“ There is nothing, absolutely no single thing, in their letter but a perverse and scalding review of facts long since accessible and known to everybody, with allegations that the army in the Philippines, officers and men, is demoralized and criminal, and expressions of belief that everybody who testifies to the contrary, from officers of courts-martial up to the Secretary of War and the President himself, is mendaciously deceiving the people. ”

“ Simply that it is the most impudent communication ever addressed to a President of the United States. These men have not one scintilla of evidence not already passed upon by the public, they have not one pertinent fact to contribute to the President's stock of knowledge. ”

“ These “criminal acts contrary to all recognized rules and usages of war on the part of officers and soldiers of the United States”: Kidnapping, murder, robbery, torture, outraging of women, and the infliction of the death penalty on the strength of evidence elicited by torture. And they further find themselves “compelled to believe” that the acts of cruelty referred to were “far more general,” the demoralization “more all-pervasive,” than the President declared or would admit in his review of the Smith court-martial. They say: “The allegations we make are grave ”