The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1874-08-14
A Niger IN THE wOOn PILE.

Some years ago when the radicals
We're running smoothly along in the
negro groove, President Grant picked
UP little "af and 'alfn fellow at
Columbia, South Carolina, named
Smith, and sent him to West Point.
He has been n thorn in the side Of the
administration since the day he was
caught. Naturally the young gentle
men there did not care TO be brought
into familiar intercourse with Smith,
and in the effort to force them TO vio-
late their natural instincts in this par
ticular considerable trouble in the in
stitution was the result. At the end of
the first year this sweet-scented son of
Africa had TO no placed in lower class
OH account of his mental deficiency.
He ought to have been treated then as
white cadets are always treated in
such cases--he ought to have been
dropped from the roll of cadets. But
the administration had not begun its
process of unloading itself of the ne
gro. The north had not then so plain
ly indicated its WEAKNESS OF ''the ma
tion's wards" nor had herndical party
realized then the disgrace brought
upon 1t in the eyes of civilized people,
by the position it had given the negroes
in the southern states. All this Is
changed now. The scales have fallen
from their eyes.
AS Il consequence, when Smith was
again found deficient ut the recent en-
animation, there We're no friendly
hands to hold him up and to allow him
to take n lower class for another year.
He had to walk the plank just ms all
white youths who had gone before him
had been required to do.
Forgetfiil of all that had been done
for him In the past, he turns with base
ingrattude upon all of the authorities
Interested in the matter and PUSHES
into print to show how the story of his
deficiency on examination is mere
subterfuge to get rid Of him. From an
exchange we copy the following nc
count of his card in Fred Douglass pa.
per;
Cadet Smith rises to the surface
again to plague the administration.
Smith airs his griefs in u three column
card, which appears in Fred Douglass
paper. He asserts that the alleged reas-
on OF his dismissal from West Point
a deficiency In philOsuphy--was the
interest suUterfuge. After leaving the
academy, says the telegraph narrator,
under his order of dismissal, he relates
an Interview had with Secretary Belk-
nap, when, In company with the negro
congressman, Elliott, he made an APP
pllcation TO be re-instated, asking to
have an opportunity to be re-examined
and the secretary said: ~ will not do
1t, pandgave sareason that he believed
that he had fair examination, aud also
he wanted another cadet at West Point
from bis district, aud he had already
notified Hon. A. B. Elliott to send
some one there. He then used the
following plain and decisive language:
I" Gentlemen, | don't wish 10 be mis-
quoted as saying that can't give Mr.
Smith a REORGANIZATION, for | say |
wont do It," Smith then made an-
other proposition, viz He asked him
to let him 20 back and join the class
below, thus losing one year by going
over the course again; for although he
had already lost u year ON account of
there the first year, he was
willing to Lose another; but, snid the
~ can't do that without the
of the academic
'oard at West Point, aud they won't
econmend II. ] was speaking with