Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-05-08
1anraster f1ltelligencer.
EVENING. NAY 8, 1880.
Much Ado About Nothing.

SATURDAY EVENING. NAY 8, 1890.
Much Ado About Nothing.
1t can hardly be that the people take
as much interest in the West Point Whit
taker case as the West Point officers and
the New York newspapers think they
do. 1t is a very small matter in its most
important aspect. If Whitaker was not
a negro it would have no importance at
all. But as there are some people who
think it very high offence for white
man to abuse black one, it becomes OF
some consequence to show that this par
ticular negro was not maltreated by
white men, and particularly by white
cadets. Cadets, being the beneficiaries OF
the nation ARE deemed by many to be es-
pecially called upon to show high consid-
Grafton to the negro, who is pet and
fancy of a portion of the taxpayers
whose taxes sustain the military acade-
my. Another view of it is to consider
the cadets as the sons of their white pa
rents and imbued with their ideas and
feelings, and to conclude that when
the white cadets unanimously cut the
negro cadet they but represent the feel
ing of the white voters who govern the
nation, and do just what they would
have them do. The white voters who
take the negro to their arms are scarce,
but they have wonderful lungs
and are capable of making lots of noise.
1t is their boisterOusness over this Whit
taker ''outrage" that seems to have made
every official hair at West Point to stand
up, and has caused everybody around the
place who ever heard of Whitaker to be
put on the stand to tell what he knows.
AS nobody has been found who knows
anything about his being tied and about
his having his ears considerably cut SO
as to bleed the least bit, except Whitta-
ker himself, the mass of evidence is not
very instructive. If Whitaker wasn't
a negro. the trial would have been long
ago cut short with the conclusion that he
did all the damage to him.
self. He had sufficient motive in
the expectation that he would get
enough sympathy to help him to his
commission, which was in great danger.
Then it would have been said of white
cadet, that if he had not pluck enough to
resist being knocked down and bound
and cut, sufficiently at least to have sum-
moned assistance. he was too chicken
hearted to aspire to be a soldier, and he
would have been expelled with a speed
that would have taken his breath away.
Mr.. Whitaker being a negro and down.
trodden, it seems is not expected to have
any pluck. He is not asked to resist
being kicked. He is not required
even to cry out when he is
abused so as to awaken the
sleepers in adjacent rooms; but 1t Is
proper department in negro cadet to
suffer patiently and quietly all the cults
he gets, and await his revenge in the
morning at the hands of the officers OF
the institution, who will he asked to
find out who struck him. If this is the
stvle of black creature we are educating
to be a soldier, we submit that
the policy is a mistake. 1t is too
expensive, and the resultant soldier
is not worth the money. we are
paying too dear for our whistle. IL Is
certainly demonstrated to the satlsfac-
tion of every reasonable being either that
Whitaker is liar or poltroon. In
either case he ought to be eliminated
from the corps of cadets, and we fail to
see the propriety of going into this
elaborate inquiry to determine for which
cause he should he set adrift. Ii any
missionary society wants him because OF
his meekness, it may interest it to ind
out whether he is truthful young man.
But it. does not interest us. We rather
think he is not. Colored folks virtue IS
not strong in that line, and then his
handwriting is wonderfully like that OF
the fellow who wrote him the note OF
warning. We are afraid he is liar.