ATTEMPTED INQUIRY INTO THE MILITARY ACADEMY.
This institution, soon after its organization under the act of 1812,
began to attract public attention, as an establishment unfriendly
to the rights of the people, of questionable constitutionality, as
being for the benefit of the rich and influential; and as costing
an enormous sum for each officer obtained from it for actual
service. Movements against it were soon commenced in Congress,
and for some years perseveringly continued, principally under the
lead of Mr. Newton Cannon, and Mr. John Cooke, representatives
from the State of Tennessee. Their speeches and statements made
considerable impression upon the public mind, but very little upon
Congress, where no amelioration of any kind could be obtained,
either in the organization of the institution, or in the practical
administration which had grown up under it. In the session of
1834-'35 these efforts were renewed, chiefly induced by Mr. Albert
Gallatin Hawes, representative from Kentucky, who moved for, and
attained the appointment of a committee of twenty-four, one from
each State; which made a report, for which no consideration could
be procured--not even the printing of the report. Baffled in their
attempts to get at their object in the usual forms of legislation,
the members opposed to the institution resorted to the extraordinary
mode of attacking its existence in an appropriation bill: that is to
say, resisting appropriations for its support--a mode of proceeding
entirely hopeless of success, but justifiable, as they believed,
under the circumstances; and at all events as giving them an
opportunity to get their objections before the public.
It was at the session of 1835-'36, that this form of opposition took
its most determined course; and some brief notices of what was said
then may still be of service in awakening a spirit of inquiry in
the country, and promoting investigations which have so long been
requested and denied. But it was not until after another attempt had
failed to do any thing through a committee at this session also,
that the ultimate resource of an attack upon the appropriation for
the support of the institution was resorted to. Early in the session
Mr. Hawes offered this resolution: "That a select committee of nine
be appointed to inquire into what amendments, if any, are expedient
to be made to the laws relating to the military Academy at West
Point, in the State of New-York; and also into the expediency of
modifying the organization of said institution; and also whether it
would not comport with the public interest to abolish the same: with
power in the committee to report by bill or otherwise." Mr. Hawes,
in support of his motion reminded the House of the appointment of
the committee of the last session, of its report, and his inability
to obtain action upon it, or to procure an order for its printing.
The resolution which he now submitted varied but in one particular
from that which he had offered the year before, and that was in
the reduced number of the committee asked for. Twenty-four was a
larger number than could be induced to enter into any extended or
patient investigation; and he now proposed a committee of nine
only. His resolution was only one of inquiry, to obtain a report
for the information of the people, and the action of the House--a
species of resolution usually granted as a matter of course; and
he hoped there would be no objection to his motion. Mr. Wardwell,
of New-York, objected to the appointment of a select committee,
and thought the inquiry ought to go to the standing committee on
military affairs. Mr. F. O. J. Smith, of Maine, wished to hear some
reason assigned for this motion. It seemed to him that a special
committee ought to be raised; but if the friends of the institution
were fearful of a select committee, and would assign that fear as a
motive for preferring the standing committee, he would withdraw his
objection. Mr. Briggs, of Massachusetts, believed the subject was
already referred to the military committee in the general reference
to that committee of all that related in the President's message
to this Academy; and so believing, he made it a point of order for
the Speaker to decide, whether the motion of Mr. Hawes could be
entertained. The Speaker, Mr. Polk, said that the motion was one of
inquiry; and he considered the reference of the President's message
as not applying to the case. Mr. Briggs adhered to his belief that
the subject ought to go to a standing committee. The committee had
made an elaborate report at the last session, which was now on the
files of the House; and if gentlemen wished information from it,
they could order it to be printed. Mr. John Reynolds, of Illinois,
said it was astonishing that members of this House, friends of this
institution, were so strenuous in their opposition to investigation.
If it was an institution founded on a proper basis, and conducted
on proper and republican principles, they had nothing to fear from
investigation; if otherwise the people had; and the great dread
of investigation portended something wrong. His constituents were
dissatisfied with this Academy, and expected him to represent them
fairly in doing his part to reform, or to abolish it; and he should
not disappoint them. The member from Massachusetts, Mr. Briggs, he
said, had endeavored to stifle this inquiry, by making it a point
of order to be decided by the Speaker; which augured badly for the
integrity of the institution. Failing in that attempt to stifle
inquiry, he had joined the member from New-York, Mr. Wardwell, in
the attempt to send it to a committee where no inquiry would be
made, and in violation of parliamentary practice. He, Mr. Reynolds,
had great respect for the members of the military committee; but
some of them, and perhaps all, had expressed an opinion in favor
of the institution. Neither the chairman, nor any member of the
committee had asked for this inquiry; it was the law of parliament,
and also of reason and common sense, that all inquiries should go
to committees disposed to make them; and it was without precedent
or justification, and injurious to the fair conducting of business,
to take an inquiry out of the hands of a member that moves it,
and is responsible for its adequate prosecution, and refer it
to a committee that is against it, or indifferent to it. When a
member gets up, and moves an inquiry touching any branch of the
public service, or the official conduct of any officer, he incurs a
responsibility to the moral sense of the House and of the country.
He assumes that there is something wrong--that he can find it out
if he has a chance; and he is entitled to a chance, both for his
own sake and the country; and not only to have his committee,
but to be its chairman, and to have a majority of the members
favorable to its object. If it were otherwise members would have
but poor encouragement to move inquiries for the public service.
Cut off himself from the performance of his work, an indifferent
or prejudiced committee may neglect inquiry, or pervert it into
defence; and subject the mover to the imputation of preferring
false and frivolous motions; and so discredit him, while injuring
the public, and sheltering abuse. Under a just report he believed
the Academy would wither and die. Under its present organization
it is a monopoly for the gratuitous education of the sons and
connections of the rich and influential--to be afterwards preferred
for army appointments, or even for civil appointments; and to be
always provided for as the children of the government, getting not
only gratuitous education, but a preference in appointments. A
private soldier, though a young David, slaying Goliath, could get
no appointment in our army. He must stand back for a West-Pointer,
even the most inefficient, who through favor, or driving, had gone
through his course and got his diploma. Promotion was the stimulus
and the reward to merit. We, members of Congress, rise from the
ranks of the people when we come here, and have to depend upon
merit to get here. Why not let the same rule apply in the army, and
give a chance to merit there, instead of giving all the offices
to those who may have no turn for war, who only want support, and
get it by public patronage, and favor, because they have official
friends or parents? The report made at the last session looks
bad for the Academy. Let any one read it, and he will feel that
there is something wrong. If the friends of the institution would
suffer that report to be printed, and let it go to the people, it
would be a great satisfaction. Mr. Wardwell said the last Congress
had refused to print the report; and asked why it was that these
complaints against the Academy came from the West? Was it because
the Western engineers wanted the employment on the roads and bridges
in place of the regular officers. Mr. Hannegan, of Indiana, said he
was a member of the military committee which made the report at the
last session, and which Mr. Wardwell had reminded them the House
refused to order to be printed. And why that refusal? Because the
friends of the Academy took post behind the two-thirds rule; and
the order for printing could not be obtained because two-thirds of
the House could not be got to suspend the rule, even for one hour,
and that the morning hour. The friends of the Academy rallied,
he said, to prevent the suspension of the rule, and to prevent
publicity to the report. Mr. Hamer, of Ohio, said, why oppose this
inquiry? The people desire it. A large portion of them believed
the Academy to be an aristocratical institution, which ought to be
abolished; others believe it to be republican, and that it ought to
be cherished. Then why not inquire, and find out which is right,
and legislate accordingly? Mr. Abijah Mann, of New-York, said
there was a considerable interest in the States surrounding this
institution, and he had seen a strong disposition in the members
coming from those States to defend it against all charges. He was
a member of the committee of twenty-four at the last session, and
concurred partially in the report which was made, which was, to
say the least of it, an elaborate examination of the institution
from its foundation. He knew that in doing so he had incurred some
censure from a part of his own State; but he never had flinched,
and never would flinch, from the performance of any duty here
which he felt it incumbent upon him to discharge. He had found much
to censure, and believed if the friends of the institution would
take the trouble to investigate it as the committee of twenty-four
had done, they would find more to censure in the principle of the
establishment than they were aware of. There were abuses in this
institution, developed in that report, of a character that would not
find, he presumed, a single advocate upon that floor when they came
to be published. He believed the principle of the institution was
utterly inconsistent with the principle of all other institutions;
but he was not for exterminating it. Reformation was his object.
It was the only avenue by which the people of the country could
approach the offices of the army--the only gateway by which they
could be reached. The principle was wrong, and the practice bad. We
saw individuals continually pressing the government for admission
into this institution, to be educated professedly for the military
service, but very frequently, and too generally with the secret
design in their hearts to devote themselves to the civil pursuits
of society; and this was a fraud upon the government, and a poor
way for the future officer to begin his educational life. When
the report of the twenty-four came to be printed, as he hoped it
would, it would be seen that this institution cost the government
by far too much for the education of these young men. Whether it
sprung from abuse or not, such was the fact when they looked at
utility connected with the expenditure. If he recollected the report
aright it proved that not more than two out of five who entered
the institution remained there long enough to graduate; and not
two more out of five graduates who entered the army. If his memory
served him right the report would show that every graduate coming
from that institution in the last ten years, had cost the United
States more than five thousand dollars; and previously a much
larger sum; and he believed within one year the graduates had cost
upwards of thirty thousand dollars. If there be any truth in these
statements the institution must be mismanaged, or misconducted, and
ought to be thoroughly investigated and reformed. And he appealed
to the friends of the Academy to withdraw their opposition, and
suffer the report to be printed, and the select committee to be
raised; but he appealed in vain. The opposition was kept up, and
the two-thirds rule again resorted to, and effectually used to balk
the friends of inquiry. It was after this second failure to get at
the subject regularly through a committee, and a published report,
that the friends of inquiry resorted to the last alternative--that
of an attack upon the appropriation. The opportunity for this
was not presented until near the end of the session, when Mr.
Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, delivered a well-considered and
well-reasoned speech against the institution, bottomed on facts, and
sustained by conclusions, in the highest degree condemnatory of the
Academy; and which will be given in the next chapter.