Some of our number came with objections and prejudices against the Academy. But all doubts as to the value and importance of the institution were banished by the evidence presented in the course of our personal inquiries into its present condition and actual results. The Mexican war clearly evinced the value of military science. Still more has the present war demonstrated the necessity of maintaining, and even enlarging our Military Academy.This Academy belongs to the whole nation. So far as its purpose and numbers permit, it is the Peoples’ College. It is maintained for the special benefit of no particular section, sect, party, or class. We could discover no evidence of aristocracy, exclusiveness, or caste. The Cadets represent all sects and parties, and almost all nationalities, now naturalized among us. The poor are not denied its privileges, for the expenses of all are paid alike. If particular dogmas have at any time prevailed here, the fact is an accidental, rather than an essential one, and should be referred to the ruling influences at the seat of government, and not to any inherent element in the local organization at West Point.
Some of our number came with objections and prejudices against the Academy. But all doubts as to the value and importance of the institution were banished by the evidence presented in the course of our personal inquiries into its present condition and actual results. The Mexican war clearly evinced the value of military science. Still more has the present war demonstrated the necessity of maintaining, and even enlarging our Military Academy.
This Academy belongs to the whole nation. So far as its purpose and numbers permit, it is the Peoples’ College. It is maintained for the special benefit of no particular section, sect, party, or class. We could discover no evidence of aristocracy, exclusiveness, or caste. The Cadets represent all sects and parties, and almost all nationalities, now naturalized among us. The poor are not denied its privileges, for the expenses of all are paid alike. If particular dogmas have at any time prevailed here, the fact is an accidental, rather than an essential one, and should be referred to the ruling influences at the seat of government, and not to any inherent element in the local organization at West Point.
Their Report has been communicated to the Secretary, by whom the same will be transmitted to Congress—to receive such attention as the Secretary and Congress may see fit to bestow on its various suggestions. By permission of the Secretary, we transfer to our pages, that portion of the Report in which the subject of the Admission of Cadets—their number, age, attainments, and mode of appointment, is discussed with considerable fullness.
ADMISSION OF CADETS.
In concluding the report of their inspection of this, the only national military school, to which the country naturally looks for the organization and command of her armies, and the construction of her works of defense, the Visitors would respectfully urge on the consideration of the Department, an immediate and thorough revision of the law and regulations relating to the admission of Cadets—the number, the qualifications required, and the mode of ascertaining these qualifications, and of making the appointments. No matter how appropriate may be the location, how complete the buildings and equipment, and how skillful and faithful the teachers, unless there is a constant and sufficient supply of pupils of the right age, character, bodily and mental vigor and aptitude, as well as aspirations for a military career, the public will be disappointed in the practical workings of the institution.
1. The number of pupils in the Military Academy is determined by the law, which limits the Cadet Corps of the United States Army to one cadet for each Congressional District in the several States, one for each Territory, one for the District of Columbia, and to forty more, whom the President may appoint, ten each year, from the country at large, without reference to their residence. Under this law, if each Congressional District and Territory were represented, the whole number of cadets would be two hundred and eighty, but owing to vacancies by withdrawal or non-appointment in Congressional Districts in the States involved in the rebellion, the number at this time is reduced to less than two hundred—and the graduating class of 1863, to twenty-five—a number altogether inadequate for the regular army in time of peace, and much below the present and future exigences of the service, while the expense of the Academy remains the same. We are assured by the Superintendent that without any additional expense for building and material equipment, and with a small advance in the pay of pupils and assistant teachers, the Cadet Corps could be increased to four hundred. The Visitors are unanimously of the opinion that the corps should be at once increased to this number, and should be maintained at this maximum at all times, by authorizing the President to appoint to any vacancy which may remain unfilled for three months by reason of nullification, secession, rebellion, or any other cause. If the appointments to fill and maintain the Corps at this maximum, can be selected out of the many American youths, ambitious to serve their country in the army, on the plan of an open competitiveexamination in the several States, the Visitors believe that ninety out of every one hundred thus appointed will go through the whole course with honor, and the average ability, scholarship, and good conduct of the whole corps, will equal that now reached by the first ten of each class.
2. By the original law providing for the appointment of cadets to the corps of Artillerists and Engineers, and by the act of 1812, by which the Military Academy was made to consist of the Corps of Engineers, the candidates for cadets were to be “not under the age of fourteen, nor above the age of twenty-one years.” By regulations of the Department the minimum age is fixed at sixteen years, and the Visitors believe that the interests of the Academy and the military service, will be promoted by making the legal age for admission between eighteen and twenty-one years. The four years preceding and including eighteen are peculiarly the formative period of the body, mind, and character, and should be devoted to the acquisition of right habits of study and general culture, as the proper foundation for all special and professional training, which should not be commenced until the constitution is consolidated, the taste for a pursuit is distinctly pronounced, and the moral character is naturally developed under the influences and supervision of home. The experience of Europe, and particularly of France and England, has led to the abandonment of juvenile military schools, as nurseries for officers; and the very common practice of nominating candidates who exceed the legal age, expresses the convictions of our own people that military studies now require more maturity of mind than was deemed necessary in the early history of the Academy. The present want of uniformity as to age and mental discipline explains in part, the wide disparity of attainments between members of the same class. With few brilliant exceptions, confined to cadets of rare aptitude and vigor of mind, the most solid practical education is obtained by those who come to West Point when at least eighteen years of age, with at least a good preparation in English studies, and a taste for mathematical and military pursuits.
3. The school attainments required by law of candidates for admission to the Military Academy, are as rudimentary and limited as our language can express—far below, we are assured, the requisitions of any similar school in the world. Prior to 1812, when the Academy was little more than a school of mathematics, taught by two professors, in the line of geometrical and algebraical demonstrations, and the practical exercises were confined to surveying, and the simplest forms of military construction, the candidates were notsubjected to any examination. The act of 1812, provides that “each candidate previously to his appointment, shall be well versed in reading, writing, and arithmetic,” and by regulations of the department, the knowledge of arithmetic is restricted to only a portion of that science. There were special reasons at the start for thus limiting the amount of knowledge, when the minimum age of admission was fixed at fourteen years, and the Academy was properly a juvenile military school, like all cadet schools in Europe at that time. At that date, science entered far less than now into the art of war, as applied to the means and modes of attack as well as of defense. Besides, the opportunities of even elementary instruction were then far less widely or equally distributed through all the States than now, when the general government has set apart over sixty million acres of the best land in aid of primary schools in all the new States, and nearly every State legislature has subjected the entire property of their several communities to taxation for the support of public instruction. Now that the requirement as to age has been advanced from the fourteenth to the sixteenth year, and by the voluntary action of parties having the nomination, or seeking the appointment, to the eighteenth year, we see no reason why the school attainments corresponding to, and compatible with that age, should not be also required. The least that should be demanded of any candidate is that amount of general culture and attainments, which constitutes a good English education, and which it is now the aim of the public schools, and their boast, to give without partiality, to all, poor and rich alike, if the advantages they proffer are properly improved. And we see no injustice in fixing the standard of general attainments and culture as high as that now reached by cadets in good standing at the close of their first year in this Academy, including even an elementary knowledge of one modern language. If the French, or Spanish, or German language is to be mastered by American officers for the sake of the military science and literature which it embodies, or its uses in conversation, or official duty, called for by the exigences of our foreign relations, both in peace and war, its acquisition should be begun as early in life as possible, while the organs of speech are flexible, and the grammatical and etymological difficulties of a new language are more readily surmounted. Judging from the results of the examinations we have witnessed here, and what we know of the attainments made by students in colleges elsewhere, very few persons, who begin the study of modern languages, late in their school life, in the pressure of other studies, ever attain the mastery of even one, so as to be able to use it as an instrument of written or spoken communication,or make its treasures of science and literature a familiar possession.
Whatever may be thought of the disciplinary and practical value of earlier and longer attention to one or more modern languages, to those, whose minds will otherwise be almost exclusively subjected to the peculiar training of the mathematics, there can be no doubt that young men who have reached the age of eighteen, and desire to profit by the special studies of a purely military school, should exhibit in their language, habits, and attainments that intellectual, moral, and esthetical culture, which the public or private schools of any State can, and should give to any youth of average ability of that age.
4. Low as the requirements for admission now are, from a defective and vicious mode, as we believe, of selecting candidates, and making appointments to the Cadet Corps, the number of candidates nominated and provisionally appointed, who present themselves at West Point and shrink from any examination, or who fail to pass even the entrance examination which is confined to reading a few passages of familiar English prose or verse, and writing a few sentences from dictation, and performing on the blackboard a few operations of the most elementary character in arithmetic,—or being admitted, are not able to gain or keep a respectable standing for one year, although the studies of the first year belong to a general, and not a military education,—or by a “special providence,” manage just to escape dismission from incompetency, and graduate,—is disgracefully large. The country abounds in youth, competent to master and profit by the course of instruction here provided, and ambitious of enjoying these privileges of education, and opportunities of distinction; and a selection by lot from the juvenile population of any state, could not result in so few prizes, and such a dreary waste of blanks as have been realized from the appointments made, in the necessary absence of all personal knowledge of the candidates by the appointing power, on the recommendation, or nomination of one or more persons in each Congressional District, in no way responsible for the incompetency of the individuals named.
From official tables prepared from the records of the Academy,14it appears that the proportion of all who graduate, to all appointed in successive periods of ten years, is as follows:
From official returns furnished by the Superintendent, a portion of which are hereto appended, (B. C.) it appears that out of 4626 who have been admitted to the Corps of Cadets, (including two hundred new members,) only 2020 were able to graduate, and of those who failed, (2398, excluding those who remain,) more than three-fifths broke down in the first year in studies which in almost every military and scientific school in Europe are required for admission. Out of the whole number regularly nominated, recommended, and provisionally appointed from 1841 to 1863, more than twenty per cent. failed to pass the examination, as to health and constitution, or the slight examination in reading, writing, and ciphering. And this proportion would be increased by the number who withdrew in advance from the consciousness of their unfitness for a position to which ambitious and influential friends had promoted them. Out of the whole number admitted from 1851 to 1862, more than one-third failed during their first year. The proportion of graduates to the whole number admitted is 46 per cent. and of those who failed to graduate, 54 per cent.
The Visitors are unanimously of opinion that in a matter of such vital importance as the right organization and command of the armies of the United States, on which the honor and safety of the whole country depend, the original appointment to the Cadet Corps which is thefirst stepin promotion to such command, as well as to all the special duties which attach to the engineer service, should not be made in any case except on the principle of finding the best youth for the place—having the health, character, vigor of body, maturity and aptitude of mind, and preparatory knowledge, to profit by the opportunities of the special military training provided by the government for this corps, and a decided taste and expressed desire for a military career. And to this end, the law and regulations should provide for the rigorous exclusion in advance of all who can not present testimonials from the teachers under whose instruction they have been for the two years next previous, that in their opinion they possess the qualifications above specified, and who do not make a written declaration of their desire to enter the Corps for the purpose of qualifying themselves to labor in the military service of the government, to which they will bear true allegiance against all enemies foreign and domestic, and over all state and local authority, government and constitution whatever. To select the best out of any number who may present their testimonials and written declarations, public examination should be held of all applicants at such times and places as thelaw should prescribe, by such persons and under such regulations as the Department shall be authorized to appoint; and the results of such examination of each person examined, and in each subject specified by law, should be returned to the Department, in which return the applicants should be arranged in the order of merit. From this merit roll, revised from year to year, all appointments to the Cadet Corps should be made, and in the order of merit as assigned by the examiners.
This principle of appointment and promotion by merit which we advocate, is in full and successful operation in the classification and advancement of cadets in the Academy itself, and the country will be satisfied if the same principle can be as fairly and rigorously enforced on all who aspire to enter, as well as on all promotions in the service after leaving the institution. The principle itself, of selection by merit, either in the mode of public examination, or of careful and searching inquiry by competent and impartial educators, designated for this purpose by the parties to whom custom and not law had assigned the grave responsibility of nominating candidates, has been voluntarily applied in several Congressional Districts. Not a cadet known to have been thus selected and appointed, has ever broken down from want of vigor of body or mind, or failed to reach and maintain an honorable position on the merit roll of the Academy; and to this careful selection by those who felt the responsibility of the privilege accorded to them, is the country indebted for its most eminent and useful officers.
To the objection that selection by public competitive examination, will involve expense, we reply, that any expense which will do away with the prejudices against the Academy, which the present system of patronage has done so much directly and indirectly to evoke and foster, and which will, at the same time, exclude incompetent, and secure the services of vigorous, talented, well trained officers, for every arm of the service, will be well incurred. But, in our opinion, there will be no more expense in selecting and educating a given number of cadets on this plan, than on the present. The two thousand cadets who were appointed by patronage and failed to graduate, cost the government, directly and indirectly each year, a much larger sum than it would have taken to have excluded them in advance from the institution by competitive examination, and filling their places by better men; and their exclusion by substituting better material, would have been an incalculable gain to the Academy, facilitating its discipline, increasing the value of its instruction, and giving to the army a larger number of competent officers.
The objection, that the mode of making all appointments by open competitive examination, will deprive the President, and members of Congress of the opportunity of appointing the sons of meritorious officers, or poor, and it may be, orphan boys of genius—is more plausible than real. That such appointments have been made, to the manifest advantage of the country, is certain. But we know not a single instance of such marked success, on the part of a cadet thus appointed, as to attract investigation, where the same youth would not have secured the appointment in open competition. But if he had failed, and the place had been filled by one better qualified, the country would have been no loser, and he would have suffered no injustice or neglect. We fear, from an abuse of this amiable motive of rewarding meritorious parents, and assisting the poor, that in some instances, weak, ignorant, and incompetent persons are appointed, as though this Academy were a public charity school, or home for orphans; and not a special school for military instruction and training, for which the great object, in any mode of appointment, is to select those who will profit most by its advantages, and do the country the greatest service after being thus educated at its expense.
To the objections that, in these examinations, “the most forward boys will have the best chance, and such boys seldom make the best men,” and that no amount of book knowledge can give assurance of the great military genius, “which must be born and not made,” we reply, that these objections apply just as forcibly to any plan of nomination, and to every system of instruction. But we believe that those examinations can be and will be so conducted as to distinguish what is precocious from what is the healthy development of the faculties, what is solid from what is showy in attainments, what is vigor, grasp and aptitude of mind from what is mere memory and quickness, in competing candidates. All of these candidates must bring the testimonials of their former teachers, as to their character, ability and attainments, must have reached the age of eighteen years, and will be called upon to exhibit orally as well as in writing their knowledge and opinions on subjects which require judgment, reflection, presence of mind and decision. If a young man of eighteen and upward shows that he has done well what he had undertaken to do thus far in life, that he has preserved a sound constitution in vigorous health, has mastered the studies appropriate to his age, is honest, diligent, thoughtful, teachable, courageous, courteous, and ambitious of excellence generally, then the country has every assurance which can be given that on this basis of character, talents, attainments, and application, a solid fabric of militaryeducation can be reared, and that in the hour of trial he will show not only courage to dare, but competence to devise, influence and command. In the responsibilities of such an hour will be found the fruitage of all his previous promise and preparation.
To the objection—“that a competitive examination must always result in the success of the best instructed, wholly irrespective of the capacity of the competing candidates; and the plan will thus secure for the country the services of dull mediocrity well instructed, and exclude genius without opportunities of development,”—we reply, that this does occur now under the present system, but need not, and never has been the result of competitive examination properly conducted. The examination which we propose to have inaugurated, is not to search simply or mainly for the results of memory or diligence, but for “vigor and aptitude of mind” in reference to the special purposes of this Academy. The examination will be poorly conducted, and will operate here widely differently than elsewhere, if it does not only exclude in advance palpable incompetency, and ascertain beyond doubt the possession by all the successful candidates, of that knowledge which is the basis of a special military training, but also seek, and give credit in the result, for the quick eye, the firm set mouth, the vigor and elasticity of body, the rapid decision, the contempt of danger, the competency to influence and command—and all the other marks of the incipient soldier and officer, as well as the mathematical tastes and qualities of mind which indicate the successful engineer. Composed as every Examination Commission might be, of at least one experienced officer of the United States Army, of one member (past or present,) of the Academic Board, of one officer of the State Militia, as well as one or more experts in educational matters, the military qualities of body, character and mind, will be sought for as well as the mere results of memory, diligence and good opportunities of instruction, in the competing candidates.
To the objection, that candidates will make special preparation, and in the phraseology of the class-room, “cram for the occasion,” we reply,—to such preparation and cramming as cover the whole ground of a good English education, we can see no possible objection; the more of it, the better. If the preparation is only crude and on the surface, we are sure that the ploughshare of interrogation requiring precise answers, oral and written, will very soon expose its superficial and undigested character.
To the sifting out and selection by open competition, might be added a period of probation for the successful candidates—makingtheir first year’s connection with the academy a further test of capacity, preparation, and aptitude for a military career. No pains and no expense should be spared to exclude from the academy and the service, incompetent, indifferent, and unteachable cadets and officers; such men are “cumberers of the ground,” and no influence and inertia should be potent enough to resist the inevitable working of the principle of open competition, applied at frequent intervals, and at every stage of promotion, in getting rid of such cadets and officers.
The fact that such a public examination is to be held from yeartoyear, and that the educational privileges of this Academy, and immediate and prospective promotion in the army are the prizes which await success, will, in five years call forth more latent genius in the obscure corners and poor families of a State, than has ever been sought out by the lantern of patronage, (which is now seldom carried beyond the family, or neighborhood, or party of the person having the nomination,) since the foundation of the Academy. With the network of public and elementary schools, woven by state legislation over all the land—with public schools of a higher grade, and special schools of science and the arts already established, at short intervals, or which will be called into existence by the demand for a higher and different preparation from that now given, it may be safely said, that no genius, likely to attract the attention of a member of Congress, will exist, which will not be developed under the same influences by which the “dull mediocrity” of the rest of the community will be educated. Once set in the path of instruction and development, real genius will assert its own claims to attention, and will, on a first or second trial, before any board of examiners, make its vigor, courage, and persistence felt. The result will be the same in this institution, as in every really good Public High School and Free Academy—all classes as to wealth, occupation, religious and political affinities will be represented,—provided the regulations are judicious, and the examination practical and impartial.
This is the experience of the competitive principle in France ever since it was inaugurated by Carnot in the Polytechnic School at Paris, and Napoleon extended its application to every public special school, and to promotion in every department of administration, civil as well as military. And where is there more general administrative ability, central and local? Where are abler or better trained officers, military and civil, to be found? Where does “well instructed mediocrity,” no matter how well backed up by wealth, find less favor, or genius for organization and command, no matter how poor or unfriended, find such speedy and sure recognition?
The experience of England in the trial of the two principles of patronage and competitive examination for admission, not only to the military and naval schools, but to the East India and the Civil service generally, is instructive, and especially on the points which we are now considering. Prior to the Crimean war, (which exposed the utter incompetency of a large number of officers, who had obtained their military education and promotion by patronage and purchase,)—admission to the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, was by nomination, and the age fixed by law, was fourteen years.
The Secretary of War was satisfied by personal inquiry in 1855, that nothing could do so much to narrow and cramp the full development of a boy’s mind, as his long confinement from so early an age among lads having the same limited attainments, special studies, and destination;—that a majority of those admitted on nomination and through influential friends, had only the minimum qualifications specified by law;—that to most cadets the severer studies were irksome and imperfectly mastered, on account of immaturity of mind and imperfect preparation;—that the certainty of promotion by influence and purchase, after obtaining the diploma of the Academy, and not unfrequently without it, took away all stimulus for continued study;—that resignations were common, when the profession of arms ceased to be a pastime, or could be exchanged for something that paid better—and the service was incumbered by officers without large and trained capacity for command, although not deficient in courage and dash. Under these circumstances the Secretary of War, advanced the minimum age of candidates from fourteen to eighteen years, removed all the general studies of the Academy into the preparatory course, and opened the doors of admission to those only, who could prove their title to enter by personal merit, in a free competitive examination. The same principle was applied to appointments and promotion in the new regiments called for by the exigences of the great war in which England found herself engaged.
Subjects, time, and places of examination, were officially made known throughout the kingdom, and commissions to conduct the examinations were appointed, composed of men of good common sense, military officers, and eminent practical teachers and educators. The results as stated in a debate in Parliament, five years later, on extending this principle to all public schools, and to all appointments and promotions in every department of the public service, were as follows:—In the competitive examinations for admission to the Royal Military Academy, candidates from all classesof society appeared—sons of merchants, attorneys, clergymen, mechanics, and noblemen, and among the successful competitors, every class was represented. Among the number was the son of a mechanic in the arsenal at Woolwich, and the son of an earl, who was at the time a Cabinet Minister—the graduates of National Schools, and the students of Eton, and other great Public Schools. The most successful candidates were between the ages of eighteen and nineteen, as is found to be the case in competitions for admission to the Polytechnic School of France. Out of 579 successful candidates for the latter, between 1854 and 1857, 450 were over eighteen years. But the most important result of the competitive examinations for Woolwich, was the superior mental ability, the vigorous health, and eagerness for study exhibited by the new classes, and the small number who have failed on account of ill-health or incompetency. On this point, Mr. Edward Chadwick, in a Report before the National Social Science Association, at Cambridge, in 1862, says:—
“Out of an average three hundred patronage appointed cadets at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, for officers of engineers and the artillery, during the five years preceding the adoption of the principle of open competition for admission to the Academy, there were fifty, who were after long and indulgent trial, and with a due regard to influential parents and patrons, dismissed for hopeless incapacity for the service of those scientific corps. During the five subsequent years, which have been years of the open competition principle, there has not been one dismissed for incapacity. Moreover, the general standard of capacity has been advanced. An eminent professor of this university who has taught as well under the patronage as under the competitive system at that Academy, declares that the quality of mind of the average of the cadets, has been improved by the competition, so much so, that he considers that the present average quality of mind of the cadets there,—though the sorts of attainment are different, has been brought up to the average of the first classmen of this (Cambridge) university, which of itself is a great gain. Another result, the opposite to that which was confidently predicted, by the opponents to the principle, has been that the average physical power or bodily strength, instead of being diminished, is advanced beyond the average of their predecessors.”
The opening of the Royal Military School at Woolwich to competition, on the basis of a more advanced age, and more thorough general education, has not only drawn in pupils of higher average ability and attainments, but has enabled the authorities to extendthe course of instruction. In this, the only safe way, they solved the problem which has tortured the ingenuity of the friends of our Academy—of crowding new studies acknowledged to be desirable if not indispensable, into a course already too crowded for cadets so unequally, and, many of them, so imperfectly prepared for the course as it is.
Another result of immense importance to the educational interests of Great Britain has followed the introduction of these open competitive examinations for appointments to the Military and Naval Schools, to the East India service, as well as to fill vacancies in the principal clerkships in the War, Admiralty, Ordnance and Home Departments of the government:—a stimulus of the most healthy and powerful kind, worth more than millions of pecuniary endowment, has been given to all the great schools of the country, including the universities of England, Scotland and Ireland. As soon as it was known that candidates, graduates of Trinity College, Dublin, had succeeded over competitors from Oxford and Edinburgh in obtaining valuable appointments in the East India service—the professors in the latter universities began to look to their laurels. As soon as it was known to the master of any important school, that some of his leading pupils might compete in these examinations, and that his own reputation as a teacher depended in a measure on the success or failure of these pupils, he had a new motive to impart the most vigorous and thorough training to his whole school.
The success of candidates who had never seen the inside of a government Military School, in open competition for appointments to the Artillery and Engineer Corps, in the new regiments raised in 1855, over those who hold the diplomas of the Royal Military Academy, was one of the reasons which led to a thorough revision of the whole system of military education.
These results, imperfectly presented here, will, the Visitors believe, be realized from the changes, which they now suggest, in the requirements as to age, attainments, capacity and aptitude, and especially in the mode of ascertaining these qualifications, of candidates for appointments to the Cadet Corps of the United States Army.
To the present low requirements, and mode of selecting cadets, do they attribute the hostility which they know exists, to some extent, against this Academy, in different parts of the country. The charges of personal, and political favoritism in making nominations, and the absence of reasonable search, among all the youth of a district, for the best qualified in natural endowments and acquiredknowledge irrespective of the poverty, or wealth, or occupation, or family, or party relations of the parents or guardians, we are forced to believe, in too many instances, to be well founded. To these hasty and injudicious nominations, do we attribute the bitter disappointments of so many individuals and families caused by the numerous failures to pass the almost formal entrance examinations in reading, spelling, penmanship, and elementary operations of arithmetic, or if admitted, to maintain a respectable standing in conduct and studies during their first year’s connection with the institution. To this inequality of preparation and maturity of mind on entrance, do we attribute the astonishing disparity of capacity and attainments in the members of the same class, and the very large proportion of all who are admitted, who fail to graduate in very high standing as men of science or military promise.
To this want of preparatory knowledge, maturity of mind, and taste for mathematical and military studies, do we attribute most of the difficulties of internal administration, and class-room instruction. So long as the cadet is a boy, or if full grown in body, a youth with only boyish tastes, and without scholarly and soldierly aspirations,—so long as not a few are in the Academy, not because they sought its privileges from an inward and irrepressible impulse to a military career, but for the eclat of a military position to be resigned when such position involves sacrifices;so longwill the admission of each new class, and especially, the period of encampment be signalized not only by boyish pranks, but by personal outrages on unoffending members of the same corps, which we had supposed to belong to the dark ages of collegiate institutions, when boyish inmates were congregated in large numbers, away from the restraints of family discipline;—so long will the time, skill, and patience of able professors, which should be devoted to the elucidation of difficult scientific principles and their applications to military art, be engrossed in supplying the defects of an elementary education, which should have been obtained by the cadet as well, or better, at home; so long will the severe mathematical studies, and their special applications, difficult enough to task a well disciplined mind even with the preparation provided in a thorough knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, and geometry,—be irksome in the extreme, and be never mastered to any useful purpose to the army of the United States, by more than one half of the graduates of the Academy;—so long will the country be disappointed in the subsequent career of many graduates, for whose military instruction and training all these appropriate and costly preparations have been made.
In view of these and other considerations the Board of Visitors unanimously recommend that the law and regulations relating to the military academy be so modified as to provide as follows:
I. The Cadet Corps of the army of the United States shall consist of four hundred members, to which each state and territory shall be entitled to a number equal to its representation in the Congress of the United States, and the remainder shall be designated by the President from the country at large, including the District of Columbia; and he shall also fill, in the same way, any vacancy which for any cause may remain unfilled, for three months after the annual examination in each year.
II. No person shall be appointed to the cadet corps until he has been found qualified in the particulars designated by law, after a public examination conducted in such places, at such times, and in such manner as Congress shall prescribe; from which examination no person resident of that portion of the country for which the same is held, shall be excluded, who shall present credentials from the teacher or teachers whom he had last attended, that he is over seventeen, and under twenty-one years of age, of unblemished moral character, and personal habits, of good physical strength and constitution, and has given evidence of aptitude and vigor of mind for the studies and duties of a military career. The examiners shall make return under oath to the Secretary of War, of the persons so presenting themselves, examined, and found qualified, arranged in the order of merit, specifying the residence and school or schools which they have attended in the two years previous, and the degree of merit exhibited in each subject of the examination. And all appointments to fill vacancies for any state or territory, or for the country at large, shall be made from these returns, and in the order of merit as assigned by the examiners, until the same shall be revised by new regulations of the Department.
III. No person shall be returned to the Secretary of War as a suitable candidate for admission to the Cadet Corps, unless he
1. Shall beoverseventeen, and under twenty-one years of age.
2. Shall possess an unblemished moral character and correct personal habits.
3. Shall be in good health, and in no way incapacitated by want of vigor and elasticity of physical constitution for military service.
4. Shall possess vigor and aptitude of mind for the studies of the Military Academy, and shall give evidence, oral and written, of a good English education, which, in view of the wide spread facilities of instruction in public and private schools, might very properly embrace
(a.) The correct use of the English language, in speaking, reading, and writing the same.
(b.) Penmanship, book-keeping, and elementary drawing.
(c.) The ability to perform with facility and accuracy the various operations of arithmetic.
(d.) The elementary principles of algebra and geometry.
(e.) A thorough knowledge of American geography and history, and the leading features of the Constitution of the United States, and of the State of his residence.
(f.) Or so much of the subjects above specified as shall be deemed indispensable to the immediate and profitable attention of the Cadets on their admission to the special studies and occupations of a military school.
5. Shall make a written declaration of his desire to obtain admission to the Cadet Corps for the purpose of qualifying himself for the military service of the United States, which service he assumes from the date of his appointment as cadet, to continue in the same for a period of at least sixteen years—bearing true faith and allegiance to the Constitution and government of the United States, against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and paramount to all obligations to any State government, authority, or constitution.
The Appendix to the Report of the Visitors of the Military Academy for 1863, contains the following tables and documents referred to in the Report.Table A.—Showing the condition in life of the parents of the Cadets of the United States Military Academy from 1842 to 1863 inclusive.Table B.—Showing the number of Cadets actually admitted into the United States Military Academy from each State and Territory from its origin March 16th, 1802, to October 19th, 1863.Table C.—Showing the number of Cadets who have graduated at the Military Academy, from its origin to 1863, with the State and Territories where appointed.Table D.—Showing the whole number of Cadets admitted and the whole number graduated from each State and Territory from 1802 to October 1863, together with the percentage of those who graduated, and of who failed, out of the whole number admitted from each State, and the number of Cadets to which each State and Territory is now entitled, according to the apportionment of members of Congress, under the Census of 1860.
The Appendix to the Report of the Visitors of the Military Academy for 1863, contains the following tables and documents referred to in the Report.
Table A.—Showing the condition in life of the parents of the Cadets of the United States Military Academy from 1842 to 1863 inclusive.
Table B.—Showing the number of Cadets actually admitted into the United States Military Academy from each State and Territory from its origin March 16th, 1802, to October 19th, 1863.
Table C.—Showing the number of Cadets who have graduated at the Military Academy, from its origin to 1863, with the State and Territories where appointed.
Table D.—Showing the whole number of Cadets admitted and the whole number graduated from each State and Territory from 1802 to October 1863, together with the percentage of those who graduated, and of who failed, out of the whole number admitted from each State, and the number of Cadets to which each State and Territory is now entitled, according to the apportionment of members of Congress, under the Census of 1860.
STATEMENT EXHIBITING THE CONDITION OF LIFE OF THE PARENTS OF THE CADETS OF THE U.S. MILITARY ACADEMY AT WEST POINT, NEW YORK, FOR THE LAST TWENTY-TWO YEARS, FROM 1842 TO 1863, INCLUSIVE.
Note.—Of the 97 Cadets admitted, to October 19th, 1863, as given in the table on page 321, 46 were appointed from the U.S. Volunteers engaged in the War, who held the following rank: 1Captain, 5First Lieutenants, 3Second Lieutenants, 10Non-commissioned Officers, 20Privates, 1Musician, and 6Clerks, from military departments.