Joseph B. Foraker

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Joseph B. Foraker : biography

July 5, 1846 – May 10, 1917

Brownsville case

On the night of August 14, 1906, gunshots were heard in the border town of Brownsville, Texas; one resident was killed and a police officer wounded. Various military items, including discharged rifle shells, were presented by the local mayor as evidence that troops of the 25th Infantry Battalion, stationed outside of town and consisting of African Americans, were responsible. When questioned, all denied involvement. Nevertheless, their white officers reported to the War Department that undetermined men belonging to the 25th Infantry were responsible, and that others of the battalion were aware of who had done it, but were remaining silent. Despite an almost total lack of evidence, on November 5, 1906 (just after the midterm congressional elections), Roosevelt ordered 167 soldiers dishonorably discharged and made ineligible for federal employment, including such decorated soldiers as First Sergeant Mingo Sanders, who had fought alongside Roosevelt in Cuba. The President adhered to his decision despite appeals from both whites and African Americans.

Foraker was initially convinced of the guilt of the men, but reconsidered after evidence obtained in a private investigation by progressive organizations was presented to him (the attorney presenting it, an African American, was denied an audience with Roosevelt). According to Roosevelt biographer Edmund Morris, "Foraker had a passion for racial justice." Recalling Foraker’s desire, as a soldier, to see slavery abolished and the African American given the same civil and political rights as the white man, Morris explains, "Senator Foraker merely felt the same about the Constitution in 1906 as Private Foraker had felt in 1862." In addition to his desire to see justice done, Foraker also saw political advantage in opposing Roosevelt over the Brownsville issue; he might boost his own presidential ambitions for 1908 by making both Roosevelt and his designated heir apparent, Secretary of War William Howard Taft, look bad.

Foraker battled to have the Senate investigate the Brownsville case, and got the body to pass a resolution requiring Taft to turn over information. By late January 1907, after further investigation, Roosevelt had rescinded the part of the order barring the soldiers from federal employment, and had stated that he would reconsider the case of anyone who could present proof of his innocence. Foraker had claimed that the president lacked the authority to discharge the men; to get a resolution passed for an investigatory committee, he had to withdraw that assertion.

Matters came to a head at the Gridiron Dinner on January 27; the program showed cartoons of the leading attendees and accompanying verses. Foraker’s read "All coons look alike to me", suggesting his Brownsville stance was to attract the African-American vote. According to Walters, "the jests had been pointed and the cartoons biting"; Roosevelt was seen to be angry. Nevertheless, when the President rose to speak, all that was expected was a few minutes of humorous comments. Instead, in his speech, Roosevelt attacked Foraker and defended his own conduct in the Brownsville case. Although it was not customary to permit anyone to follow a president’s speech, Foraker was allowed to reply. The Washington Post reported that Foraker "gave the President the plainest talk he has probably ever listened to." Foraker stated that Sergeant Sanders had been dishonorably discharged even though "he was as innocent of any offense against the law of any kind whatever as the President himself"—and, he charged, Roosevelt was fully aware the soldiers had been wronged. He denied that he was after votes with his position, "I was seeking to provide for those men an opportunity to be heard in their own defense, to give them a chance to confront their accusers and cross-examine their witnesses, and establish the real facts in the case." Roosevelt spoke in angry rebuttal, but according to his biographer Morris, "Never before, at the Gridiron or anywhere else, had a President been challenged before an audience."