Page images
PDF
EPUB

FEBRUARY, 1828.]

Military Appropriations-West Point and its Visitors.

the Military Academy, he would content himself by a single reference to the report of the late Board, laid upon our tables at the present session. If it be not important in reference to the course of military instruction of our officers, its importance in teaching them the use of our language in a rhetorical flourish, may not be questioned.

[Here Mr. WICKLIFFE read from the report the following:

"Engineering, in its two departments, particularly in its civil features, is of importance to every country, and to none more than to our own. The importance of scientific education to the engineer is evident: for, to material substances, his thoughts and meditations must be directed. Hence, it is of importance to become familiar with the laws prescribed by nature for their action. He must grapple with his agents, and foresee their effects, calculate their energies, and become, as it were, the dictator of their actions. Nature must be forced into a

bond of alliance with his views. He must inter

rogate her on her modes of action, study the laws by which she governs, enter into the recesses of her hidden processes, arrest her in the act of operation, and enter on his own labors with possession of her secrets."]

Sir, who will say this sentence alone is not worth the sum proposed, with which to fill the blank?

Mr. KREMER declared that his views were in no way altered. He believed that the reports were prepared for the Visitors beforehand, and all they had to do was to sign; and appealed to every Visitor to say if such was not the

case.

Mr. VANCE repelled the insinuation with much indignation. It was false in point of fact. The Board was usually constituted partly of scientific and partly of practical men. That portion of them who were possessed of scientific and literary attainments, were, of course, selected to draw up the report. Mr. V. said he had been prepared to expect that the report of the last year would receive the sarcasm and the taunts of certain men on this floor. Though he had been appointed to preside on that occasion, he believed he might say, and the House would bear him out in the assertion, that he was as unpretending as any member of the House. Gentlemen knew how he had attained what education he did possess, and he was as sensible as they could be, that it would have been a burlesque for him to pretend to draw up that report. But it was a foul calumny, to say that the report was prepared and drawn up for the committee.

[Mr. KREMER explained by saying, that he only meant that the report was not drawn up by the chairman.]

Mr. VANCE resumed. As it had been customary always to put upon that Board one of the Military Committee of this House, he had last year been appointed to that duty, and this had drawn out the taunts of a certain set of men in this House. But when an individual,

[H. OF R.

who was now Governor of Tennessee, and whose literary and scientific attainments did not greatly exceed his own, had presided in that Board and signed its report, all was suffered to pass very quietly. The gentleman now at the head of the Military Committee (Mr. HAMILTON) had likewise once presided, but even he had not drawn up the report which he signed. But no sooner did he (Mr. V.) fill that place, than he was sneeringly reflected upon, as if he had wished to palm himself upon the public as the author of that report. He was above any such meanness.

Mr. JENNINGS said he was far from wishing to derogate from the merits of the gentleman from Ohio, (Mr. VANCE.) He viewed him as belonging to that class of practical men, among whom he had understood him as placing himself. Such men, in company with others of a literary and scientific character, ought to be appointed. But this had not always been the case. He believed some had been appointed to this duty, who never could demonstrate a proposition in Euclid. He should vote for such an appropriation with much reluctance. But he would not withhold the public money from such uses as would really give the public an interest in the character of this institution.

Mr. Buck went into a history of the West Point Academy, from its earliest origin, when the corps of Artillerists and Engineers were first separated. The officers of the latter corps then constituted the Academy, and there were no cadets, and no salaried professors. He then traced the gradual introduction of cadets, first two in a company, doing duty in the ranks, increasing from 60, till, in 1809, they amounted to 80; and, at the close of the late war, their number was augmented to 250. The institution had then been entirely reorganized. The course of instruction altered and enlarged, and, since that time, a Board of Visitors appointed. He admitted the high character of the persons usually selected to compose this Board, but could see no useful result from their appointment. It entailed an unnecessary expense upon the nation, and he therefore resisted the present appropriation.

Mr. MALLARY took the opposite side, insisting upon the advantages of this visitation, as tending to preserve the school from those abuses to which every human institution was more or less liable. It guarded the rights of poor and friendless students, and preserved them from oppression. It greatly stimulated the ambition of the young men to excel in their studies. It spread a knowledge of their respective standing throughout the Union, and gave the public mind a stronger interest in the welfare of this valuable institution. Those who now conducted the school were the very last whom he would suspect of any thing like injustice or mal-practice. But, it was wrong, in itself, to leave any great public seminary without supervision and control. Besides the moral effect of such a visitation, the Board ex

H. OF R.]

Military Appropriations-West Point and its Visitors.

[FEBRUARY, 1828.

ercised an inspection over the pecuniary ex- | knowledge he had acquired in his collegiate penditures of the institution, as well as over its general police and the comforts and accommodations of the students.

course to the military studies at that school. It was true, he did not graduate there, because he had received a commission in the infantry, in which corps he had served to the close of the late war, when he retired to private life.

Mr. WEEMS professed himself satisfied with this explanation, and wished he could say the same in relation to the speech of Mr. MALLARY, who seemed to think that the benefits of the Military School were bestowed chiefly upon indigent young men of genius. If he thought that, he would willingly vote three times as much as was now asked.

Mr. PEARCE expressed his regret at the course of the debate, and especial surprise at the source from which some of the objections had proceeded. The gentleman who objected to the course of visitation, (Mr. BUCK,) had, if he mistook not, been once himself an alumnus of that institution, but had not graduated there. Mr. P. traced the institution of the military school from its conception by Mr. Jefferson, through the succeeding Administrations, until it received the assiduous and fostering care of Mr. HAILE said, as it seemed to be the underthe gentleman who is now Vice President of standing of the gentleman, that every one on the United States, on whom he passed some the floor was to occupy his share of the time very handsome compliments for his zeal in its of the House, he should avail himself of the behalf. He dwelt on the necessity and advan-same privilege. He objected to the Board of tage of a system of visitation, and taking it for Visitors, on account of the pride, pomp, and granted that a Board ought to be appointed circumstance, which attended their visitations. annually for that purpose, he insisted on the He was opposed to the school as extending the impropriety of taking them from a single por- Executive patronage-educating the children of tion of the United States, in the immediate gentlemen in both branches of Congress-sendneighborhood of the school, but urged the pro-ing into the States the mere creatures of the priety of collecting them from every part of General Government, who could not sympathe United States. If this principle was adopt-thize with State rights, nor follow leaders aped, he thought that the sum of $3,000, as re-pointed by State authority-leaving too much ported from the estimates in the War Depart- to Executive discretion-excluding poor and ment, would be barely sufficient to pay their meritorious students giving a preference to travelling expenses. He contradicted the state- the aristocracy of the country-usurping to ment of Mr. KREMER, that a report was pre- itself the patronage of the Government, in pared for the Board to sign. The Visitors preference to institutions not of a military were divided into classes. A part of the re- character; and finally, as endangering the libport assigned to each class; their several pro-erty of the country, by aiding the cause of conductions afterwards brought together, and, by solidation. some leading member of the Board, selected for the purpose, reduced into a general report. Such had been the process when he attended. The report was drafted by the Professor of Modern Languages in Cambridge University. Mr. P. concluded by moving to fill the blank with 3,000 dollars.

Mr. DWIGHT rose to correct the mistaken views of his friend from Vermont, (Mr. Buck.) He denied that the Seminary had grown up by mere military legislation, and referred to the several acts of Congress by which it had been founded, and from time to time enlarged. The present expenditure for the travelling expenses of the Board of Visitors was a mere regulation of the Department, and did not rest on any law; and, as the appointment to a seat in the Board of Visitors was an honorary appointment, and, as such, highly valued, he thought it would be sufficient if a sum was provided to cover the expenses of gentlemen while in actual attendance at the institution.

In reply to some remarks of Mr. WEEMS, Mr. BUCK repeated, and explained some of his former statements. In reply to the remarks of Mr. PEARCE, who, he said, seemed to have recurred with some interest to a portion of his biography, he stated, that, after he had left college, he had resided for 16 months at West Point, during which time, he had applied the

Mr. MCDUFFIE, declaring it to be his opinion that nine-tenths of the members of this House were in favor of the Academy, conjured its friends not to prolong the debate by entering into its defence.

Mr. BURGES made a short speech, going principally to repel the charge that poor students were excluded. He stated several instances to the contrary, and argued to show, that, unless the children of the rich were paid the same as others, a degrading line of distinction would be introduced in the school, more injurious to the poor students than any other feature in its management. He thought the travelling expenses of the Visitors ought to be paid-otherwise, the inhabitants of distant States would not be put on the same footing with those in the vicinity of the institution-gentlemen could go with perfect ease and comfort from Rhode Island to West Point, for $5. But what would be the expense of gentlemen attending from New Orleans? If the visitation should be abolished, the finest stimulus would be abolished that ever was applied to youthful ambition.

The cry for the question was now loud from every part of the House.

The question was taken on filling the blank with $3,000, as proposed by Mr. PEARCE, and decided in the negative-ayes 46, noes 107.

FEBRUARY, 1828.]

Military Appropriations-West Point and its Visitors.

[H. OF R.

The question was taken on filling the blank | Be the sum great or small, which is requisite with $1,500, as moved by Mr. MODUFFIE, and to defray this charge, he would vote it with decided in the affirmative, ayes 97. cheerfulness. Of all the apparatus in that valuable institution, there was none of greater importance to its success, than this attendance of the Board of Visitors. They did not, perhaps, impart any great light to the members of the institution; but this sort of supervision was all-important to its welfare, and constituted, indeed, one great advantage which distinguished that school from others. The want of such a Board of Visitors constituted the

Mr. INGHAM moved an amendment, going to confine the expenditure of this sum to the expenses of the Visitors while in actual attendance at West Point; but before any question was taken on this amendment, on motion of Mr. BASSETT, the committee rose.

MONDAY, February 18.

Military Appropriations-West Point and its

Visitors.

On motion of Mr. McDUFFIE, the House went into Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, Mr. TAYLOR, of New York, in the chair.

great deficiency in most of our institutions for education. There was little temptation for gentlemen to go there. The service was attended with much fatigue, and no very great honor or distinction; and why private individuals should be asked by the Government, or even by the people, to do their business for nothing, he did not perceive. He put it to the candor of gentlemen to say, whether such a re

The consideration of the bill making appropriations for the military service was resumed; and the question being on the amendment moved by Mr. INGHAM, which went to the ap-quirement was reasonable. propriation of $1,500 for the expenses of the Board of Visitors of the Military Academy at West Point, and to their subsistence while in actual attendance:

Mr. INGHAM briefly explained the amendment. There were but two parts of the expenses of these Visitors, viz: their travelling expenses while coming and returning to and from the Academy, and the expense of their subsistence while there. It had been settled, as he understood, that this money was not to be applied to their travelling expenses. Of course, it must be for their subsistence while in attendance at the school.

Mr. STRONG opposed the amendment, as he believed that their travelling expenses ought to be paid as well as their expenses while at the school.

Mr. WHITE said, some remarks had been made on Friday, in the debate on the appropriation for a Board of Visitors to attend the examination at the Military Academy, which required some notice from him, as he had once had the honor to be there in that capacity. It had been broadly asserted that this Board of Visitors was created by the Secretary of War, very lately, without authority of law, or precedent. Such was not the fact. The Rules and Articles of War, enacted by Congress, for the government of the Army and Military establishment of the country, in all its branches, conferred on the Secretary of War the power to make regulations for the government of the Military Academy at West Point, and the Secretary under the last Administration made a judicious system of rules for that object, and, among others, the one that he would read. [Here Mr. W. read an article of the regulations for the government of the Military Academy, making it the duty of the Secretary of War to appoint Visitors, annually, to attend the examination, and prescribing their duties, &c.] It followed, necessarily, that this was a regulation made in pursuance of an authority given by law, and in pursuance of its provisions, which regulation had been printed, laid before ConMr. EVERETT was opposed to the amend-gress, and sanctioned from year to year until ment. He could see no reason why the travel- this time; and it was due to the present Secreling expenses of these Visitors ought not to be tary to say, he was only acting upon a system defrayed. He had himself once had the honor proposed by his predecessor, Mr. Calhoun, and, of serving on that Board, and had never been so far, sanctioned by Congress. There was, engaged in a more arduous service. The Vis- therefore, no ground for the assertions, inconitors were hard at work from morning till siderately made, that this was an illegal exerevening, and that at a season when severe ap-cise of power. Mr. W. said he would make plication was the most unwelcome. The duty one other remark. At the time he was a meminvolved a great sacrifice of time as well as of ber of that Board, its business was divided labor, and he could not conceive why the Gov-among its members, in committees, who exernment should ask of a citizen to spend three weeks of his time at West Point, for no public advantage, but merely for the public good, and then, in addition, call on him to pay his own expenses while thus going on a public errand.

Mr. INGHAM replied, that the Committee of Ways and Means had stricken out one-half the sum, estimated by the Department, as sufficient to cover the whole expense of travelling and subsistence. This had been done on the ground, as he understood it, that the travelling expenses were not to be paid. If $1,500 were sufficient to pay the whole, the Department must have made a great mistake in estimating them at $3,000.

amined the various departments, without being at all influenced by the Academic Staff; and, after a thorough examination, each committee reported, which report was incorporated in a general one, and the special report was also, in

H. OF R.]

Military Appropriations-West Point and its Visitors.

some instances, sent. On the occasion in which he was Chairman of the Committee on Civil Economy, that report, made by himself, was sent; and if any one said, or insinuated, that the special or general report on that occasion was written by, or in consultation with, the Academic branch, it was entirely without foundation. Mr. W. said he did not like to engage in any debate not immediately connected with the interests of Florida, but this much he considered due to the Secretary of War, and to himself.

[FEBRUARY, 1828.

should be vouched through respectable and responsible organs; and he thought that the testimony thus procured, not only in its influence on the institution, but as a satisfaction to the country, was certainly worth securing, if it could be accomplished at so trifling a cost as $1,500. He regretted the course the debate had taken. When the House was in Committee of the Whole on Friday last, and had this item under consideration, it was certainly a matter of small criticism, indeed, for them to be discussing, who did and who did not write Mr. HAMILTON said, that he rose, more for the reports; whether the gentleman from Ohio the purpose of expressing the reason why he (Mr. VANCE) wrote the report prefixed to his should vote for the smaller sum reported by name, was very unimportant, as he (Mr. H.) the committee, which he believed was $1,500, was certain of the fact, that this gentleman had in preference to the larger sum, which had discharged his duties in an honorable, faithful, been asked by the Department. He would and intelligent manner, of which he required take occasion to say, that he was altogether no other assurance, than what he knew of that opposed to the amendment immediately under gentleman as his colleague, on the committee consideration, which restricted the expenditure to which they both belonged. It was not neof the appropriation exclusively to the subsist- cessary that every member of this Board should ence of the Board of Visitors at West Point, possess high scientific acquirements; it was without making any allowance for their travel- sufficient that some of them should possess ling expenses. He fully concurred with his these qualifications, and that others, to sound honorable friend from Massachusetts, (Mr. Ev- practical sense, should add an acquaintance ERETT,) with whom he had the gratification of with military details and the business of life: serving on the Board of Visitors, three years and that all should furnish, in the integrity of ago, that those who attended at West Point, in their own characters, a guarantee for the fidelthis capacity, were fully entitled to their trav-ity of their report. The gentleman from elling expenses, and he believed that not one cent more was ever received. He admitted that $1,500 would not pay the travelling expenses and the subsistence, while at the Point, of so large a Board as had been usually convened. It would pay all the expenses of a Board, consisting of from six to nine persons, which he (Mr. H.) thought sufficiently large; indeed he had intended moving a resolution, for the Committee on Military Affairs to report a definite plan for the organization of this Board, with some specification of their duties, and an enumeration of such expenses as should be allowed for travelling and subsistence, as well as a proviso limiting their number. The Board itself, he considered of indispensable value; visitorial bodies, of an analogous character, were considered essentially necessary in all learned institutions, and he believed, in the very foundation of many on the other side of the water, provision was made for them, and that they practically existed in almost all the seminaries in our own country. There could not be conceived an institution, where an examination, at stated periods, of its actual condition, and its means of requiting the public bounty, by meeting the public expectations in its results, than that of West Point. The Superintendent and Faculty have not only the most critical duties, literary, scientific, and professional, to discharge, but they have confided to their care the moral culture and the formation of the character, of an interesting portion of the youth of our country. It is surely of vast importance, that the manner in which these offices are discharged to the country

Rhode Island (Mr. PEARCE) has made it a matter of grave criticism, whether he (Mr. H.) actually wrote a report, as President of the Board of Visitors, to which his (Mr. H.'s) name is appended; and all the credit of this document, if any belongs to it, he has imputed to the gentleman from Massachusetts, (Mr. EVERETT,) whose services on the Board were undoubtedly of the most interesting and valu. able character. This conjecture of the gentleman from Rhode Island he did not impute to a notion, that, he believed, nevertheless, was common in the part of the country from which he came, that nobody could write, out of New England; but, since it was made a matter of serious inquisition, he would tell, to the best of his knowledge and belief, the history of the progress and ultimate formation of this report. After the Board had completed its examination, it appointed sub-committees, for the purpose of reporting upon its specific heads; that his honorable friend from Massachusetts, (Mr. EVERETT,) and Mr. Bancroft, a gentleman scarcely less distinguished in the literature of his own State, were appointed to report on the course of instruction in the languages and mathematics, to which they both contributed an interesting memoir on the method of instruction. He believed, in the mathematical branch of their sub-report, they were assisted by a summary of the mathematical problems which had been solved by the cadets, from the memoranda of Professor Dewey, a distinguished mathematician, who resided in the district of the gentleman from Massachusetts on his left, (Mr. DWIGHT.) To Mr. Skinner, the

FEBRUARY, 1828.]

Military Appropriations-West Point and its Visitors.

[H. OF R.

by intelligent and respectable men, was an essential auxiliary to its future success and prosperity.

able editor of the American Farmer, and some other members of the Board, was confided the duty of reporting on what might be termed the civil economy and civil police of the institution. The question was put on the amendment of To Colonel Eustis, Colonel Walbach, and him- Mr. INGHAM, and negatived without a division. self, (Mr. H.,) was assigned the office of report- Mr. BASSETT then moved to strike out the ing upon the method of instruction in military whole item. He had no question as to the imtactics proper, with the duties of troops in portance and value of the Board of Visitors. camp and on marches, and on castrametation His objections to this appropriation arose from and strategy, and in reference to the military an entirely different principle. He had been discipline of the institution generally. With greatly surprised by the course of argument the able assistance of these two gentlemen, he when this subject was last up. It had been (Mr. H.) had prepared that part of the report but a few days since, the House almost unaniappertaining to these subjects. These separate mously passed a resolution declaring that it reports of the sub-committees, with scarcely was necessary to examine into the public any, even verbal alterations, were incorporated abuses. But, when he compared the argu* into the general report, by the gentleman from ments on that occasion, with those employed Massachusetts, (Mr. EVERETT.) Mr. H. said he on this appropriation, he felt greatly astonhad made this statement with the less reluc-ished, and could hardly believe that he was in tance, as it enabled him to rebut an insinuation, which was unkindly made the other day, that the Faculty at West Point prepared these reports for the Board of Visitors-a declaration altogether erroneous and unjust, as the report to which he referred was made without the slightest communication with the Superintendent or Professors. He would now say a single word, before he concluded, in reference to the compensation which the members of the Board received for their attendance at West Point, and he could not do this more effectually, than by stating what he had received himself, and the labors he underwent, he could not say performed. He received an invitation, whilst in Charleston, from the Secretary of War, to attend the examination on the 1st of June. For his passage from Charleston to New York, by water, and his expenses thence to West Point, he received thirty-five dollars, and the quartermaster paid him a similar sum for his expenses on his return home.

In pocketing this enormous amount, he confessed he had no very alarming twinges of conscience. The Board met at 5 o'clock, A. M., and sat until 8; they met again at 9, and sat until 2 P. M.-convened at 3 and adjourned at 7. After this laborious confinement, he confessed that the appetite with which he ate his meals, was not affected by the reflection that it was the public food-as he believed he had honestly earned it, as he did his present compensation. He could not say that he understood every thing that he saw and heard; for he did not profess to be a master of the complex and abstract relations of the higher mathematics, but he trusted that, within the scope of a very plain understanding, he had observed enough of the prosperity and admirable progress of this noble institution, to authorize his putting his hand to the report, which he had done. He never had been engaged in an avocation more laborious, or in a duty more satisfactory; and if he left the institution with any impression stronger than the absolute conviction of its inestimable usefulness to the country, it was this: that its annual examination,

the same region. Talk of abuses? and as soon as you are presented with a barefaced abuse, to turn round and justify it! Am I not justified, said Mr. B., in calling this an abuse? that the duties performed may be very valuable, I do not dispute; but will you sanction, in the Executive branch of this Government, the power to appoint persons-prescribe their duties, and pay for their performance, without the sanction of legislative enactment? Is not the constitution plainly against it, as well as all the arguments used by gentlemen on the other side? Here is an appointing power without limit, as to the extent of time or the number of persons, and the whole Treasury is thrown open for their payment. Gentlemen tell us, indeed, that the Executive discretion will limit all this. I ask, does the constitution admit it? or can language more plainly forbid it than does that instrument? The gentleman from Florida, indeed, read, with some exultation, what he considered as definitive authority on this subject; and what was his authority? The army regulations: and by whom were these enacted? By Congress? No: by the War Department. I admit the arrangement to be an excellent one; but, be it ever so good, it is one which devolves on us; the duty is ours; and it is our shame and reproach that we have not done it before. But let us now do our duty, though it be at a late hour. Let us not use the abuses of the past, as a mantle to cover abuses for the future. Let us have a Board of Visitors; but let that Board exist by law, and let the law fix and authorize their compensation. The danger of the principle on which the matter now stood, was plainly illustrated by the remarks of the gentleman from Vermont, (Mr. MALLARY,) who said that it was important that a knowledge of this institution, and of the progress and relative standing of the cadets, should be disseminated through the nation. On this principle, I suppose we shall hear that one member of the Visiting Board must be taken from every State in the Union; and as the Executive may go to the ultimate of its discretion, very possibly they may require

« PreviousContinue »