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.