Letter from President Theodore Roosevelt to Secretary of the Interior E. A. Hitchcock
This letter refers to the indictment of H.S. Boice. Attached to the letter is one from President Roosevelt of March 26, further addressing the Kansas cattlemen that are to be tried for illegal fencing. Copies of both letters are included.
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OCR Page 1 of 112
the act. But it does impose a moral obligation upon your Depar tmont
not to prosecute any man who has any knowledge of this circular without
giving him the sixty days' warning. The special agents of the Land
Office are acting under this circular at the present moment. If at
the present moment they find any man having illegally fenced ground,
they give him the sixty days' notice before presenting the case for
prosecution. It certainly seems wrong for the Department to differen-
tiate this case from all others and to act in it without such notice being
given; unless there is some explanation of such action which has nover
been presented to me. It is alleged to me that the action was taken by
a Mr. Green, an employee of the Department not connected with the Land
Office, and presumably in ignorence of the circular. No explanation has
been given to me as to why Mr. Green should have acted in disregard of, or
without full knowledge of, the practice of the Land Office in this matter.
Unless there is explanation in addition to any that has been given, I feel
that the Government's action in this case subjects it rightly to the accu-
sation of proceeding without regard to the rights to which, through its
own course, it had given the men reason to believe they were entitled. At
the earliest moment I wish a full answer to all the questions raised in
this letter of mine. I wish a specific answer as to whether it can be
shown that any notice was sent to the men accused; and a specific answer
as to why Mr. Green, or whoever the responsible man was, asked for action
by the District Attorney if it was the case that such notice had not been
given. I wish to know if there is anything to offset the testimony of the
men accused that agents of the Department informed them that they would not
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