New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1874-07-30
From South Carolina.
Cadet Smith Speaks for Himself,

SIR: Now that the Academic Board of
West Point has, after a struggle of four years,
and by some mysterious method, come to the
conclusion that am ''very studious but with
little aptitude" and has found out that am
deficient in Philosophy, on which account
was dismissed from the Academy and dis
charged the service Of the United States,
think that it is but just to myself and duty
owe to my race, to make public statement
of what has transpircd during my four
years stay at the United States Military
Academy.
To that end respectfully request the use
of the columns of your paper.
have been silent during all these wears
of trouble and oppression, not because was
afraid or ashamed TO speak of the state of
affairs that existed at West Point but be-
cause the army regulations expressly for
bid any cadet to publish anything or have
anything published with respect to the Mill
fairy Academy.
But, Mr.. Editor, allow me to anticipate a
little, by speaking of the present difficulty,
which has resulted in my dismissal and then
l shall begin at the date of my entrance,
June LIST, 1870, and speak of things in their
regular order.
was called for examination in Philosophy
on the 5th or 9th of June, at about 4. Up, M.
Several members of the section of which l
was member, were sent TO the blackboard
to explain subjects in different parts of the,
course. l was called up, questioned on the
subject of astronomy, and then sent to the
blackboard, the Instructor, I'd Lieut.. ID. A.
Lyle, of the Second Artillery, handing me
slip of paper with an equation on it, said:
Mr.. Smith, explain the compound micro
scope, and discuss the equation with reference
To that microscope
took the paper, copied The equation on
the board, and dropped the paper on the floor,
as had no further use for it. l then drew Il
figure to represent the compound microscope
and wrote on the blackboard the mathemati-
cal work relating to the discussion of the
equation given by Lieutenant Lyle. During
this time the cadets who had been sent to
the board before me were rcciting, and when
they had all finished, Professor Niche, who is
the head Of the department of Philosophy,
called upon me to rccite. But the Supcrin-
tendcnt said: IS II is saos- five O'Clock, the
hour for adjournment has arrived, and we
won't have time to hear Mr.. Smith. ! was
then ordered To take my seat, which did.
But the Superintendent now said: 81 see
that the clock is a few minutes fast, and You
will have time to question another cadet"
So Professor Niche called up another cadet,
questioned him, and left me at my scat.
After questioning this cadet, the section was
ordered 10 retire, and two members of it,
Cadet Fuller, who had not been sent to the
board, and /, were ordered to return next
morning at nine o'clock.
At the designated hour l was in the exam
ination-room, and when called up, Iieuten-
ant Lyle said: "Mr. Smith, dcducc the cx-
preston for the dspersive power of any me-
dunn went to the board, and just as l
got there, Mr. Niche said: "Mr. Smith,
what is that work that you put on the board
ycsterday"' l pointed to the figure l had
drawn the day before, and said: "That fig
IRE represents the compound microscopic"
then pointing TO the mathematical work,
"Tat is the discussion of equation "a which
was given me on slip of paper Professor
Niche then said: "You arc altogether mis-
taken rs to your subject; you had an entire
ly different subject given YOU" l said :
Professor, Lieutenant Lyle gave me equa-
ton "a on slip of paper and told me to rep
resent the compound microscope and discuss
that equation with reference to that micro.
scope" Professor Niche said: "Mr. Smith,
told YOU that you had another subject alto
gethcr: you had TO represent the compound
microscope and deduce the expression for its
masnlfying power"
knew that no such subject had been Civ.
en- me, because equation 81 had nothing what
ever TO do With the magnifying power Of that
microscopc-eq equation GS being emplOyc d for
that purpose-but what could 1, a friendless
and powerless cadet, do to convince 4 Pro-
fessor that he was wrong and was right :?
Nothing, except to run the risk Of being
put in arrest and court-martialed for disrc-
spect TO my superior, making false statements
etc, at mifnii,m, so did what have had to
do too LONG. C., say nothing.
| then turned to the board and assumed
the equation which expresses the relation be-
tween the incident and devatcd rays in the
case of convex lens. and from this deduced
an expression for the dispcrsive power of a
lens.
then turned around and waited to be
called on TO rccte. l was soon ordered to
begin and l did so, but had gone only a
little way, when Professor Niche interrupt
ed me and said that had used the lens, but
he wished me TO use the optical prism in this
demonstration. Now, Art. 3, Bartlctts Up
tics (thc text we uscl, reads rs follows: :
Whatever affords a passage to light is call
ed a Medium. Glass, water, air, Torricellian
vacuum, ETC., are mcdia," therefore in using
the lens, 1 Obeyed the order TO "deduce the
expression for the dispersiye power OF dnJ
medium, for, according to the text, glass is
medium, and the lens dcviates light as well
as the optical prism. 1 had, of course, no
power to discuss the matter then and there
with Professor Michie, SO rubbed out my
work and detluced the expression, using the
optical prism. but in SO doing had to assume
certain equations deduced in a previous dem
onstration, and Of which assumed three thai
remembered.