Chapter CXI: Military Academy and Army Expenses

The instincts of the people have been against this academy from the time it took its present form under the act of 1812, and those subsequent and subsidiary to it: many efforts have been made to abolish or to modify it: and all unsuccessful--partly from the intrinsic difficulty of correcting any abuse--partly from the great number interested in the Academy as an eleemosynary institution of which they have the benefit--and partly from the wrong way in which the reformers go to work. They generally move to abolish the whole system, and are instantly met by Washington's recommendation in favor of it. In the mean time Washington never saw such an institution as now shelters behind his name; and possibly would never have been in the army, except as a private soldier, if it had existed when he was a young man. He never recommended such an academy as we have: he never dreamed of such a thing: he recommended just the reverse of it, in recommending that cadets, serving in the field with the companies to which they were attached, and receiving the pay, clothing, and ration of a sergeant, should be sent--such of them as showed a stomach for the hardships, as well as a taste for the pleasures and honors of the service, and who also showed a capacity for the two higher branches of the profession (engineering and artillery)--to West Point, to take instruction from officers in these two branches of the military art: and no more. At this session one of the usual movements was made against it--an attack upon the institution in its annual appropriation bill, by moving to strike out the appropriation for its support, and substitute a bill for its abolition. Mr. Hale made the motion, and was supported in it by several members. Mr. McKay, chairman of the committee, which had the appropriation bill in charge, felt himself bound to defend it, but in doing so to exclude the conclusion that he was favorable to the academy. Begging gentlemen, therefore, to withdraw their motion, he went on to say:

"He was now, and always had been, in favor of a very material
alteration in the organization of this institution. He did not
think that the government should educate more young men than
were necessary to fill the annual vacancies in the army. It was
beyond dispute, that the number now educated was more than the
average annual vacancies in the army required; and hence the
number of supernumerary second lieutenants--which he believed
was now something like seventy; and would be probably thirty
more the next year. This, however, did not present the true
state of the question. In a single year, in consequence of an
order issued from the war department, that all the officers who
were in the civil service of the railroad and canal companies,
&c., should join their respective regiments, there were upwards
of one hundred resignations. Now, if these resignations had
not taken place, the army would have been overloaded with
supernumerary second lieutenants. He was for reducing the
number of cadets, but at the same time would make a provision
by which parents and guardians should have the privilege of
sending their sons and wards there to be educated, at their own
expense. This (Mr. M. said) was the system adopted in Great
Britain; and it appeared, by a document he had in his hand,
that there were three hundred and twenty gentlemen cadets, and
fifteen officers educated at the English Military Academy, at
a much less expense than it required to educate two hundred
and twenty cadets at West Point. He agreed with much of what
had been said by the gentleman from Connecticut, Mr. Seymour,
that it would be an amelioration of our military service, to
open the door of promotion to meritorious non-commissioned
officers and privates. Under the present system, no man who
was a non-commissioned officer or private, however meritorious,
had the least chance of promotion. It was true that there were
instances of such men getting commissions, but they were very
rare; and the consequence was, that the ranks of the army were
filled with some of the worst men in the country, and desertions
had prevailed to an enormous extent. Mr. McK. here gave from the
documents, the number of annual desertions, from the year 1830
to 1836, showing an average of one thousand. He would not now,
however, enlarge on this subject, but would reserve his remarks
till the bill for reorganizing the academy, which he understood
was to be reported by the Military Committee, should come in."

Mr. McKay was not counted among the orators of the House: he made no pretension to fine speaking: but he was one of those business, sensible, upright men, who always spoke sense and reason, and to the point, and generally gave more information to the House in a few sentences than could often be found in one of the most pretentious speeches. Of this character were the remarks which he made on this occasion; and in the four statements that he made, _first_, that upwards of one hundred West Point officers had resigned their commissions in one year when ordered to quit civil service and join their corps; _secondly_, that there was a surplus of seventy graduates at that time for whom there was no place in the army; _thirdly_, that at the English Military Academy, three hundred and thirty-five cadets and officers were instructed at much less expense than two hundred and twenty with us; _fourthly_, that the annual desertions from the rank and file of the army had averaged one thousand men per annum for six years together, these desertions resulting from want of promotion and disgust at a service which was purely necessary. Mr. McKay was followed by another speaker of the same class with himself--Mr. Cave Johnson, of Tennessee; who stood up and said:

"That there was no certainty that the bill to be reported by
the Military Committee, which the gentleman referred to, would
be reached this session; and he was therefore for effecting
a reform now that the subject was before them. He would,
therefore, suggest to the gentleman from New Hampshire to
withdraw his amendment, and submit another, to the following
effect: That no money appropriated in this bill, or hereafter to
be appropriated, shall be applied to the payment of any cadet
hereafter to be appointed; and the terms of service of those
who have warrants now in the academy shall be held to cease
from and after four years from the time of their respective
appointments. The limitation of this appropriation now, would
put an end to the academy, unless the House would act on the
propositions which would be hereafter made. He was satisfied
it ought to be abolished, and he would at once abolish it, but
for the remarks of his friend from North Carolina; he therefore
hoped his friend from New Hampshire would adopt the suggestions
which had been made."

Mr. Harralson, of Georgia, chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs, felt himself called upon by his position to come to the defence of the institution, which he did in a way to show that it was indefensible. He

"Intimated that that committee would propose some reductions
in the number of cadets; and when that proposition came before
the House, these amendments could be appropriately offered. The
proposition would be made to reduce the number of the cadets
to the wants of the army. But this appropriation should now be
made; and if, by any reductions hereafter made, it should be
found more than adequate to the wants of the institution, the
balance would remain in the Treasury, and would not be lost
to the country. He explained the circumstances under which,
in 1836, some persons educated as cadets at West Point became
civil engineers, and accepted employment on projected lines of
railroad; and asserted that no class of our countrymen were more
ready to obey the call of their country, in any exigency which
might arise."

Mr. Orlando Ficklin, of Illinois, not satisfied with the explanations made by the chairman on military affairs, returned to the charge of the one hundred resignations in one year; and said:

"He had listened to the apology or excuse rendered by the
chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs, for the cadets
who resigned in 1836. And what was that excuse? Why, forsooth,
though they had been educated at the government expense,
yet, because they could get better pay by embarking in other
pursuits, they deserted the service of the country which had
educated them, and prepared them for her service. He did not
intend to detain the committee at present, but he must be
permitted to say to those who were in favor of winding up
the concern, that they ought not to vote an appropriation of
a single dollar to that institution, unless the same bill
contained a provision, in language as emphatic as it could be
made, declaring that this odious, detestable, and aristocratic
institution, shall be brought to a close. If it did not cost
this government a single dollar, he would still be unwilling
that it should be kept up. He was not willing that the door
of promotion should be shut against the honest and deserving
soldier, and that a few dandies and band-box heroes, educated at
that institution, should enjoy the monopoly of all the offices.
Mr. F. adverted to the present condition of the army. It was
filled up, he said, by foreigners. Native Americans, to whom
they should naturally look as the defenders of the country,
were deterred from entering it. It would be well, he thought,
to have a committee of investigation, that the secrets of the
prison-house might be disclosed, and its abuses brought to
light."

Mr. Black, of Georgia, proposed an amendment, compelling the cadets to serve ten years, and keeping up the number: upon which Mr. Hale remarked:

"The amendment of the gentleman from Georgia would seem to
imply that there were not officers enough: whereas the truth
was there were more than enough. The difficulty was, there were
already too many. The Army Register showed a list already of
seventy supernumeraries; and more were being turned out upon us
every year. The gentleman from New York had made a most unhappy
illustration of the necessity for educating cadets for the army,
by comparing them with the midshipmen in the navy. What was the
service rendered by midshipmen on board our national vessels?
Absolutely none. They were of no sort of use; and precisely so
was it with these cadets. He denied that General Washington ever
recommended a military academy like the present institution;
and, if he had done so, he would, instead of proclaiming it,
have endeavored to shield his great name from such a reproach."

The movement ended as usual, in showing necessity for a reform, and in failing to get it.