The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1880-04-27
TIE wETrrAKER CASE.
a Letter from q West Point Cadet
Some Interesting Points.

9om6 AugCxesg1u& @o1ubSs
WEST POINT April ~, 1880,
Editor of The Argus:
Dear Sir:
Allow me TO beg place in your most
valuable columns. for letter on the Whit
taker mystery-defending the corps OF
cadets aud army from unjust attacks. NO
discrimination against colored cadets by
the authorities at West Point
In addressing you With reference to the
ease of Cadet Whitaker, now so proml-
nent before the public, l do SO because
some statement of fact concerning the
circumstances surrounding it is due to the
honor of an institution which is being
wantonly and ignorantly assailed. and be-
cause have not yet heard from the body
of that public which the graduates OF this
institution have served with fidelity for
three-quarters of a century one voice
raised in protest against the chorus OF
libel and invective accompanying the in
yestigation now in progress. 1t ls
spectacle altogether unique, that body
Of men quietly pursuing their paths of
duty, unconscious of evil and quite guilt
less of wrong, who suddenly, through an
event with which they had nothing to do
and the responsibility for which has not
vet been fixed, find themselves the objects
of execration and the victims of every
busy pen that can invent libel 1t seems
to be suddenly conceda ed that men who
have won their way through a course OF
training phenomenally severe and i'm
partial. who are not addicted to lying
stealing, hypocrisy or felonious assault,
and who have studiously sought to mind
their own business faithfully, are danger
ously bad in character and variously ac-
complished in vice.
1t is not to be hoped that amin osity
having its origin in personal rancor or
political motive will be Influenced very
much by a statement of fact. however
easily veri6ed-the one is blind the other
declines to see: but to the large body of
sober thinking Americans who are inter"
ested only in the truth. and to whom the
issue involved is one of justice alone, it is
worth while addressing a protest against
false statement and an appeal to reason.
| venture to thiDk it neither wise nor be-
coming in great nation to permit body
OF it's citizens representing every caste in
its society whose members have filled
every position of trust aud honor in all the
walks of public life. to be exposed, Jude
fended to so much groundless calumny.
THE ARMY POLITICALLY ISOLATED,
It is. however. an event by no means
unusual 10 our history to 6nd the army. in
whole or in part, the object of fierce de-
nunciation and abuse 1t is an interest of
very small proportions compared with the
body social and polite of the Common
wealth. Its traditions prevent its med
ding ID the field of politics; its duties re-
move it from much intercourse with other
professions. and as a result il remains the
only class of citizens without a representa-
ton 10 Congress, where its interests and
its honor have no authorized defender. In
this respect our condition is in marked
contrast to that of the army of our nearest
of kin-the Engiish-in whose legislature
the military interest is respected CAST par
liament) by 26I persons. Thus politically
isolated it is apt to fare i'll with US at the
hands of any party to whom retrenchment
becomes a word of political import or by
whom we can be used as a ''bugbear" to
fright the souls of forty-two millions of
Americans. I Between the upper and
neither milestone it is an annual miracle
that we are not ground to that pulveriza
ton so lately threatened apropos of Cadet
while one is tempted to won
der whether our preservation is not largely
due to our convenience as a soapegoat for
the national sins. at all events there
may be a time when the habitual silence
and patience of soldiers, even under un
just aspersion, may be q wrong to the |
public as we'll as themselves, and when |
Senator rises in his seat 10 the national |
Capitol and announces, unanswered, his |
conviction that the graduates of the Ma |
tional Academy are spared relics of bar |
barism, which ought not to be tolerated
10 civilized country" it is not out of |
place in them to protest against the indig |
nifty. If this is true they have been toe |
long spared; if it is not true it should not |
be allowed to pass unchallenged. and they |
have right to demand that the records of |
their history shall be searched and that they
shall be informed of those matters where
q they have been found wanting 10 their
duty to their country and their profession,
[f the public has class of servants in
whom it reposes more trust. and by whom
t is more diligently and faithfully served
han by the graduates of the Military
Academy, let them come forward and cast
he first stone. Aside from the shared
,onors of time of war, does not the blood
IF those men who. In the last fifteen years
# profound peace, have laid down their
ives on Geld without glory, and iu bat
les without fame. deserve some reverence,
md does not the bitter service of the from
Ter merit something better than insult
rom the nation?
THE CASE OF CADET IwHITTAKER.