It Must Of Course Be Borne In Mind That West Point,
Even As At Present Arranged, Is Fitted To The Wants Of The Old
Army, And Not To That Of The Army Now Required.
It can go but a
little way to supply officers for 500,000 men; but would do much
toward supplying them for 40,000.
At the time of my visit to West
Point the regular army of the Northern States had not even then
swelled itself to the latter number.
I found that there were 220 students at West Point; that about
forty graduate every year, each of whom receives a commission in
the army; that about 120 pupils are admitted every year; and that
in the course of every year about eighty either resign, or are
called upon to leave on account of some deficiency, or fail in
their final examination. The result is simply this, that one-third
of those who enter succeeds, and that two-thirds fail. The number
of failures seemed to me to be terribly large - so large as to give
great ground of hesitation to a parent in accepting a nomination
for the college. I especially inquired into the particulars of
these dismissals and resignations, and was assured that the
majority of them take place in the first year of the pupilage. It
is soon seen whether or no a lad has the mental and physical
capacities necessary for the education and future life required of
him, and care is taken that those shall be removed early as to whom
it may be determined that the necessary capacity is clearly
wanting. If this is done - and I do not doubt it - the evil is much
mitigated. The effect otherwise would be very injurious. The lads
remain till they are perhaps one and twenty, and have then acquired
aptitudes for military life, but no other aptitudes. At that age
the education cannot be commenced anew, and, moreover, at that age
the disgrace of failure is very injurious. The period of education
used to be five years, but has now been reduced to four. This was
done in order that a double class might be graduated in 1861 to
supply the wants of the war. I believe it is considered that but
for such necessity as that, the fifth year of education can be ill
spared.
The discipline, to our English ideas, is very strict. In the first
place no kind of beer, wine, or spirits is allowed at West Point.
The law upon this point may be said to be very vehement, for it
debars even the visitors at the hotel from the solace of a glass of
beer. The hotel is within the bounds of the college, and as the
lads might become purchasers at the bar, there is no bar allowed.
Any breach of this law leads to instant expulsion; or, I should say
rather, any detection of such breach. The officer who showed us
over the college assured me that the presence of a glass of wine in
a young man's room would secure his exclusion, even though there
should be no evidence that he had tasted it. He was very firm as
to this; but a little bird of West Point, whose information, though
not official or probably accurate in words, seemed to me to be
worthy of reliance in general, told me that eyes were wont to wink
when such glasses of wine made themselves unnecessarily visible.
Let us fancy an English mess of young men from seventeen to twenty-
one, at which a mug of beer would be felony and a glass of wine
high treason! But the whole management of the young with the
Americans differs much from that in vogue with us. We do not
require so much at so early an age, either in knowledge, in morals,
or even in manliness. In America, if a lad be under control, as at
West Point, he is called upon for an amount of labor and a degree
of conduct which would be considered quite transcendental and out
of the question in England. But if he be not under control, if at
the age of eighteen he be living at home, or be from his
circumstances exempt from professorial power, he is a full-fledged
man, with his pipe apparatus and his bar acquaintances.
And then I was told, at West Point, how needful and yet how painful
it was that all should be removed who were in any way deficient in
credit to the establishment. "Our rules are very exact," my
informant told me; "but the carrying out of our rules is a task not
always very easy." As to this also I had already heard something
from that little bird of West Point; but of course I wisely
assented to my informant, remarking that discipline in such an
establishment was essentially necessary. The little bird had told
me that discipline at West Point had been rendered terribly
difficult by political interference. "A young man will be
dismissed by the unanimous voice of the board, and will be sent
away. And then, after a week or two, he will be sent back, with an
order from Washington that another trial shall be given him. The
lad will march back into the college with all the honors of a
victory, and will be conscious of a triumph over the superintendent
and his officers." "And is that common?" I asked. "Not at the
present moment," I was told. "But it was common before the war.
While Mr. Buchanan, and Mr. Pierce, and Mr. Polk were Presidents,
no officer or board of officers then at West Point was able to
dismiss a lad whose father was a Southerner, and who had friends
among the government."
Not only was this true of West Point, but the same allegation is
true as to all matters of patronage throughout the United States.
During the three or four last presidencies, and I believe back to
the time of Jackson, there has been an organized system of
dishonesty in the management of all beneficial places under the
control of the government.
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