The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1880-04-22
JACKSON, OHIO THURSDAY, APRIL %,

abuse upon himself for anything tha
could come out of it to him, either IL
passing his examination, or in getting
another chance of year, or in draw
ing public sympathy?
What in the way Of justice OF sym.
pathy could he expect? He saw there
was no'sense Of justice in the acade-
my, and that cobra de capello at &
banquet might as we'll expect sympa-
thy as he look for it among cadets OF
professors at West Point. Has any
body heard of his appealing for public
sympathy during the five years that
he has endured this brutal persecution
at the National institution, treated as
If he were criminal under a savage
code which threatened every cadet
with the same if he dared to behave
in gentlemanly manner toward
Whitaker? On the face of the af-
fair, IS it not more probable that this
more aggressive course of brutality
was resolved upon because the time is
near when graduation at the academy
will give Whitaker a commission in
the army which it is thought will dis
grace military caste into which these
young men enter from a course of
ruffianism and meanness at the acade-
my?
Cadet Whittaker's chance for fair
investigation of this affair by the Off
GERS Of the academy was just about
the same as his chance for fair treat
ment by them and his fellow cadets
during his cadetship. To them his
having small strain Of the African
race was accepted as cause for a course
Of treatment which was a continual
and cruel outrage The ideas Of West
Point honor which justified this would
Justify this violence to him, and any
lying and false swearing to carry out
the purpose. No one Of the cadets
who combined to treat him as an out
cast is fit to be received as a credible
witness against him. They are all
bound by that which they call their
honor to complete their course of vii
lainy upon him by driving him from
the service.
Let any one consider what chance
any man would have in civil life for
fair dealing in similar circumstances.
Suppose a society of 500 men, embra-
cling all that man could associate
with in his own home, banded togeth-
er to treat him as moral leper, whom
no one must speak to under penalty
of being put into the same disgrace
this for the purpose of breaking him
down and driving him from the COM
Suppose that masked per-
sons should do some special act of Vi
olence upon this man; would any
court hold any one Of this 500 to sit
as judges or jury or to testify as wit
nesses? Any judge would say that
prima facie they were all confederate
with the crime, and that none of them
were fit to have any voice in the trial.
But this is the situation of all the
cadets toward Cadet Whitaker, and
if not of the professors, they have
winked at it. We see that Cadet Bur-
nett, who was officer of the day, comes
promptly up to the work and attempts
to show that it was possible for Cadet |
w Whitaker to do this to himself And |
the course of the inquisition seems to
prove that if it can be shown that it |
was barely possible for Whitaker to
10 it himself if by leaving out |
particulars it can be as
sumed to be barely possible, that will
be enough. Thus is the so-called in
7estigation about as much an inquiry
FOR the truth as would be an inquisi-
ton upon lamb by horde Of raven
ing wolves.