New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-04-25
WEST POINT,


ming with an extraordinary amount of friction.
A great many people are undoubtedly getting
the impression that the court acts as If 1t were
itself on trial; that the officers and the whole
corps of cadets with the exception OF the col
ored boy are angrily resentlng an intrusive in
vestigation of the affairs of the post; and that
sthe two persons upon whom the inmates OF the
Military Academy are most anxious to visit
their crushing displeasure are the cadet
who was found bound and bleeding in the bar
racks and the distinguished counsel whom the
United States Government has assigned to as
sist the court in finding'Out the truth. We re.
peat that many people are getting this impress
sion. We do not say that the impression is q
lust one, and we wish by no means to express
any opinion upon the subject of the inyestiga-
ton until the investigation is finished. But
there is no doubt that the popular feeling we
have alluded to does exist, and that West Point
is doing O great deal to encourage it.
The trouble seems to spring from the false
estimate which this government school has long
placed upon itself, and which unthinking people
have been induced by much iteration to accept.
The average West Point young man considers
himself great deal better than civilian
better educated, better disciplined, more OF
gentleman, incapable of mean or cOwardly
action, the nearest approach to an ar1stocrat
that is possible in q democratic country. Hence
he thinks himself much too good to sit on the
same bench with an OctOroon, much too good to
have his word called in question or his conduct
investigated, much too good to be polite even
to q man like Mr.. Townsend. His superior
officers nurse this unamiable delusiOn and In
the midst of the inquiry the majOr-general COM
handing issues an absurd order to flatter the
vanity and self -importance of the corps, and to
tell them that the criticisms and suspicious Of
the civilian public are an outrage to the mill
tary order. General Schofeld is not likely to
improve the temper of such brutal and lll-bred
Young men as may be under his charge.
1t is about time to prick the bubble. West
Point is a good military school, and that Is all.
It does not give better education than other
American establishments; it does not
give nearly so good an education as the
best of our colleges. 1t teaches mathe-
matics thoroughly, and gunnery, tactics and
other branches Of the purely military art. 1t
teaches riding and gymnastics, as do many CIV
ilian establishments. In the ancient Ian
euaees, literature, and general scholarship,
and even in the sciences, it cannot COM
pare with ordinary New-EnRland colleges,
and probably, as special school, there is no
reason why it should compare with them. How
far It teaches manners we may judge from re-
cent performances at the Court of Inquiry; and
If we wish to know whether it inculcates true
Christian manliness we have only to look at the
inhuman treatment to which every cOlOred
cadet has uniformly been subjected in the Mill
tary Academy from the day of his admission to
the day Of his departure Nowhere else in all
the United States would college Of young men
prove themselves so cruel and 80 vulgar; and
nowhere else would such young savages 60
unchecked by the governing body.
How far the officers of the institution are to
blame for the conduct of the cadets it is not easy
to determine. The material which they are
expected to manufacture into officers Is
often of a coarse and inferior quality.
q Social position does not mean much In this
country but SO far as refined associations in
childhood and cultivated examples at home af-
feet the character and bearing of young man,
the advantages are all with the civilian college
boy rather than the military cadet man
who is able to send his son to college must have
made respectable place in the world, and
there is at least presumption that the lad
knows what it is to be a gentleman. Under the
system which regulates appointments to the Mill
tary Academy the prescriptions are often against
the good breeding of the cadet. Many Of the
cadets are the sons Of politicians of the lower
class the scramble for place there is often
stimulated by the desire to get an education
without paying for it, or for support while get
tineit and at all events the proportion Of boys
of mean origin Is so large among them that O
West Pointers claim to the rank of gentleman
never can be taken for granted. just now we
must say that tho corps are not doing much to
prove their right to that honorable title.