President Roosevelt’s Predicament
December 1, 1906
Summary
The Planet frequently discusses Roosevelt’s dismissal of the Brownsville soldiers because not all of the members discharged took part in the crime. However, Roosevelt has declared them all “guilty until they prove themselves innocent.”
Transcription
President Roosevelt’s Predicament
It is difficult for a person at all conversant with the law to understand President Roosevelt’s position and motives in dismissing from the United States army Companies B, C, and D of the 25th Infantry. It is even more embarrassing to his to explain how he can make his actions conform to his platitudes on a “square deal.” When it is remembered that the offense charged was not committed by the companies as such, but by individual members of some of them, even if the allegations are believed, his position is all the more indefensible.
It would not have been any more unreasonable than would have been the action of a Texas mob in taking any ten or twelve of these men and hanging them in a spirit of retaliation for the alleged injury to the citizens of Brownsville. The truly remarkable part of this discreditable business is President Roosevelt’s open declaration that he will presume that all of the members of the battalion were guilty until they prove themselves innocent.
It is difficult for a person at all conversant with the law to understand President Roosevelt’s position and motives in dismissing from the United States army Companies B, C, and D of the 25th Infantry. It is even more embarrassing to his to explain how he can make his actions conform to his platitudes on a “square deal.” When it is remembered that the offense charged was not committed by the companies as such, but by individual members of some of them, even if the allegations are believed, his position is all the more indefensible.
It would not have been any more unreasonable than would have been the action of a Texas mob in taking any ten or twelve of these men and hanging them in a spirit of retaliation for the alleged injury to the citizens of Brownsville. The truly remarkable part of this discreditable business is President Roosevelt’s open declaration that he will presume that all of the members of the battalion were guilty until they prove themselves innocent.
About this article
Source
Location on Page
Lower Right Quadrant
Topic
Contributed By
Emma Roberts
Citation
“President Roosevelt’s Predicament,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed December 7, 2025, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/839.