New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-07-31
MORE TPOUBLE FOR VEST POINT

Military Academy were too hasty III congrat-
uating themselves upon the prospect oil
quiet and comfortable year. Whitaker has
been disposed of; Flipper Is out OF the Army
the plebes who presented themselves at the
Point IL few weeks ago were all white boys
some of them, dare say, very coarse, ana
ignorant, and vulgar-but still white; ana
there was reason to hope that nggcrs had been
taught at last that for them to aspire To COM
missions in the United States Army was inier-
nal impudence. But alas, one of the superior
race, Florida lad nominated by Congress
man recently unseated Oh tie ground mat he
had not been elected, has failed to pass his ex-
animation, and i'll his place "a niger Is coming.
This miserable boy has beaten all his riV ais IN
a competitive test of scholarship; but he Is
niger, and there is more trouble ahead Tor
the cadets. Black men have distinguished
themselves in the Senate and House OF Kepre-
sentatives and in many executive Offices oil
civil hte black men make very good soldiers
and sailors and the Government Is glad TO en-
list them; but there is one aristocratc caste
which must be kept free from the cOntamlna-
ton of their presence; and the nursery Oh
that caste is West Point.
Whatever the recent inquiries at the Acad-
envy may or may not have revealed, they nave
made this at any rate quite clear that the
policy of excluding colored lads from the
benefit of the Government notwithstanding
them by means of sOclal 0straclsm. and a
certain form of silent but cruel and effective
persecuton-has become traditional among the
cadets that something equivalent to boy
cottingr is relied upon in order to force the
entire corps to take part i'll these transactions
that a colored cadet whatever his personal
merit, must 90 through the four years course
absolutely alone; that nobody will speak to
him, or answer il he speaks; that nobody VIII
stand near him except upon cOmpulsion that
white cadet who in the kindness of his heart,
breaks through this brutal unwritten law, be-
comes an outcast himself and is treated rs II he
too were a Niger. The policy of the young
ruilans has been pretty successful. Very lew
black boys have the courage to enter West
Point, and still fewer have the strength OF Will
to endure what they encounter there.
Now we do not believe that the American
pcople care much whether cOlored officers are
found in the Army or not but they do care
about fair play. They are resolved that since
the law has opened West Point TO the colored
man, the coored man shall go there II he
pleases and be treated there according TO his
deserts not according to his color lie must
find his friends and personal associates where
he can, but he shall not be robbed OF his rights
his right to go 10 school, any more than his
right to VOTE or to be voted Tor; ana whether
the robbery be by open violence, by fraud, OF
by "boycottng," the people are equally re-
| solved not to tolerate 1T. The people are re-
| solved that school maintained at the cost OF
| the whole Nation for the benefit of the whole
| Nation shall not be closed by its pupils ana
| benefciaries against any section of the people
| And moreover they inlieXible in their de
termination that "a Government school shall
not become a nursery of arstocratc exclusive
ness. They will sweep West Point out of ex
istence before they will tolerate that.
Public remonstrance does not direct itself to
the boys of the Academy, but to their masters.
The follies of young students are not worth
fretting about; it is the deiinquencies of those
| who are charged with their education that con-
Germ men of the world and IL West Point fell
into dslavor under the disclosures of the
| Whitaker case 1t was not SO much on ac-
| count of the antics of the cadets "a be-
| cause of the conviction that the officers
who permitted the scandals to exist
were sravely compromised by them. Some
thing more is at stake in this matter than the
fortunes OF few ambitious colored lads ; the
tone of the whole Army is involved in it ; the
respect for the principle of equality, the dem
ocratic contempt for artificial class dstinc-
| tons the studious regard for the rights of man,
which ought especially to distinguish the re-
publican soldier, are violated 10y the Deliberate
insulting, and long-cOntinued denial of fair
| play TO coored lads at the National Military
Academy and it is high time for it to be UNI
derstood that if the policy of ostIacism en-
dures the Superintendent is either blind to his
| duty or inc ompetcnt to perform It,
|
| NOT VEATHLE ENGLISH