The Indianapolis leader. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1879-1890, 1880-05-01
WEST POINT.

States have great cause for congratu-
lation and encouragement in the noble
sentiment of fair play so boldly OK.
pressed by the press and people Of
the country on the West Point out
rage. The fact is, the great Ameri-
can heart is in favor of melting out
equal and exact justice to all men and
it is only the dregs and riffraff of
American society that defend this in
famous outrage on Whitaker. If the
voice of the American people could
be authoritively expressed to-day,
West Point would cease to exist and
rightly too.
There is really no particular need
for such an institution. The training
given there will not compare at all
favorably with that given at our best
colleges. There are several reasons
for this. Among them is the fact that
the material, as rule, is not first
class. AS rule, the students do not,
as is generally thought, come from the
higher walks Of life, nor even from
the best of the humber classes. They
are the sons, in many cases, of uncul-
tured army officers and one-horse pol
iticians. They are the young men,
who, ifleft to themselves would never
be known outside of their own voting
precinct. The method of securing
appointments has been of such
character that really worthy young
men from the humber walks of life,
who would have been a credit to the
army have preferred to work their
way through our best colleges rather
than sacrifice their manhood by log
rolling for an appointment to West
Point. Men of wealth and culture as
rule will not permit their
sons to be sent to what
is rightly considered sort of pauper
resort carried on at Government ex-
pense. Goldfish and snob aristocracy,
who have leaped by some accident or
by venality from poverty to wealth
in a day, will use their ill-gotten gains
to purchase appointments to West
Point for their aimless and charater-
less sons. These things account for
the low standard of equity and NOR
ality which prevails among the Off
GERS and students there, the officers
being graduates Of the institution.
These brainless young men, supported
at Government expense, soon become
terribly inflated and manifest the
most supreme cotempt for all men in
civil life, and for Republican Govern
ments in particular. 1t is time for
the people to call halt in this mat
ter, and to inquire whether this in
stitution is not turning out, year af-
ter year, a set of scamps who in time
may become dangerous menace to
the very existence Of our Republican
institutions. Let West Point be abol-
ished, and let the officers and pam
pered cubs there be sent out to the
frontiers, where they can have an
opportunity of competing with men
who have, for several generations,
made ear-slitting and scalp-lifting a
profession. For our army officers let
US draw on the best talent and char
acter of our best colleges, and we
shall get men who are not only the
superiors of these West Point paupers
in education and culture, but who
love our institutions, and who in all
of the essential qualities of head and
heart are fitted for leadership that
will bless our land, in that it will
respect and defend the rights of the
humblest creature who wears the
form Of manhood-the badge of citi.
zsnship. s.a aaa hssls