus. This inquiry will be a lasting quietus. This inquiry will be a unification of the Republican elements to the discomfiture of the Democrats.
More than this, the report will bring about a more advanced step by President Roosevelt’s administration in the recognition of the colored race, so far as the army is concerned.
The report will not be made until Congress convenes, but it will fall to uphold President Roosevelt’s course in all particulars and will pave the way for the discharged colored soldiers to re-enter the army. This much has been disclosed.
Senator Foraker will not win on every point, but he may be so well satisfied that he will make no minority report. There are assurances also, President Roosevelt will be satisfied.
Politics and Mercy Combined
There is politics as well as the quality of mercy in this decision. There has been no doubt since the action of the administration in the Brownsville case that the Negro race has been stirred to a resentment that it has at no time felt since emancipation. There are intimations that the President has been advised by Booker T. Washington that his resentment did not extend beyond the Negro politicians and would soon blow over.
Further investigation, however, has shown that it extends from the more advanced Negroes of the border states to the field hands on the plantations of the South and the farms of the Central West.
The Brownsville incident and the terrible punishment meted out constituted the first blot upon the record. It has been insisted by the Negroes, Senator Foraker being their spokesman, that such punishment should not be visited without positive proof of guilt. This is the view the Senate Committee will take.
The approval by President Roosevelt of such a decision by the Senate Committee will be accepted the country over as a renewed adherence to his doctrine of the “square deal.” He asserted that his order would stand unless convincing proof was submitted to him of the
innocence of the Negro soldiers.
About this article
Source
Location on Page
Upper Left Quadrant
Topic
Contributed By
Benton Camper
Citation
“Startling Report From Washington.,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed October 9, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/610.