Year: 1874

NNS'
suppression of the rebellion 1t was re-es-
tablished at Lexington, with Francis W.
Smith as president, and is now the pride
of Virginia as college 1t is said that
one tenth of all the officers of the rebel
army were educated at that school,
Preparation is essential to success in any
calling, but nowhere more than in the
military service. If it cannot be had
in the rank and file, it must be in the
officers. 1t was the experience of the
war that regiments became rapidly eff
cient in proportion to the previous mill
tary training or actual service of their
officers. The effective power and force
of the rank and file depended very large
ly upon the confidence which the knowl-
edge and ability Of their officers inspired
If militia is desired, it could in no way
be better promoted, or made more eff
cient, than by diffusion of military
knowledge among the people; military
education is also conservative in tenden-
cy. There is no class less likely to
plunge the nation into an unprovoked
war than those who know best what war
ia. While the trained soldiers of the
war Of the rebellion would rally around
their old battle riven standards should
the pestilence Of war again breathe upon
us, they would be the last men to hurl
the nation into war for the sake OF hav.
ing war, or upon any frivolous pretenees.


Under the present temper of our peo-
pie there seems to be no feasible military
safeguard other than military educa-
tion. How, then, should this be attain
ed? ! once thought, with many others,
that the military element might be in
eorporated in our high and scientific
schools and colleges. This experiment
has been tried, but not with success, and
| now think that it will not be success
My observation is that the military ele-
ment must be the basis of the school in
all its routine in order to be of advan-
tage, pleasing or successful. If the mill
tary drill and instruction is subordinate
and mere appendage it will be distaste-
ful, for the experience of all men in mill
tary matters is, that men dislike mill
tary discipline and exercise unless it is
made thorough and complete. II will
bear no half way work. The experience
of every officer, the history of every
regiment demonstrates this fact. If the
military element Of school consist only
of periodical drill and instruction in
tactics, it viii soon become irksome and
distasteful, and open rebellion among
the students may at any moment be ex-
pected. Military method, system, de.
cision, promptness, and discipline must
attend every exercise and department of
the school, must regulate in the dress
and bearing of the students, must be
constantly felt and exercised, or the mill
itary element of the school will be fail
ure. Therefore in order to secure a
military education that is worth any
thing, the military element must not be
made a part of all schools, but must be
made the basis of a few. Then let those
young men who prefer it, go to those
schools and those who do not, go to
schools where it has no part. The mis-
fortune of our country is that so little at
tention has been given to military educa-
ton, and that we have so few military
schools. But this has not been the mis-
fortune of Vermont in respect to the
schools. Since 1884 we have had Nor
wich University. The misfortune, if
any, has been that this school has not
been fully appreciated aud properly sup
ported.


The military history of Vermont is
grand. In defense of liberty and JUS
tice her sons have been more than brave


they have been heroic. Her early
history reads like a work of fiction
wherein the author gave the fullest rein
to his imagination. The gallantry of
her sons found its full counterpart in the
fortitude, sef-denial and courage of her
daughters. The pure air of her lofty
mountains, the beauty and grandeur of
her varied scenery, seemed to inspire her
children with the noblest manhood
They never failed to meet the oppressor
of their rights or the invader of their
soil at the confines of her territory, and
the name of the Green Mountain BOYS
rang like clarion throughout the land.
A military college was as natural to
such state as the trout to her cool
mountain streams. Capt. Partridge
shrewdly saw that two of the states
north and south whose history showed
the keenest military spirit were Vermont
and Virginia, and there he located two
of his military schools. That in Ver-
mont has depended almost solely on pat
ronage for support, and yet against the
competition which the numerous colleges