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Show 996 LEADING FACTS OF NEW MEXICAN 1880 HISTORY resolve every doubt in your favor. Assistant Attorney singe ree report ‘purposely omitted, as he informed me, the inference : . sa oe ought legitimately to be drawn from the facts, that in the an pee i action, wherein I believe your conduct was blameworthy, you were ee your improper and presumably unlawful action, by your desire oe ae of certain democratic politicians in a faction fight. I decide : aan matter I would give you the benefit of the doubt. Also as Me ee ei appointing six members of the legislative council to lucrative pos mi ee though there seems to be no doubt that it amounted to the bartering iy who Wen you in return for legislative Support. As for the hundreds of ane Spontaneous. There has been d be with as, if you wired inside of two days. delayed him. ; until th tdleoninn seen a a vi ane an even la ae ae retention in oa ceed of telegram He of @ had no power to do So, and that the seal had not been affixed to twenty-thr of the deeds. You then directed him ee to bring all the papers together with the seal of to your office, the board of public lands, and in the presence of the clerk and Mr, Hopewell, the unlawful conduct, you affixed beneficiary of your grossly improper and probably the seal to the twenty-three them to Mr, Hopewell asked deeds and handing if he considered that a delive that he did and handed them ry. Hopewell replied back t 71 on the deed they be recorded iSSi You handed them to the clerk wi carried out. ese instructions were The deeds were returned to you and you handed them to the attorney for the Pennsylvania Devel opment Company. You accepted from Mr. Hopewell his personal check for $11,143.74, which you subseq In the office of the commission uently deposited no Single instance in which the appoint Mr. Curry as your successor has not received hearty commendation. oe’ Apsigieal ‘‘T have found that it was unnecessary to consider anything save This on Attorney General Cooley’s letter from the department of ae we forth the state of facts which your personal explanation when be . von way relieved, and which makes it impossib le in my judgment to a ee ta office unless I am content to abandon all idea of holding public o mes This Mexico, or indeed elsewhere, to any proper standard of ae aoate report of the department of justice related to your ae e aut: of 1 to the Pennsylvania Development Company . It appears that the rauiidieal was agreed to before you became governor , was on its face grossly ada wan and that ‘The department House of Representatives, Hon. John F. Lacey, on May 17, Sclntae of the secretary of the interior that the proposed grant would be aie re law, the particular grant being, as the Secretar y of the interior 0 7 vod eae in all essential respects the same as the grant you ae it appeals that this document was never officially called to your phn ice! ie appears that you certainly had knowledge of it when you acted, and it ae hig ae that the commissioner of public lands, in view of the report, ni Penriayivan willingness to deliver the deeds to the representative of oe Development Company, Mr. Hopewell. and It was his business ae naveyours, renin you could only act in his absence, though of course, you Se iy improper him if you had been willing to remove him, You, howand fraudulent action, which in hig absence, for refusing to Ene if you took in his be . dew whom ever, obtained an opinion from the attorney general (the same ae retention iD the newspapers report as now organizing office), which opinion, Mr. Cooley rightly meetings to ask for panriieye’ for as stigmatizes as ‘an the attorney Mr. Cooley says, it is only explicab le on the ground either of the law, (a general thought there was no absolute evidence of a pera ou could have conclusion could have reached or peek enforcem reached) or else that as there en were difficulties attendant upon of the law you should go out of your way to violate it. _ You too k advantage 0 ss, to go your the absence of the commissioner of public lands on official isataee complete Self with the attorney general, Mr. Reid, to his and chopra the transaction. nd. office that It wag here suggested to you by office a clerk in the la er of public lands. of justice reports that ‘it seems entirely clear that Goy‘nor Hagerman’s action was both illegal and improper. The act of congress of June 21, 1898, supra and section I, chapter 74, laws of New Mexico, “upra, clearly made the contract illegal of 1899, at the time Govern or Hagerman alleges © was entered into. The delivery of the deeds could not have been enforced Y the grantees or by the Pennsylvan ia Development Company which was Party to the contract. not a The governor had every reason to believe, owing to his Correspondence with the secret ary of the interior, that the transa ction was of very doubtful legality in the transaction could not be completed save by your eee matter full knowledge of its fraudulent character, An investigation in i ie oe of these New Mexico land grants had been made by the oe bie Lands terior and submitted to congress, Chairman of the Committee 0 io pote es of the which it is inconceivable he 1912 D07 made earnest effort to induce Presi dent Roosevelt to reco nsider his action and decline to accept the resignation which had been forwarded to Washington. They were unsuccessful and Captain George Curry, the personal friend of the president, in whose inter est he had written the governor sugg esting hig appointment to some position in New Mexico, was name d in his stead. At the time of his appointment © aptain Curry was still in the the matter shoul bolt from the blue, at least to the friends of the governor, came . request from the president of the United States for the governor's resignation. A large number of the loyal friends of the executive telegraphed me on your account I cannot say that I have but I have seen a great many of them. I have received from persons in New Mexico who protested against your have also received numerous statements that neither set TO spite of clearly his duty, in my judgment, tothe opinion of his attorney general. It was withhold the delivery of the deeds and let tested in the courts, if the grantees named in the deeds saw fit e Mandamus the commissioner of public lands. His action in usurping the uties of the Commissioner in his absenc e was both illegal and unjustifiable. the matter be .. ‘It was entirely competent for him to enforce the carrying wishes by administrative methods in removing a public official and Some one in sympathy out of his appointing with his policies but it was neithe r legal nor justifiable to er the course he did.’ ith the above statement I entirely agree. If I permit such an act by the sighest officer in the territory to go unpunished, Subordinate Official for any infraction of his duty. I cannot hold to account any Itisa grave question in my ren? Whether T ought to remove you instead of requesting your resignat ion. I «ved the doubt in your favor and requeste d your resignation. Under no “reumstances would I reconsider this action. ( Hon. H. J, Hagerman, “Santa Fé, N. Mex.”? ‘*Very truly yours, ‘“ THEODORE ROOSEVELT. |