Perhaps no one step taken at West Point, has contributed so much to intellectual culture as the Merit-Roll. The effect at the Military Academy is totally different from what it would be at any civil institution. For there it determines rank, which is the great object of military men. Forty young men may be commissioned on the same day to the same grade, but through all their after life, even when they return to civil life, the distinctions of the merit-roll will follow them, and be counted for or against them. In the very first day of their commissioned service, the distinction is a practical one, for there are great and practical advantages in certain arms of the service over others. Thus the engineer officer, without any actual care of men, or responsibility for any movements, and almost always stationed at comfortable posts, has great advantages over other arms. The Artillery has advantages over the Infantry. Thus the cadet, commissioned from West Point, has determined for himself, by his position on the merit-roll, not only his rank in the army, but almost his position in human life. The merit-roll, as it now exists, graduated in all departments, and summed up at the close of the course, was not adopted at once, but was the work of several years.
In February, 1818, the superintendent of the Academy was directed by the Secretary at War to publish in the Army Register the “names of cadets who are distinguished for attainments, and meritorious conduct, not exceeding five in each class, specifying the studies in which they may excel.”
We well recollect with what excitement and interest this communication was received by the cadets of that day, especially by those who thought themselves within the probabilities of that distinction. It unquestionably stimulated most of the young men to much greater exertions than they would otherwise have made. In a few months after, the merit-roll was fully established in the classes, and the rank of the graduating cadets determined by it.
There has been much discussion, and no small doubt, as to the real effects of emulation. There is undoubtedly a bad sense, and a bad effect attached to that term. But is that a necessary consequence of the merit-roll? Is not the merit-roll adopted, so far as it can be ascertained, in all departments of human life? Who would risk himself with an ignorant engineer, if he could get a skilled one? Who would employ a poor clerk if he could get a good one? The objection made to emulation is that it excites wrong motives. However this may be, and however casuists may regard it, it is quite certain that the merit-roll is the strongest stimulant to intellectual exertion which can be presented to young men. Nor can we perceive, after much observation on its effect, that it has impaired the purely moral motives of action, or excited evil passions, to be remembered in after life. At West Point all the moral actions which are visible and tangible are brought within the scale of the merit-roll, and often the fate of a young man is determined far more by his standing in conduct, than in studies.
[II. STUDY, DISCIPLINE, AND FRUITS.]
Having thus sketched the historical progress of the Academy in the path of scientific culture, it remains for us to state what it is; what it has done; and what men have conducted it.
Without entering into minute details, we shall very briefly state the present methods of study and discipline. The leading studies in their order are Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Mechanics, Astronomy, Engineering, Chemistry, French, Tactics, Artillery Practice, Mineralogy, Ethics, and History. This course is wholly scientific, the practical part being adapted strictly to military purposes. In the early period of the institution, some attempt was made to introduce the classics, but it was found impracticable, with the limited time allowed the cadets. Indeed, it may be doubted whether any institution can have more than one tone. All branches of human learning may be embraced in the proper schedule of university instruction; but has any university given equal attention to all branches of education? What are called colleges in our country, all aim at fitting young men for the civil professions—Law, Medicine, and Theology. They therefore make the classics the principal branch of study, and are right, since Law, Medicine, and Theology have their foundation deep laid in the classic ages. Literature also is a part of professional knowledge, necessary to adorn and illustrate the history and theory of professional science. Hence, in these lines of instruction specially have run the studies of the college, and from these is derived the tone of college education. The object of the Military Academy was totally different. It was not civil, but martial life, for which the young men were fitting. It was neither a metaphysical discussion, nor a hair-splitting argument on the law, in which they were expected to excel. They were to learn the sterner arguments of the battle-field; to arrange squadrons for the hardy fight; to acquire that profound knowledge of the science and materials of nature, which should fit them for the complicated art of war; to defend and attack cities; to bridge rivers; to make roads; to provide armaments; to arrange munitions; to understand the topography of countries; and to foresee and provide all the resources necessary to national defense. This was the object of the Military Academy, and to that one end it was adapted. The method of education may be happily stated under the heads of Studies, Physical and Moral Discipline, and of Military Exercises.
1. The subjects and method of study we have already mentioned; Mathematical, Philosophical, Mechanical, Chemical, Military, and French, the military language. These being the chief topics of study, the students and the time were suitably divided into classes and hours. There are four classes, occupying four years, as usual in colleges. There are ten months of study, the intermission being in the hot months of July and August, when only military studies and exercises are pursued. The studies of a day are necessarily modified, by the introduction of military exercises which consume much time. The regular study hours (which include also the recitations,) are from 8 A.M. to 1 P.M., and from 2 P.M. to 4 P.M., making seven hours of study and recitations. Generally four hours more are consumed in military exercise and discipline, being the hours before breakfast, and after 4 P.M. Thus eleven hours are generally occupied either in study or exercises. The evening also after dark, is devoted to study in so far that with occasional exceptions, the cadets are required to be in the rooms. In this division of time we find a continual alternation of study and exercise; leaving the least possible time for idleness, or mere amusement. Indeed, the problem of education is to find the maximum of development, with the minimum of idleness. To this should be added, that the development should be co-relatively, intellectual, physical, and moral.[8] It is not merely ignorance, but unequal development, which is the great misfortune of mankind. How many great and glorious intellects have been lost, because there were no counter-balances to the force which, inclined in only one direction, carried them off into a wilderness of fruitless objects!
In the course of studies pursued at West Point, the main feature is the method of study. We can give an idea of this in a few words. The very first thing done at West Point is to recognize the fact, that intellects are unequal; in other words, that of a given number of young men, commencing a severe and elaborate course of studies, there will be some who can not endure it, and can not get through; and others, who while they will come up to the requisites for graduation, can not equal a third class, who are capable and ambitious of receiving the highest style of education. This recognition is effected thus: a class enters the Academy, we will say eighty in number. This class enters on the 1st of September; and on the 1st of January there is a semi-annual examination. This four months of study by that class is regarded as a period of probation, which will furnish some test of the abilities of its several members. When the January examination is held, some are found deficient, and they are at once discarded. Then the remaining class are numbered, according to what is then their apparent merit, and they are divided into sections of from fifteen to twenty each; those highest on the roll being placed in the first section; those next in the second, &c. Usually there are four of these sections. The professor usually teaches the first section; his assistant the second, and so on. It is obviously a decided advantage to be in the first section, and there is usually a struggle to get there. But, a cadet may change his position in his class, at any time, by his own efforts. This he can only do, however, by more strenuous efforts. Then, if he be in the second section, he may at the end of the year be found to have a higher aggregate of good marks in study and conduct than some of those in the first section. In that case he will be transferred. Thus the ambition of the student has always placed before it the possibility of higher class rank, and if his talents and industry are capable of it, he will attain it.
The method of study at West Point, which in all institutions is the important point, is the rigidly demonstrative, in those studies which admit of it, and the positively practical in those which do not. The course of studies requires this, if the subjects of study are to be thoroughly understood. There is little of the purely metaphysical or transcendental known or pursued at West Point. No abstract speculations or merely theoretical inquiries occupy their minds. It is the actually knowing, and doing, in which they are engaged. As far as can be made practically useful, the oral method is pursued. In mathematical and mechanical, engineering and tactical studies, this is largely the case. The blackboard, we have said, was first introduced into this country by Professor Crozet, at West Point. How largely this is used in all institutions of education now, our readers well know. It has proved one of the most efficient means of instruction at West Point. The student of the mathematical section, for example, begins with a text-book on Algebra, in his hand; but, it is on the blackboard where the workings of his mind are chiefly exhibited. He learns what he can from the book, but, on the blackboard the professor makes him trace out what he has done, not merely by telling what he knows, but what he don’t know; detects his weak place, and forces his mind (so far as such force is possible,) to think, and think rightly on the subject before him. This thinking, we need not tell experienced teachers, is the great thing which education is to teach. If a student can not, or will not think studiously and industriously, he will not long remain at West Point. There is not, as in civil colleges, the great fallow field of poetry, history, and metaphysics, in which he may show his classical professor that he has acquired rich things, although ignorant of mathematics. It will not do to say that he has wandered with Greeks and Romans around the ruins of Troy, or by the waters of Babel. There is no such compensating principle in the system at West Point. The cadet must study what is set before him; must study it hard; must think upon it, and discipline his mind to systematic modes of thought.