New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-05-24
WEST POJNTS DEFENCE.

AS Professor Niche comes voluntarily to the
front as the defender of West Point, it is
only Just to receive him as the accredited ex-
pOnent of the opinions and feelings of his
brother officers with regard to Whitaker and
other cOlOred cadets. 1t is popularity supposed
that these professors and officers are mt one
with the cadets in the systematized effort to
put n stop TO the entrance Of cOOred men
to the institution, in spite of the National
will now we have an opportunity OF seeing
whether the suppOsitiOD is true. We are the
more justified in taking Professor Niche as
spokesman for the whole, as his paper exhib-
its precisely the same peculiarly Incorporate
dOgmatic tone, strong prejudice against cOOred
men, and hearty sympathy with the brutal
conduct of the cadets that were shown by the
officers conducting the trial from the first.
His exhibition of feeling is only more impOr-
tant than theirs, rs printed words are more
deliberate than actions. Professor Niche
recognizes the fact that it is West Point, not
Whitaker, that is on trial, and must find the
result most serious. He does his best
to make it PLAN that he, with General SchO
field and their colleagues, prejudged this case
from the day of the outrage against Whitta-
ker; not because he had been formerly q
sneak or trickster but because he was black.
Professor Niche and General SchOlleld both
assure us that the simple denial of the cadets
was sufficient proof of their innocence; while
they paid no heed to the oath Of Whitaker
also cadet, because his skin was cOlOred.
The Professor deplOres the fact that the
Academy has been condemned unhcard,"
and then proceeds to offer its labOred defence.
It consists in reiterated assertions of 4" its
" glorious record, its sturdy uprightncss and
I" it's noble mission" which kind of vague talk
amounts to much less than he imaGines. The
people know that the Academy is useful or
they would not keep it up at SO large a cost
They know that It's graduates were skiliul
officers in the late war; both for the country
they had sworn to support and against her.
They hope that the cadets arc taught, as the
Professor protests vcllemcntly is the case, to
sneak the truth, but regret that other and
rs high moral qualities are not also incul-
Gated. These are not the questions under dis
cussiOn.
Professor Michio and his colleagues wholly
mistake the point at issue. 1t is simply this
Whether the people who (black and whte)
pay for the gratuitOus education of tho lads
at West Point, and pay Professor Michie and
his brother teachers to instruct them, shall
have the right to say to whom this gratui-
tous instruction shall be given, or whether
that shall be left for the teachers and tho
boys who are receiving this noble gratuity to
decide. The course of snubbing, and cOwardy
inhuman neglect of one or two weak cOOred
bows by hundreds of whites, is done with the
predetermined purpose of forcing them out of
the school. Professor Niche admits this Os-
tracism, to its full extent, and has not q sim
gle word of censure for it; he even defends
it on the ground that the parents of these lads
do not make companions of blacks. There is
q difference. The parents of the cadets do not
accept tuition, food and clothes for which
blacks have helped to pay. That alters the
case. Professor Niche, in Il tone of generous
patronage, informs the people that if they
twill send some young colored men to the
Academy at least equal to the average white
"cadet, and possessed of manly qualities" the
professors and cadets will "settle the question
"on the basis of human intelligence and hui
Imam sympathy )" which means, we suppose,
that they will make the hell upon earth to
which they have treated former cOlOred boys,
struggling for chance in life, shade lighter.
The "humau sympathy shown by the Acad-
envy so far is hardly broad enough fouuda-
ton to settle any question upon. Besides, the
country, which foots the bill, prefers to settle