The above Regulations were issued by the War Department in 1862. Although it appears from this official document, that “applications for admission into the United States Military Academy at West Point, should be made by letter to the Secretary of War,” and that “the claims of all candidates on the register will be considered and acted upon,” it is also stated, that “the district appointments are made on the nomination of the member of Congress representing the district at the date of the appointment.” This delicate duty, and great privilege of selecting, out of all the young men between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one years, in a Congressional district of at least 70,000 inhabitants, who aspire to serve their country in a military capacity, the one best qualified, or even well qualified, is not imposed or conferred directly by law, but by the practice of the appointing power, on the member for that district.
Summary of Qualifications (in Circular of 1871).
A sound body and constitution, a fixed degree of preparation, good natural capacity, an aptitude for study, industrious habits, perseverance, an obedient and orderly disposition, and a correct moral deportment are such essential qualifications that candidates knowingly deficient in any of these respects should not, as many do, subject themselves and their friends to the chances of future mortification and disappointment, by accepting appointments to the Academy and entering upon a career which they can not successfully pursue.
Method of Testing the Qualifications of Candidates.
Candidates should be able to read with facility from any book, giving the proper intonation and pauses, and to write portions that are read aloud for that purpose, spelling the words and punctuating the sentences properly. Some historical work should preferably be chosen, and successive passages read till the reading exercises are ended. Then, from another part of the book, a suitable paragraph or paragraphs, of reasonable length, should be read aloud to the candidates, with proper intonations and pauses, as a guide to punctuation, and written down by them as read.
In Arithmetic they should be able to perform with facility examples under the four ground rules, and hence should be familiar with the tables of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and be able to perform examples in reduction and in vulgar and decimal fractions, such as:
Add ⅔ to ¾; subtract ⅖ from ⅚; multiply ¾ by ⅞; divide ⅖ by ⅜
Add together two hundred and thirty-four thousandths, (.234,) twenty-six thousandths, (.026,) and three thousandths, (.003.)