These suggestions have not the merit of originality nor the objections of novelty. The principle recommended has stood the test of seventy years’ trial in France in naval and similar public schools, and is now in successful operation in England, as well as in most of the military schools of Europe. It has been again and again urged by thoughtful friends of this institution and of our other national school at West Point, as the most effectual remedy for the evils complained of. The Academic Board of this Academy, in answer to a request from a committee in 1858 for its opinion on this point, replied:—“The Academic Board has long been of the opinion that the present system of appointing midshipmen without care in their selection, was undermining the very existence of the institution. The records of the Academy show that scarcely more than one-fourth of those admitted graduate. The fault lies with the appointing power, which has not kept the institution supplied with the proper material, and the Board has been powerless in applying a remedy. It has done all in its power by recommending a higher standard of proficiency.” The Visitors for 1862, in the Report of their examinations, remark:—“After a careful examination of the subject, the Board has been forced to the conclusion that the selection of candidates has not been made with sufficient reference to the wants of the public service, but has been and continues to be regarded as a portion of the patronage of the members of Congress making the nominations. The evil does not stop here; for in many cases, after they have been appointed without regard to talents or fitness, and have obtained admission to the institution, and subsequently have been found incapable to pursue the studies of the class to which they belong, the influence of the same member of Congress originally nominating them is successfully used to continue them at the institution, in obtaining authority for them to recommence their studies by joining a lower class; thus retaining those wanting in talents and fitness, to the exclusion of others of suitable qualifications that might be presented. An institution like this, in which the students are educated and supported by the government, ought to have them selected from the highest and most promising youths of the country.”[27]
The same general principle, selection by merit, ascertained by the same general method, competitive examination, conducted on such conditions as Congress shall authorize or prescribe, has been recommended for appointments to the kindred national institution—the Military Academy at West Point—with the view of removing the same hindrances and remedying the same defects in the practical working of that school. That eminent military teacher and administrator, General Thayer, under whom the Academy, notwithstanding many hindrances and defects, attained its highest development, recommended the adoption of this principle at the outset of his administration, after having seen its successful operation in the military schools of France; and he has recently, after the lapse of nearly fifty years, all of them spent in actual experience or observation of the practical results of a different principle, renewed the recommendation in a communication to the Secretary of War. He has, within the present year, declared his belief that the adoption at the start, and the continuous recognition of this principle, the selection of candidates for admission on the ground of personal merit and aptitude for the special purposes of the institution, in appointments to the Military Academy, would have more than doubled its usefulness, would have avoided most of the difficulties of administration which it has encountered, would have prevented the popular prejudices which demagogues and disappointed parents and Congressmen have fostered, and would have gained for it a larger measure of the popular favor.
The Visitors of the Military Academy for 1863, in their Report to the Secretary of War, go into an extended discussion of the advantages and objections to this principle and mode of making appointments. To this document reference is made as embodying the convictions of this Board as to the probable working of the same principle in admissions to the Naval Academy.
III. In connection with a change in the mode of appointment, the Visitors would commend to the consideration of the Department a revision of the conditions as to the age, bodily vigor, and general knowledge of candidates. The old system of training naval officers, by placing boys at the early age of twelve or fourteen years on shipboard in the daily and constant practice of the routine of the ship, when accompanied with the parental oversight of the captain as to conduct, and with regular and progressive instruction in the science and art of his profession, on ship and shore, by the teacher of mathematics and navigation—has produced many capable commanders, out of the larger number who have been ruined for the want of proper supervision and instruction, or grown up into men of mere routine. Some of the brightest names in the records of our own and of the English naval service had no other education or training than this. But these are the exceptions, and their success was as much due to opportunity and original genius, as to their early and continuous ship experience. That system of training officers is, however, everywhere abandoned, and the present aim of every naval power in the world is to seek out young men having a fondness for sea-life, with a generous ambition for naval distinction, with an aptitude for the sciences which qualify and adorn the naval officer, with vigor of body to bear the inevitable exposures of the service, and with a large amount of general knowledge, and then subject them to a special course of professional study and practice in a naval school. For every stage of promotion, additional knowledge as well as professional experience, tested by successive rigid examinations, are required. The experience of this class of schools indicates that those original qualities and acquired qualifications deemed indispensable in candidates for the proper mastery of a thorough course of naval instruction, can not often be found in young men under eighteen years of age.
IV. With an advance in the average age, maturity of mind, and preparatory attainments of the cadets on admission, the Visitors believe a revision and readjustment of the subjects and course of instruction can be advantageously made, which in connection with the new schools of naval construction, and of marine engineering, would greatly extend the range, depth, and practical value of the education of the naval officer, without prolonging the time now devoted to its acquisition. If the Academy can be relieved of the large amount of merely elementary general education which every graduate of the common schools of the country ought to have received, and which in a few years every aspirant to the privileges of this school would contrive to get, if the law made its acquisition necessary as a preliminary to a competitive examination—then the whole general scientific course could be mastered in two years, with a large amount of military and naval tactics, as well as of practical seamanship in the two summer cruises. At this point the Visitors recommend to the consideration of the Department the establishment of the following departments, or schools, in each of which the course of instruction shall be far more comprehensive and thorough than is now practicable where the branches constitute parts of a single course:—
First.—Of Navigation and Seamanship.
Second.—Of Naval Ordnance and Practical Gunnery.
Third.—Of Hydrography, Marine Surveying, Astronomical Observations, Construction of Charts, &c.
Fourth.—Of Drawing, Naval Designs, Construction of Ships, Naval Machinery, Docks, &c.
Fifth.—Of Steam and Marine Engineering.