Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1880-04-17
3ailQ &ennebet Journal.
Augusta, Saturday Morning, April II.
The Whitaker Case.

1Bo~tos CebuIoAy AO1nAASs APSA ~
The Whitaker Case.
II the tone of the press is an indication
Of popular feeling throughout the country,
the public are determined to show fair
play in this West Point matter. There is
. marked public disinclination to believe
the cadets guilty, and just as much un-
willingness to believe that Whitaker in
jured himself. There would be general
relief II the thing could be fastened on
some outsider. The truth is that the well
established popular faith in the honorable
training given at.West Point is hard to
overcome; the ancient prejudice still
clings to N that to be a soldier a man
necessarily must be gentleman. The
people believe and want to believe that
the lads who are to carry our arms into
the field hereafter are being taught now
to be truthful, brave protectors OF the
weak. The officers at West Point cherish
this old tradition of their class enough
apparently to make them hold it impossi-
for cadet to lie; as they offered the SIM
pie denial OF the cadets as satisfactory
proof of their innocence.
The public are just as 10th to believe
Whitaker guilty. There remains. since
the enthusiastic days Of early emancipa-
ton, . good deal Of popular sympathy
with the colored man who is trying to
elevate himself. He does not probably
get the money or ontspoken encourage
ment Of those early days; he is left to
fight his own way. But the sympathy for
him goes far enough to demand a fair
field for him. There has been too much
esgerness shown at West Point by his
fellow cadets land by Gen. Schofeld,
too,) to presume Whitaker guilty of this
base, idiotic act of cowardice, simply be-
cause he was colored. Indeed we ques-
ton whether, if he had been white. the
whole conduct of the trial by the officials
would have been, as it now is, to hold
him as the accused instead OF the accuser.
So far, this treatment has resulted TO the
advantage of the colored boy. His simple,
direct, accomplishing bearing has not been
that ofthe dastardly, tricky scoundrel who
could conceive and carry out such plan.
He has been bitterly wronged, and has
had chance to whine about his wrongs
before the whole country, and he has not
done it. If he should be proved guilty,
the effect upon public sentiment against
his race will undoubtedly be considerable.
But it will only be just to remember that
the lad was soreIy tried, and that others
of his color have borne the same trial like
men.
Whether the guilt be fastened upon
Whitaker or the cadets. there can be but
one opinion among well-bred or right
feeling people, as to this trial thus forced
upon the colored boys at West Point and
Annapolis by their fellow students There
Is not a young man at either Of these
schools who does not know what intolera-
BILE torture such treatment would be to
himself, when continued throughout all
the years Of his boyhood; and the fact
that among all these lads there has not
been one who had the courage to be mer-
ciful or kindly proves that the ruling tone
Of morals and breeding in both places is
that Of the vulgar snob rather than the
brave and gentle gentleman whom we
fondly imagined our soldiers to be- Let
u even admit that there is strong instinc-
tive antagonism Of color. 1t was not nee
essary that these boys should make init
mate friends Of the colored lads. any more
than that the old-time Abolitionist should
''marry his daughter to niger" because
he wished to free the slave. But there is
n wide guilt between bosom companion
ship and the brutal cruelty which made
the life OF this lad struggling for chance
Of manhood. struggling to support his
old mother in her poverty. literal endur-
ance of hell upon earth. The white boy
who felt that his own claim to respect and
his social position would be sacrificed by
sitting on the same bench with a colored
man, or extending to him a manly, friend
", helping hand. must have known that
he had small claim to respect or social po-
sition, or any other basis than his color
and his buttons.-NeW York Tribune.