The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 2: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session Page: 273
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March, 1844.
28th Cong 1st Sess.
APPENDIX TO THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE.
Military Academy—Mr. Dana.
273
others. I do not doubt that every member will act
on this subject from the purest motives; but if we
would stand well with the country—if we would
have full credit for disinterestedness with the peo-
ple, we ought to divest ourselves of this patronage.
"Again, sir, if this power be confided without check
or control to members of Congress, will there not be
danger of the institution being aristocratic ill the per-
sons selected as cadets? Whom will a member be
most likely to nominate? Will it not be a son or re-
lative, or some one dependent for support upon the
member?—or, if there happens to be none such, the
son or friend of some wealthy or influential constitu-
ent whose influence the member desires to secure?
1 would rejoice to find it otherwise. But when we
examine the roll of cadets, and compare it with the
lists of members of Congress, we find such a coinci-
dence of names as I cannot attribute wholly to acci-
dent; there must have been some relationship be-
tween them .to produce such a striking family like-
ness.
[Mr. Giddings. I wish to state a fact for the in-
formation of the gentleman. Some years ago, being
applied to to nominate a cadet for my district, and
having at that time a son of the proper age to enter
the academy, I wrote to many of the prominent men
of my district to send me the name of a candidate,
and I could not procure one.]
Mr. Dana. The district of the gentleman from
Ohio appears to be a very peculiar one in many le-
spects. Unless I am greatly mistaken, relatives and
connexions of many men of wealth and high stations
have been educated at the public expense at West
Point, and the privilege has been highly coveted and
eagerly sought by them generally, the single instance
of the constituents of the gentleman from Ohio to
the contrary notwithstanding. I am entirely op-
posed to the whole system of educating any person,
or class of peisons, at the public expense; but if some
must be so educated, let them be selected for their
merits—for their talents and virtues; give the prefer-
ence to the poor and to the orphan—they are the
most needy and deserving—instead of bestowing the
national bounty on the rich and influential, who have
other means oi education. I admit there have been
many instances in which members, waiving all self-
ish considerations, (and I honor them for it,) have
selected the most meritorious candidate; but as a
general rule, in this contest for patronage between
wealth and power on the one side, and poverty on
the other, it needs not the gift of prophesy to deter-
mine which will triumph. If this academy shall be
continued, I hope that, at least, its organization will
be so changed as to secure to the poor a fair partici-
pation in its benefits.
The institution is aristocratic in the monopoly of
military commissions which it secures to the cadets
after they have received their education. It is not suffi-
cient to educate them at the public expense, but they
must also be 'provided for in the same way ever
after, and that too in the most objectionable form of
a monopoly. No man, whatever may be his talents
or qualifications, or his thirst for military fame, can
get into the army unless he enter through the gate
of the West Point Academy, the only portal open
to ambition. Thus every person who has passed
the age of 21, without obtaining an appointment in
the academy, and every person under 21 who does
not graduate there, is disfranchised, and rendered in-
capable of holding a commission. He may have
spent his days in toil, and his nights m study, to
qualify himself for his country's service, he may
have mastered all military science; the fire of genius
may burn bright in his soul; he may be impelled by
the purest patriotism, and be the "bravest of the
brave;" but he comes not through the door of privi-
lege—he has never graduated at West Point—he is
rejected! Is this the equality of your boasted insti-
tutions' If "all men are created equal," that equali-
ty is soon lost by congressional legislation. It is
said that military science is necessary in the army,
and that there is no institution except at West Point
where it is taught. How can it be taught else-
where? The science acquired any where but at
West Point is of no value to the possessor. Abolish
the monopoly of military commissions, throw them
open for competition to merit and science, wherever
acquired, and there will be places enough for instruc-
tion in the art, without burdening the treasury, and
a much widpr range for the selection of officers will
be afforded to you. West Point is a beautiful and
healthy place, and a strong military position; but
there is nothing in its air or climate, however salu-
brious, that in itself creates a soldier. It has the
monopoly of commisiiiojis—not of qualifications——
(18)
H. of Reps.
the same instruction at another location would
have equal effect in qualifying an, officer to com-
mand. I object to the institution, because it is aris-
tocratic, also, in the habits and feelings which it incul-
cates. Petted .as the cadets are, it would be sur-
prising if they did not become proud and vain.
It is not their fault—your laws make them so. They
are placed in such a position as to render the adop-
tion of such feelings almost inevitable. They alone
have a public education at the expense of the nation.
They are instructed in things which no other indi-
viduals have any motive for learning—they only are
deemed legally competent for officers of the army;
and they naturally reason: "If our services were
not indispensable, we should not be educated at
the public expense. If persons not educated at
West Point were capable of performing the duties of
military commanders, we would not be allowed to
monopolize military commissions. If the knowledge
we have obtained could be had elsewhere, the United
States would not, at great expense, erect and main-
tain the military academy. If our country could
dispense with us, we should not be commissioned
and retained for years under pay without employ-
ment. We alone have been educated for officers.
All of the military science of the nation centres in
us; no otheis are qualified to command. We are a
caste by ourselves—a military nobility, on whom
the fortunes of the country depend." Censure not
these young men for their opinions. They are the
legitimate fruits of your legislation—fair and just
inferences from your enactments. But they are not
therefore, the less to be regretted. Such enactments
are calculated to draw a wide line of separation be-
tween the cadets and their fellow-citizens; to foster
a spirit of pride and arrogance, and self-sufficiency,
on the part of the former, mixed with scorn and
contempt of the multitude, to be returned by the lat-
ter with feelings of envy and detestation. Have not
these consequences resulted? Does not, even now,
an ill feeling exist between West Point and the
country?'
My next objection to the academy is, that the ex-
penses are exorbitant, and greatly dispropoitioned
to the benefits.
A report made by the Secretary of War at the
present session of Congress, states the expenditures
to have been upwards of $4,000,000. Over $700,000
of that sum is the cost of the grounds, buildings,
and fixtures, in the nature of capital, which cannot
be considered as entirely wasted, though they are
of little value in any other respect than as connected
with this institution. The residue, amounting to
$3,291,500, is stated as the current expenses of the
institution—the cost of educating the cadets. This
would amount to an annual expenditure of about
$130,000. The number of cadets who have grad-
uated, including those who are expected to grad-
uate on the 30th of June next,amounts only tol, 231;
each graduate, therefore, has occasioned an expense
to the nation of $3,250; or, if we take only the cur-
rent expenses, deducting what may be considered as
an investment of capital, the cost of each amounts
to $2,673. But the amount thus reported by the
Secretary of War, 1 understand, includes only the
direct and immediate expenditures for the institution,
and omits many expenses which the academy has
indirectly occasioned. A friend who has carefully
investigated the matter, and whose general accuracy
I cannot doubt, makes the cost of each cadet
who graduates this year amount to $5,000.
AH of the expenditures direct and indirect,
by reason of the military academy, I have
no doubt, exceed five millions of dollars, which
is the cost of educating 1,231 persons in mili-
tary science sufficiently to qualify them for subal-
tern officers in the army. A part of them have ta-
ken their commissions, and are employed in the
public service. Some have declined to accept, oth-
ers have resigned soon after their acceptance, while
many have received commissions, and been placed
on the roll of supernumeraries—officers without
*A gentleman fiom Ohio, in answer to the allegation that
the military academy is an aristocratic institution, said, m
substance, thai if the academy, which is limited to 236 per-
sons, was aristocratic, the House of Representatives, which
contains but 226 members and delegates, must be aristo-
cratic. The Supreme Court, somposed ofei^lit judges, still
more aristocratic; and the President superlatively aristo-
cratic, ^
If each member of Congress, judge, or the President, was
nominated and appointed by a single individual, educated
for his office at the public expense, and then commissioned
fot life, the cases would be parallel. Would not the House,
the court, and the executive,thus constituted, tie supremely
aijstocsutio?
men to command, or military duties to perform.
Those who have graduated are by no means all
who have entered the academy. Since 1815 the
whole number of students has been 2,942. Deduct-
ing the 1,231 who have graduated, and are expected
to graduate at the close of the present year, and
there will remain 1,7] 1 who have not graduated.
Less than 200 remain at the academy, and between
1,500 and 1,600 must have left it without'comple-
tmg their education, or rendering any equivalent to
the nation for the expense incurred for them. Per-
haps, however, it is not a subject of regret that so
many of the cadets have left the institution, or been
dismissed from it without completing their educa-
tion, and claiming their privilege of military com-
missions, as many more yet remain than we have?
the means of employing. The number of cadets at
the academy usually amounts to about 250—the
number annually admitted to about 100, of whom
about 40 graduate. The army absorbs 22, and the
remaining 18 are supernumeraries, holding brevet
commissions, without active duties. It is rather a
subject of congratulation, therefore, than of regret,
that 60 out of a hundred of the students do not so
persevere unto the end as to entitle themselves to
commissions, and become quartered for life upon
the treasury; but it is not on this account less object
tionable in principle thus to educate them at the
public expense, without an equivalent, in service or
otherwise. A law providing, in terms, that 100 stu-
dents should be admitted annually into the acade-
my , and educated at the public expense—that 40 of
them should be retained as officers of the army, and
the remainder be discharged from all claims for the
instruction they receive, and the expense they occa-
sion, would be denounced as unjust and unconstitu-
tional; but a law effecting directly precisely the
same objects, receives not only the sanction, but the
eulogies of the most strict constructionists. What
cannot constitutionally be done directly, may be ac-
complished indirectly, without trenching upon the
constitution. Be it so. I shall not raise a constitu-
tional question here. My observation has taugit
me that the constitution is formed of materials very
like India-rubber. It will stretch on the one side
so as to admit anything a man desires to introduce,
and close so tight on the other as to shut out every
thing he wishes to exclude.
But to return to the question. I hold it to be a
less evil to give the supernumerary cadets a gratui-
tous education, if the nation can be thereafter dis-
charged from their support, than to retain them as
officers of the army, when their services are not
wanted. Already the supernumeraries, at the low-
est estimate, amount to seventy, whose support and
pay cost the nation nearly $70,000 a year; and the
number will be largely increased at the next exami-
nation, which occurs in June. Prior to the Florida
war, the number of unemployed officers was much
greater; but, at its commencement, resignations were
"plenty as blackberries." It is but justice, howev-
er, to those who retained their commissions, to say,
that they fought gallantly and well in that most un-
promising and disagreeable contest.
Not only is the Military Academy an aristocratic,
and expensive institution, but it is also the-parent of
some positive evils. The first that I shall notice is
the jealousies and controversies which it occasions
between the officers of the army. Some of the of
ficers have been educated at West Point: others
have not. Most of the superior officers have not
enjoyed the advantages of that institution: nearly
all of the inferior officers have. Thus they are di j
vided into two classes—the regular and the irregu]
lar. The cadets, having en joyed greater advantages
than their superiors—served a regular apprenticeship
to their business, and entered the service by the on-
ly door the law now recognises—can hardly fail to
look upon their superiors as unlearned, as mere in-
truders, the creatures of accident, as usurpers of
stations of right bslonging to themselves. Is it pos-
sible for such feeling# to remain smothered for years
in the bosom, like the hidden fire of a volcano, with-
out occasional eruptions? ^ Will not such sentiments
be very apt to break out in overt acts of disrespect
and contempt? And will not the older officers, an-
noyed and disgusted by what they deem the
vanity and presumption of the juniors, be like-
ly to meet _ this spirit by a haughty and im-
perious bearing, calculated and intended to mor-
tify their pride, and check their assumptions?
Have not the many quarrels and controversies,
often ending in courts of inquiry and courts-martial,
which have been so frequent in, and so disgraceful
to the army, originated principally in these cqhv
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe, Volume 13, Part 2: Twenty-Eighth Congress, First Session, book, 1844; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2368/m1/283/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.