In view of these and other considerations the Board of Visitors unanimously recommend that the law and regulations relating to the military academy be so modified as to provide as follows:
I. The Cadet Corps of the army of the United States shall consist of four hundred members, to which each state and territory shall be entitled to a number equal to its representation in the Congress of the United States, and the remainder shall be designated by the President from the country at large, including the District of Columbia; and he shall also fill, in the same way, any vacancy which for any cause may remain unfilled, for three months after the annual examination in each year.
II. No person shall be appointed to the cadet corps until he has been found qualified in the particulars designated by law, after a public examination conducted in such places, at such times, and in such manner as Congress shall prescribe; from which examination no person resident of that portion of the country for which the same is held, shall be excluded, who shall present credentials from the teacher or teachers whom he had last attended, that he is over seventeen, and under twenty-one years of age, of unblemished moral character, and personal habits, of good physical strength and constitution, and has given evidence of aptitude and vigor of mind for the studies and duties of a military career. The examiners shall make return under oath to the Secretary of War, of the persons so presenting themselves, examined, and found qualified, arranged in the order of merit, specifying the residence and school or schools which they have attended in the two years previous, and the degree of merit exhibited in each subject of the examination. And all appointments to fill vacancies for any state or territory, or for the country at large, shall be made from these returns, and in the order of merit as assigned by the examiners, until the same shall be revised by new regulations of the Department.
III. No person shall be returned to the Secretary of War as a suitable candidate for admission to the Cadet Corps, unless he
1. Shall be over seventeen, and under twenty-one years of age.
2. Shall possess an unblemished moral character and correct personal habits.
3. Shall be in good health, and in no way incapacitated by want of vigor and elasticity of physical constitution for military service.
4. Shall possess vigor and aptitude of mind for the studies of the Military Academy, and shall give evidence, oral and written, of a good English education, which, in view of the wide spread facilities of instruction in public and private schools, might very properly embrace
(a.) The correct use of the English language, in speaking, reading, and writing the same.