COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION AT WEST POINT.

DEBATE IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE, MAY 18TH, 1864.

THE Bill making appropriation for the Military Academy being under consid eration, Senator Anthony, of R. Island, remarked on the following amendment: And be it further enacted, That hereafter, in all appointments of cadets to the Military Academy at West Point, the selections for such appointments in the several districts shall be made from the candidates according to their respective merits and qualifications, to be determined under such rules and regulations as the Secretary of War shall from time to time prescribe.

This, Mr. President, is substantially the proposition which I offered at the last session; and although I was not so fortunate as to obtain for it the assent of the Senate, mainly from an apprehension of practical difficulties in carrying out what is admitted to be a desirable reform if it could be effected, yet the general expression of Senators was so much in favor of the principle, and I have been so much strengthened in my views on the subject by subsequent reflection and ex. amination, that I am emboldened to renew it.

I differ entirely from those who are fond of disparaging the Military Academy. It has been of incalculable service to the country; it is the origin and the constant supply of that military science without which mere courage would be constantly foiled, and battles would be but Indian fights on a large scale. Not to speak of the Mexican war, throughout the whole of which West Point shone with conspicuous luster, it is safe to leave the vindication of the Academy to the gallant and able men who have illustrated the annals of the war that is now raging. Nor have its indirect advantages been less marked than its direct. It has kept alive a military spirit, and kept up a good standard of military instruction in the volunteer militia. It furnished, from its graduates who have retired from the Army, scores of men who rushed to the head of our new levies, who organized and instructed them, inspired them with confidence, and led them over many a bloody field to many a glorious victory. Large numbers of our best volunteer officers owe their instruction indirectly to West Point.

To say that no course of military instruction can make a pupil a military genius, can create in him that rare quality that takes in at a glance, almost by intuition, the relative strength of great masses opposed to each other, and that power of combination which can bring an inferior force always in greater num ber upon the severed portions of a superior force, is very true. To discard military education on that account would be like shutting up the schools and colleges because they can not turn out Miltons and Burkes and Websters. Edu-. cation does not create, it develops and enlarges and inspires and elevates. It will make the perfect flower, the majestic tree, from the little seed; but it must have the seed. And what I desire is that the Academy at West Point should have the best seed; that its great resources, its careful culture, its scientific appliances, should not be wasted on second-rate material. The Academy has never had a fair chance: the country bas not had a fair chance; the boys have

the country. I desire that the Ac demy shall begin, as it goes on, upon the not had a fair chance. This is what I want them all to have, and especially competitive principle. As all its standing, all its honors, are won by competition, so should the original right to compete for them be won. I would give all the youth of the country a fair chance; and, more desirable than that, I would give the country a fair chance for all its youth. I would have the Academy filled up by those young men who, upon examination by competent judges, should be found most likely to render the best service to the country; to make the best officers; whose qualifications, physical, intellectual, and moral, whose tastes and habits, should seem to best fit them for military life.

But, it is objected, no such examination would be infallible. Of course it would not be. No human judgment is infallible. Our deliberations are not infallible; but therefore shall we not deliberate? The decisions of the Supreme Court are not infallible; therefore shall we abolish the court?

A SENATOR. The Senator from New Hampshire would say yes. MR. ANTHONY. I know the Senator from New Hampshire [Mr. HALE] would say "Yes." He would abolish both the Academy and the Court, and I can well suppose that the policy which would abolish the one might abolish the other. But although such an examination would not be infallible, it would, if properly organized and properly conducted, accomplish much toward the reform which all admit to be desirable, if it be practicable. It can not be doubted that the young men who would come out best from such a trial would, as a body, be superior to those who are selected upon mere personal preferences, and these preferences generally not for themselves, but for their parents; not for their own qualifications, but as a recognition of the political services of their fathers.

But, again, it was objected when I made this proposition a year ago that it was not equal; because, in giving to any given place of examination, some young men would have further to travel than others! If this objection had not been gravely made by men for whom I have the highest respect I should be tempted to call it puerile. A boy asks the privilege of going a hundred miles to the place of examination, and is told that he can not have it be cause another boy will have to go two hundred miles, and another but fifty, and it is not equal! The fact that either of them would go five hundred miles on foot for the opportunity of competition is not taken into the account. On the same principle our elections are not equal, for one man must travel further than another to reach the polls. For a boy who can not obtain the means to travel from his home to the place of examination-and there will be very few such of those who would be likely to pass high in the examination-the plan proposed would be no worse, certainly, than the present system; for those who have the means the difference in travel is too small an item to enter into the account.

No plan can be made perfectly equal. Shall we therefore refuse to make a large advance toward equality? Certainly the system which invites a competi tion from all who are in a condition to avail themselves of it is more equal tnan that which excludes all competition. But although equality in the advantages of the Academy is very desirable, and although the amendment proposed would be a long step in that direction, it is not for that reason that I urge it. It is not to give all the young men an equal chance for the Academy, it is to give the Academy a chance for the best young men; and although even under this system the best young men will often fail of success, it can not be doubted that many more of them will enter the service than under the present system.

Nor will the advantages of this competition be confined to those who reach the prize for which so many will struggle. An incalculable although an incidental benefit will accrue to the thousands whose youthful hearts will be stirred oy an honorable ambition, and who will cultivate their minds by liberal studies and develop their physical power by manly exercises in the struggle upon which the humblest may enter, and in which the proudest can obtain only what he fairly earns. Under the present system the Academy wastes full half its strength upon boys who never ought to be admitted, and whose natural incapacity derives but little benefit from the partial training that they receive there. Under the system proposed, the Academy would exert its influence upon thousands of the brightest and most aspiring boys all over the country, stimulating them to the pursuit of such studies and to the formation of such habits as, if they fail to carry them to West Point, will help to conduct them to usefulness and honor in whatever path of life they may choose.

But, again, we are met with the objection that this proposition is impractica ble, that it looks very well on paper, but that it can not be carried into effect. Let us see. It is quite safe to conclude that what has been done can be done, and that what wise and judicious people do, and persist in doing after experi ment, is proper to be done. What is the most warlike nation of Europe? What nation of Europe has carried military science to the highest degree? What nation of Europe has the greatest genius for organization? You will say the French. Let us see what is their sytem. I read from the report of the Comnussion appointed by Congress in 1860 to visit the Military Academy at West Foint, and report upon the system of instruction; a commission of which you, Mr. President, [Mr. Foor,] were a member:

Among the European systems of military education that of France is preëmi nent. The stimulating principle of competition extends throughout the whole system; it exists in the appointment of the student, in his progress through the preliminary schools, in his transfer to the higher schools, in his promotion to the Army, and in his advancement in his subsequent career. The distinguishing features of the French system are thus described by the British commissioners. "1. The proportion, founded apparently upon principle, which officers educated in military schools are made to bear to those promoted for service from the rinks. 2. The mature age at which military education begins. 3. The system

of thorough competition on which it is founded. 4. The extensive State assistce afforded to successful candidates for entrance into military schools when. "er their circumstances require it. * * ** * *

Admission to the military schools of France can only be gained through a public competitive examination by those who have received the degree of bachelor of science from the lycées or public schools, and from the orphan school of La Flèche.

A powerful influence has thus been exercised upon the character of education in France. The importance of certain studies has been gradually reduced, while those of a scientific character, entering more directly into the pursuits of life, have been constantly elevated.

The two great elementary military schools are the School of St. Cyr and the Polytechnic School. These, as well as the other military schools, are under the charge of the Minister of War, with whom the authorities of the schools are in direct communication. Commissions in the infantry, cavalry, and marines can only be obtained by service in the ranks of the army, or by passing successfully through the School of St. Cyr, admission to which is gained by the competitive examination already referred to."

Again, the Commission say, speaking of the School of St. Cyr:

The admission is by competitive examination, open to all youths, French by birth or by naturalization, who, on the 1st of January preceding their candidature

were not less than sixteen and not more than twenty years old. To this exar ination are also admitted soldiers in the ranks between twenty and twenty-five years, who, at the date of its commencement, have been actually in service in their regiments for two years.

A board of examiners passes through France once every year, and examines all who present themselves having the prescribed qualifications.

A list of such candidates as are found eligible for admission to St. Cyr is submitted to the Minister of War. The number of vacancies has already been determined, and the candidates admitted are taken in the order of merit.

Twenty-seven, or sometimes a greater number, are annually, at the close of their second year of study, placed in competition with twenty-five candidates from the second lieutenants belonging to the army, if so many are forthcoming, for admission to the Staff-School at Paris. This advantage is one object which serves as a stimulus to exertion, the permission being given according to rank in the classification by order of merit.

In regard to the Polytechnic School, the Commission say:

Admission to the School is, and has been since its first commencement 1794, obtained by competition in a general examination, held yearly, and op to all. Every French youth between the ages of sixteen and twenty (or if 4 the army up to the age of twenty-five) may offer himself as a candidate.

This is the system which was organized by Carnot and adopted and extend.d by Napoleon. Under this system the French army has attained its perfectio of organization, its high discipline, its science, its dash, and its efficiency.

But not the French alone have adopted the competitive system. In Englat 1 all whose traditions are aristocratical, where promotion in the army has so lo been made by patronage and by purchase, the sturdy common sense of the n tion has pushed away the obstructions that have blocked up the avenues to tle army, and have opened them to merit, come from what quarter it may. In te commencement of the Crimean war, the English people were shocked at tie evident inferiority of their army to the French. Their officers did not know how to take care of their men, or how to fight them. And although in the e d British pluck and British persistence vindicated themselves, as they always have and always will, it was not till thousands of lives had been sacrificed that might have been saved under a better system. No French officer would have permitted that memorable charge at Balaklava, which was as remarkable for the stupidity that ordered it as for the valor that executed it, and which has been sung in verses nearly as bad as the generalship which they celebrate. After the war, the English Government, with the practical good sense which usually distinguishes it, came, without difficulty, to the conclusion that merit was better than family in officering the army, and that it was more desirable to put its epaulets upon the shoulder of those who could take care of the men and lead them properly than upon those who could trace their descent to the Conqueror, or whose uncles could return members of Parliament. Accordingly, the Royal Military Academy, which had been filled, as ours is, by patronage, was thrown open to public competition. On this subject I quote from the very interesting and valuable report of the Visitors of the Military Academy in 1863:

The same principle was applied to appointments and promotion in the new regiments called for by the exigencies of the great war in which England found herself engaged.

Subjects, time, and place of examination were officially made known throughout the kingdom, and commissions to conduct the examinations were appointed, composed of men of good common sense, military officers, and eminent practical teachers and educators. The results. as stated in a debate in Parliament five years later, on extending this principle to all public schools, and all appoint

ments and promotions in every department of the public service, were as fol lows: in the competitive examinations for admission to the Royal Military Academy candidates from all classes of society appeared-sons of merchants, attorneys, clergyinen, nechanics, and noblemen, and among the successful co petitors every class was represented. Among the number was the son of a mechanic in the arsenal at Woolwich, and the son of an earl who was at that time a cabinet minister-the graduates of national schools, and the students of Eton, and other great public schools.

On this point Mr. Edward Chadwick, in a report before the National Social Science Association, at Cambridge in 1862, says:

"Out of an average three hundred patronage-appointed cadets at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, for officers of engineers and the artillery, during the five years preceding the adoption of the principle of open competition for admission to the Academy, there were fifty who were, after long and indul gent trial and with a due regard to influential parents and patrons, dismissed for hopeless incapacity for the service of those scientific corps. During the five subsequent years, which have been years of the open-competition principle, there has not been one dismissed for incapacity. Moreover, the general standard of capacity has been advanced. An eminent professor of this university, who has taught as well under the patronage as under the competitive system at that Academy, declares that the quality of mind of the average of the cadets has been improved by the competition, so much so that he considers that the present average quality of the mind of cadets there, though the sorts of attainment are different, has been brought up to the average of the first-class men of this (Cambridge) university, which of itself is a great gain. Another result, the opposite to that which was confidently predicted by the opponents to the principle, has been that the average physical power or bodily strength, instead of being diminished, is advanced beyond the average of their predecessors."

I read this also from the same report:

Another result of immense importance to the educational interests of Great ritain has followed the introduction of these open competitive examinations for appointments to the military and naval schools, to the East India service, as well as to fill vacancies in the principal clerkships in the war, admiralty, ordnance, and home departments of the Government. A stimulus of the most healthy and powerful kind, worth more than millions of pecuniary endowment, has been given to all the great schools of the country, including the universities of England, Scotland, and Ireland. As soon as it was known that candidates, graduates of Trinity College, Dublin, had succeeded over competitors from Oxford and Elinburg in obtaining valuable appointments in the East India service, the professors in the latter universities began to look to their laurels. As soon as it was known to the master of any important school that some of his leading pupils might compete in these examinations, and that his own reputation as a acher depended in a measure on the success or failure of these pupils, he had new motive to impart the most vigorous and thorough training.

Such has been the result in France and in England. We are not without examples at home. The competitive system has been tried in repeated instances here in the appointments both to the Military and the Naval Academy. Several Representatives in Congress, with a conscientious sense of the responsi bility resting upon them, have given their patronage to the result of general competition, among them the gentleman who so ably represented, in the last Congress, the district in which I live. The results have been most satisfactory. Here, again, I will quote from the report of the Board of Visitors for 1863:

The principle itself, of selection by merit, either in the mode of public examination or of careful and searching inquiry by competent and impartial educators designated for this purpose by the parties to whom custom, and not law, had assigned the grave responsibility of nominating candidates, has been voluntarily applied in several Congressional districts. Not a cadet known to have been thus selected and appointed has ever broken down from want of vigor of body or mind, or failed to reach and maintain an honorable position on the merit-roll