Introduction

Introduction

In the Act of Congress (July, 1862) making grants of public lands to the several States for the endowment of State Schools of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, it is provided that military tactics shall be included in their schemes of instruction; and by an Act of March, 1869, the President is authorized to detail an army officer to each institution, to instruct in such tactics. On these two provisions, with further cooperative legislation, State and National, a system of military instruction can be gradually developed, which, for economy, efficiency, and uniformity, will meet all the conditions of a national armament, and compare favorably, as against foreign invasion or domestic insurrection, with that of Switzerland or Prussia. Thus far the subject has received only slight attention, and the connection of these departments with the State militia, or volunteer companies, or the appointment of cadets to our national military schools or to vacancies in the army, has not been discussed. We state briefly what is attempted in a few of these schools:

CORNELL UNIVERSITY AT ITHACA, N.Y.

In Cornell University (to which the United States Land Grant of 989,000 acres of land was assigned by the Legislature of New York, and which Mr. Ezra Cornell has endowed with the sum of $525,000, securely invested and drawing interest at seven per cent.), the military tactics is incorporated into the general organization of the students, and made the basis of the College of Military Science. (1.) Attendance on military exercises is made obligatory on every able-bodied student; and for this purpose the whole number is organized into a military corps--arms and equipments being furnished by the State--under the Military Professor, who has the title of Commandant, and is aided in his duties by a staff, selected in view of military aptitude, general deportment, and proficiency in studies. (2.) All students are required to observe and conform to such regulations as may, from time to time, be promulgated by the Commandant; provide themselves with the university cap for ordinary wear, and with the blouse or fatigue cap for parade; and are held to strict accountability for the proper use of the arms and other property issued to them. (3.) The practical instruction for all students embraces infantry and artillery tactics, and special exercises with the sabre, sword, and bayonet; and (4.) for those who elect, a military course consisting of (a.) Military Engineering, (b.) the Art of War, and (c.) Military Law. At the close of each year, after the graduating exercises, the Faculty will recommend to the Governor of the State a list (not exceeding one in every ten of such graduates), distinguished for general proficiency in any one of the complete University courses, special attainments in military science, expertness in military exercises, and of good moral character and of sound health, with a request to transmit the same to the President of the United States for his consideration in making appointments for positions in which such qualifications are demanded.

STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE AT AMHERST, MASS.

The Military features of the Course of Study were originally administered by Capt. Henry E. Alvord, of the United States Army, who had been specially charged with this instruction in the Military Institute and University at Norwich, Vt. The specifications are:

FRESHMAN YEAR.--First Term--Military Drill; Infantry Tactics; School of the Soldier; Second Term--Do.; and School of the Company and Manual of Arms. Third Term--Do.; and School of the Company and Battalion.

SOPHOMORE YEAR.--First Term--Military Drill; Infantry Tactics; Manual of the Bayonet and Instruction in duty as Skirmishers. Second Term--Do.; and Bayonet Exercise. Third Term--Do.; and Skirmish and Battalion Drill; Guard Duty; and Forms of Parade and Review.

JUNIOR YEAR.--Third Term--Military Drill; Artillery Tactics; School of the Piece. Second Term--Do.; and Artillery and Cavalry Tactics; Manual of the Sabre; School of the Trooper dismounted; Instruction in Heavy Artillery Tactics and Gunnery. Third Term--Do.; School of the Section; Infantry Tactics; Battalion Drill.

SENIOR YEAR.--First Term--Military Drill and Cavalry, Artillery and Infantry Tactics; Duty as Drill Masters and Officers in Infantry and Artillery Drill; Theoretical Instruction in Cavalry Tactics, and the organization and uses of Cavalry. Second Term--Military Drill and Cavalry Tactics; Sabre Exercise. Third Term--Military Drill; Target Practice; Sword Play: and General Drill.

The Committee of Examination for 1870 report as follows:

Your Committee can not refrain from alluding to the interest which all the young men take in the drills, the evident beneficial effect upon their bearing and health, and the value of the accomplished soldiers and officers thus, made for the future service of the Commonwealth, in the event of another call to send forth her sons for herself or the nation. Were no other result accomplished by this institution, the money of the Commonwealth could be no more judiciously expended, and yet this is but an incident to the regular course.

The Principal, Col. Clark, writes: “We have a fine hall for in-door exercise, and are furnished by the State with cannon, breech-loading rifles, sabres, &c., and consider our course a decided success. Our graduates are able to act as officers in infantry and artillery regiments, and I believe our system, as we are organized and taught by a West Point graduate, a most excellent and economical substitute for the ordinary militia system.”

LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY.

The Louisiana State University was founded as “a State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy” by the Legislature in 1855, near Alexandria, in the Parish of Rapides, on endowments of land made by the General Government at different times, from 1806 to 1827, for establishing “a Seminary of Learning.” It was opened for the reception of students, January 2, 1860, and organized on a military basis, under the superintendence of Col. W. T. Sherman (now General-in-Chief, United States Army), who resigned his position, February 2, 1861, on the hostile demonstration of the State of Louisiana against the authority of the United States. The instruction of the institution continued under Col. W. E. M. Linfield, till April 22, 1863, when its operations were closed by the disasters of the War, to be reopened on the first of October, 1865, only to be closed again by the utter destruction of its extensive buildings by fire on the 15th of October, 1869. On the 1st of November following, its exercises were resumed at Baton Rouge, in the extensive building of the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, which was placed temporarily for the occupancy of the classes, and a portion of the students. The session of 1871, under the superintendence of Col. D. F. Boyd, closed with 217 matriculated Cadets, of whom 128 were admitted on the State Cadet warrants.

The Law of March 16, 1870, relative to the appointment of Beneficiary Cadets, provides that each parish shall delegate two, and the city of New Orleans, by its Board of School Directors, twenty cadets, to be selected from the members of the highest class in the public school of such parishes and city, distinguished for their scholarship and good conduct, and whose parents may not be able to provide for their necessary expenses for tuition and maintenance at the State Seminary; and at the expiration of their residence at the University which can not exceed four years, these Beneficiary Cadets are required to teach school within the State for two years, on penalty of default to the amount of the sum paid by the State.

WABASH COLLEGE, CRAWFORDSVILLE, INDIANA.

By arrangement with the Trustees of Wabash College, the Legislature of Indiana has authorized the County Commissioners of each county to appoint one person to receive the advantages of the institution for five years, free of tuition, in consideration of a portion of the State’s quota of the United States Land Grant, for agricultural and mechanical Arts Colleges; and to meet the requirements of the law of Congress, the college has established a Scientific Course, and under the superintendence of a Professor of Military Science, daily instruction in Tactics and Gymnastics is given to the students by divisions with a weekly drill of all, as a battalion. The College Courant thus notices the new hall for Gymnastics and Tactics:

The physical culture of this institution is under the charge of the Chair of Military Science, and for the purpose of this culture a building has been erected which is more comprehensive than usual in gymnasiums, and is quite unique in some particulars. Work was commenced last August, and in fifty days the roof was receiving the slate. The building presents the form of a cross, of equal members, and the ground service of seven thousand five hundred feet, is thus divided: A marching and running course, of three hundred feet, twelve feet wide, and seventeen feet high; a gymnasium sixty feet by twenty-six, and twenty-four feet high, ventilated and lighted by a central tower fifty feet in height; an armory and gun-room, for care of small arms and artillery; and a room for fencing, boxing, quoits and other manly exercises. In the four transepts above, are topographical room, model room; reading room, for maps, charts, etc., and bath rooms. All these, through interior glass fronts, furnish a full view of the Exercise Hall, within and below. The small-arms used are the “light, cadet, breech-loading rifle,” similar to those last issued to the Military Academy at West Point, and were manufactured by the United States at the Springfield Arsenal for the use of students receiving their instruction.

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY.

The University of the State of California has a Military Department to meet the requirements of the Act of Congress, under the directions (1871) of Professor (General) Welcker and Assistant Professor F. Soulé, graduates of the West Point Academy. The Adjutant General (Thos. N. Cazneau) of the State in his Report to the Governor, dated September 1, 1870, remarks:

The gratifying success with which the military department of the State University has been conducted is worthy of special notice, and I am happy to announce that perfect discipline and a high state of proficiency pervade the department of military study at that institution. The cadets were incorporated with the National Guard of the State by Act of the last legislature, and have been formed into four companies of infantry, and instructed most fully and perfectly in that branch of military service. A personal inspection of the battalion enables me to speak of its condition with confidence. I find both officers and cadets thoroughly up to the requirements of the infantry soldier, perfect in carriage, most proficient in the use of arms, steady in marching and all company formations, and, in the manœuvres of the battalion, challenging an admiration worthy to be elicited by a veteran soldiery. Their ensemble is striking, and the effect of a thorough military training upon the young gentlemen of the University is largely manifested in their erect and graceful personal appearance and movements, apparent not only when upon duty but in their ordinary walks of every-day occupation; while the gentlemanly and high-toned courtesy that pervades the whole body may not unjustly be attributed, in a large degree, to their military studies and military habits. The young officers evince excellent characteristics of command, great dignity of deportment and admirable ability in imparting instruction. I can not too highly commend to your attention the whole military condition of the cadets of the State University, and to ask for them your fostering care and encouragement, and that of the Legislature.

There are several colleges in California in which military instruction is introduced; prominent among them is St. Augustine College at Benicia, and McClure’s Academy at Oakland. At each there are about 100 boys, fully equipped and drilled as infantry soldiers.

INDIVIDUAL AND CORPORATE INSTITUTIONS FOR MILITARY INSTRUCTION.

ALDEN PARTRIDGE.

Alden Partridge, Captain in the United States Corps of Engineers, Professor and Superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point, and the Founder of a class of institutions in which the military element is recognized and provided for as an essential part of the training of the American citizen, was born at Norwich in Vermont, on the 12th of January, 1785. His father was a farmer, in independent circumstances, served in the war of the Revolution, and took part in the capture of Burgoyne and his army at Saratoga. He brought up his son in the New England fashion, at such district school as the times and the country afforded in the winter, and at all sorts of work about the house and on the farm at other seasons, until he was sixteen years of age, when, being of studious turn, and fond of reading, he was allowed to fit for college, and entered Dartmouth in August, 1802. We have no knowledge of his studies in college, but it is presumed that his predilections were for the mathematics, and from the lateness with which he commenced his Latin and his subsequent declarations, his aversion was for the languages. Before completing his collegiate course he received the appointment of cadet[20] in the regiment of artillerists in the United States service, with orders to repair to West Point, and report himself to the commanding officer of the Military Academy at that place.

[Footnote 20: A Cadet in the military organization of the Army denoted a junior officer between the grade of lieutenant and sergeant, and was introduced from the French service. An Act of Congress, passed May 7th, 1794, provided for a Corps of Artillerists and Engineers, to consist of four battalions, to each of which eight cadets were to be attached, and authorized the Secretary of War to procure at the public expense the necessary books, instruments and apparatus for the use and benefit of said corps. In 1798, an additional regiment of Artillerists and Engineers was raised, increasing the number of Cadets to fifty-six. In 1798, the President was authorized to appoint four teachers of the Arts and Sciences necessary to Artillerists and Engineers. No appointment was made till 1801, and in 1802, the Military Academy was established at West Point, where the corps of Engineers was directed to repair with fifty Cadets, and the Senior Officer of the Corps was constituted Superintendent. Col. Williams was then Senior Officer of Engineers, and became, ex-officio, Superintendent, and continued such until 1812.]

The Military Academy at the time Cadet Partridge arrived at West Point was very inadequately equipped with the men and material aids of instruction, although the two teachers appointed were abundantly capable in their respective departments. Jared Mansfield, especially, the teacher of natural philosophy, had won such reputation in mathematical studies that he received his commission as a captain of engineers from Mr. Jefferson for the very purpose of becoming a teacher at West Point, which he did by appointment in 1802, although in reality he did not perform his duties regularly, and then only for one year, having been, in 1808, appointed by President Jefferson to the responsible post of Surveyor-General of the North-western territory. Such instruction as was given was received by Cadet Partridge in 1806, and in July of that year, he was transferred to the Corps of Engineers, and in October, commissioned as first lieutenant. In November, 1806, he was appointed assistant professor of mathematics, Fedinand K. Hassler, a little later, having been made Professor in place of Capt. Barron, retired. From Prof. Hassler, he received great help in his mathematical studies, as he afterwards repeatedly acknowledged. In 1808, Prof. Partridge was called to act in place of the Superintendent in the absence of Col. Williams, and continued to do so, with brief intervals, until January, 1815, when he was appointed to the office which he filled till March, 1816. In 1809, Mr. Hassler resigned the professorship of mathematics, and the instruction before given by him devolved on his assistant, Mr. Partridge. In 1810, he succeeded, after repeated applications to the Secretary of War, in obtaining two field pieces, for practical instruction of the Cadets as Artillerists.

In 1812, the Academy was re-organized, and was made to consist of the Corps of Engineers and the following Professors, in addition to the teachers of the French language and drawing, viz.: “one professor of natural and experimental philosophy; one professor of mathematics; and one professor of the art of engineering; each professor to have an assistant taken from the most prominent of the Officers or Cadets.” The number of Cadets was increased to two hundred and fifty, and were directed to be arranged into companies of non-commissioned officers and privates, according to the directions of the commandant of Engineers, and be officered from that corps, “for the purposes of military instruction, in all the duties of a private, non-commissioned officer, and officer, and to be encamped at least three months of each year, and taught all the duties incident to a regular camp.” The age of admission was fixed, the minimum at fourteen, and maximum at twenty-one, and preliminary knowledge to be well versed in reading, writing, and arithmetic. It was further provided that any Cadet who shall receive a regular degree from the Academical Staff, after going through all the classes, shall be considered among the candidates for a commission in any corps, according to the duties he may be judged competent to perform. The sum of $25,000 was appropriated towards the buildings, library, implements, &c. On this broad basis the Academy was progressively enlarged to its present capabilities of usefulness.

Under the new arrangement of 1812, Mr. Partridge was appointed professor of mathematics, with the pay and emoluments of a major, which appointment was soon after, at the request of the Secretary of War, exchanged for that of professor of engineering, it being found more difficult to fill the latter post than the former. The duties of this professorship he continued to discharge from September 1, 1813, till December 31, 1816.

In 1808, Capt. Partridge was ordered by Col. Williams to take charge of the internal direction and control of the Military Academy as Superintendent, which duties he discharged until January 3, 1815, when, by regulations of that date, he was made the permanent Superintendent, which post he held-till November 25th, 1816, and was finally relieved on the 13th of January, 1817.

By the regulation of January 3, 1815, the commandant of the Corps of Engineers was constituted Inspector of the Academy, and made responsible for instruction, and to report to the Department of War. Out of this appointment, and the instructions relating thereto, grew a difference of opinion, which resulted in the final withdrawal of Capt. Partridge from the institution, the resignation of his commission in the military service of the United States, and his subsequent devotion to the dissemination by lectures and personal efforts of the views which he had formed of the education required by the American citizen, and the establishment of institutions in which these views could be carried out.

After resigning his commission in the military service of the United States, Capt. Partridge was engaged, in the summer of 1818, as military instructor to a volunteer corps, and in giving a course of lectures on fortifications and other branches of military science to a class of officers and citizens in the city of New York. The views which he then presented on the best means of national defense were in advance of the “piping times of peace” in 1818, but have been since demanded to be eminently sound and practical by the terrible experience of 1861-1862.

His chief reliance for national defense was in the military habits of the great body of the American people--organized into suitable militia departments corresponding in the main to the limits of the several states, officered by men of the right capacity, scientific education, and military training. The officers were required to assemble annually at stated periods, either in camps or rendezvous, at some central point in the department, to receive instruction from a few competent teachers of the military art. We give the plan in his own language as published at the time.

I. Let the United States be divided into military departments, say thirty in number; each of those departments to be wholly comprised within the same state, whenever this can be done.

II. To each of those departments let there be attached a military instructor, (under the authority of the United States,) who should receive the pay and emoluments of a colonel of infantry, and have the brevet-rank of a brigadier-general. These instructors to be gentlemen of established character and reputation, and who have received a regular scientific military education.

III. Let the officers of each brigade of militia in the United States be required to assemble annually at stated periods, either in camp or rendezvous at some central point in the brigade, there to remain six days, for the purpose of military instruction. Let each instructor attend in succession at the several camps or places of rendezvous in his department, and devote himself assiduously to the instruction of the officers there assembled. One portion of the day might be devoted to practical drills, and field evolutions--also to the turning off, mounting, and relieving guards and sentinels, while the remainder could be most usefully employed in explaining and illustrating the principles of tactics generally, of artillery, of permanent and field fortification, the duties of troops in camp and in garrison, and such other branches as time and circumstances might permit, by means of familiar explanatory lectures.

IV. Let each officer receive from the government a reasonable allowance for his expenses while attending the instruction, and also while going to, and returning from, the camp or rendezvous.

Some of the principal advantages that would result from the adoption of the foregoing plan, I conceive would be as follows; viz.:--

1. The same system of tactics and discipline would pervade the whole mass of the militia--the instructors being imperatively required to adhere to one system. This would be a very important advantage.

2. By this means the country, in the course of a few years, would be furnished with a well organized military force, of at least one million of men, composed of the best materials in the world for soldiers; the whole of which, the officers having been regularly and correctly instructed, might be rendered, in the course of a few weeks, after being called into service, perfectly competent to the efficient discharge of all the duties of the field. This assertion is not founded upon conjecture. An experience of nearly fifteen years in military instruction, has convinced me, that any of our regiments of militia, in their present state of discipline, if brought into the field and placed under competent officers, could, by three weeks instruction, be prepared for discharging all the duties of regular troops. The instruction, then, in time of peace, of the officers, becomes an object of great importance;--that of the privates is of secondary consideration. There is no difficulty in making soldiers, when officers understand their duty, and are disposed to perform it.

It may perhaps be objected to the foregoing plan, that the time proposed for the officers to remain in camp or rendezvous is too limited to admit of their deriving much advantage therefrom. In answer to this I will observe, that a due share of experience in this species of instruction, has fully convinced me, that they would acquire more correct military information in six days, under a competent and systematic instructor, than they usually acquire under the present system, during the whole period from eighteen to forty-five years of age; and that, after attending two or three similar courses, the great body of them would be perfectly competent to the correct, efficient, and useful discharge of all the duties of the field. From the best calculation I have been able to make, I feel confident, that the whole necessary expense of carrying this plan into full and effective operation, would not exceed six hundred thousand dollars--it would probably fall short of that sum. Whether the expense, then, is to be considered as disproportionate to the object in view, and therefore to constitute a barrier to its accomplishment, must be decided by the sound discretion of the representatives of the people. It appears to me, however, to bear no greater ratio to it, than does a grain of sand to the globe we inhabit. The cultivation of military science must also be viewed as of the first importance in a system of military defense for our country. The plan already detailed, is calculated for the general dissemination of practical military information throughout the community, but is not adapted to the investigation of principles. This can only be done at seminaries, where it constitutes a branch of regular attention and study; and where theory and practice can, in due proportion, be combined. At those seminaries would be formed our military instructors, our engineers, and our generals; and from those, as from so many foci, would all the improvements in the military art be diffused throughout the country.

In the lectures delivered in 1818, Capt, Partridge, in view of the Inevitable disintegration by frost and moisture, and the improvements in the science of attack, anticipated the insufficiency of permanent fortifications--of works of masonry, no matter how expensively or strongly constructed--to the defense of our principal harbors against the attacks of a foreign foe; his reliance was on the general diffusion of military science and training amongst the militia, on an efficient navy, and the following plan of marine defense.

I. At the most important and exposed points on our seaboard, let one or two principal works of the most permanent kind be erected: these works to be kept in perfect repair, to be plentifully supplied with all the munitions of war, and the gun’s and carriages well secured from the weather by means of pent houses.

II. In the vicinity of all the most exposed and vulnerable points on the seaboard, let spacious and permanent arsenals be constructed, in which, let there be deposited ample supplies of cannon, mortars, gun carriages, materials for platforms, and other munitions of war, where they would remain perfectly safe from the weather.

III. In case of war or threatened invasion, let temporary works, either of earth, or of wood, be constructed at all the most vulnerable points, which could be readily furnished with cannon, gun carriages, platforms, and all the necessary implements and munitions from the arsenals in their vicinity.

IV. As soon as peace is restored, these works should be dismantled, and all their apparatus returned to the arsenals from whence it was taken. In case of future emergencies, they could be restored, or others of the same descriptions, constructed in their places, which could be supplied from the arsenals in the manner above stated. The efficacy in marine defense, of works of the above description, I presume will not be doubted by any scientific military man. Should any one, however, be disposed to doubt it, I would beg leave to refer him to the defense of Fort Moultrie, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, when attacked by the British shipping, during the Revolutionary war, and also to the defense made by the small fort at Stonington, Connecticut, when attacked in a similar manner during the last war.

By adopting this system, I think the following advantages would result:--

1. A more secure defense would be obtained. By knowing the description of force we had to encounter, we should be enabled to construct our temporary works in a manner the best calculated to repel it; and as the gun carriages, platforms, and implements, when taken from the arsenals, would be sound and in perfect order, we might reasonably calculate these works would make a more vigorous resistance than permanent ones, which, with their apparatus, are in a state of partial dilapidation and decay.

2. The system would be much less expensive than the one by permanent fortification. Those temporary works could ordinarily be constructed by the troops with very little, if any, additional expense; but in case of pressing emergency, the zeal and patriotism of the people might be relied upon with safety, to supply any amount of labor that might be necessary, as was the case at New York in 1814. As it is not proposed they should be retained as military stations in time of peace, the expense of keeping them in repair would be nothing.

In the early part of 1819, Capt. Partridge was engaged in the exploring survey of the North Eastern boundary, under the fifth article of the treaty of Ghent. While on this survey he determined from barometrical and thermometrical observations of the altitudes of the Highlands dividing the rivers which flow northerly into the St. Lawrence, from those which flow southerly into the Atlantic ocean; he also made a profile of the country between several points on the St. Lawrence, and corresponding position in the state of Maine.

In 1820, Capt. Partridge resigned his position in this survey, for the purpose of carrying into practical effect a plan of education, which had occupied much of his attention since 1810, and which in its main features was, doubtless, suggested by his experience at Hanover, and West Point, and was calculated to supply certain deficiencies which he and others had already noticed in our American colleges and higher seminaries of learning. His views both of the deficiencies and their remedies were set forth in a lecture delivered at this time, which was subsequently printed. After defining “education in its most perfect state to be the preparing a youth in the best possible manner for the correct discharge of the duties of any station in which he may be placed,” in this lecture he proceeds to characterize the existing plan of instruction.

1. It is not sufficiently practical, nor properly adapted to the various duties an American citizen may be called upon to discharge. Those of our youth who are destined for a liberal education, as it is called, are usually put, at an early age, to the study of the Latin and Greek languages, combining therewith a very slight attention to their own language, the elements of arithmetic, &c.; and after having devoted several years in this way, they are prepared to become members of a college or university.

Here they spend four years for the purpose of acquiring a knowledge of the higher branches of learning; after which, they receive their diplomat, and are supposed to be prepared to enter on the duties of active life. But, I would ask, is this actually the case? Are they prepared in the best possible manner to discharge correctly the duties of any station in which fortune or inclination may place them? Have they been instructed in the science of government generally, and more especially in the principles of our excellent Constitution, and thereby prepared to sit in the legislative councils of the nation? Has their attention been sufficiently directed to those great and important branches of national industry and sources of national wealth-- agriculture, commerce, and manufactures? Have they been taught to examine the policy of other nations, and the effect of that policy on the prosperity of their own country? Are they prepared to discharge the duties of civil or military engineers, or to endure fatigue, or to become the defenders of their country’s rights, and the avengers of her wrongs, either in the ranks or at the head of her armies? It appears to me not; and if not, then, agreeably to the standard established, their education is so far defective.

2. Another defect in the present system, is, the entire neglect, in all our principal seminaries, of physical education, or the due cultivation and improvement of the physical powers of the students.

The great importance and even absolute necessity of a regular and systematic course of exercise for the preservation of health, and confirming and rendering vigorous the constitution, I presume, must be evident to the most superficial observer. It is for want of this, that so many of our most promising youths lose their health by the time they are prepared to enter on the grand theatre of active and useful life, and either prematurely die, or linger out a comparatively useless and miserable existence. That the health of the closest applicant may be preserved, when he is subjected to a regular and systematic course of exercises, I know, from practical experience; and I have no hesitation in asserting, that in nine cases out of ten, it is just as easy for a youth, however hard he may study, to attain the age of manhood, with a firm and vigorous constitution, capable of enduring exposure, hunger and fatigue, as it is to grow up puny and debilitated, incapable of either bodily or mental exertion.

3. A third defect in our system is, the amount of idle time allowed the students; that portion of the day during which they are actually engaged in study and recitations, under the eye of their instructors, comprises but a small portion of the whole; during the remainder, those that are disposed to study, will improve at their rooms, while those who are not so disposed, will not only not improve, but will be very likely to engage in practices injurious to their constitutions and destructive to their morals. If this vacant time could be employed in duties and exercises, which, while they amuse and improve the mind, would at the same time invigorate the body and confirm the constitution, it would certainly be a great point gained. That this may be done, I shall attempt in the course of these observations, to show.

4. A fourth defect is, the allowing to students, especially to those of the wealthier class, too much money, thereby inducing habits of dissipation and extravagance, highly injurious to themselves, and also to the seminaries of which they are members. I have no hesitation in asserting, that far the greater portion of the irregularities and disorderly proceedings amongst the students of our seminaries, may be traced to this fatal cause. Collect together at any seminary, a large number of youths, of the ages they generally are at our institutions, furnish them with money, and allow them a portion of idle time, and it may be viewed as a miracle, if a large portion of them do not become corrupt in morals, and instead of going forth into the world to become ornaments in society, they rather are prepared to become nuisances to the same. There is in this respect, an immense responsibility resting on parents and guardians, as well as on all others having the care and instruction of youth, of which it appears to me they are not sufficiently aware.

When youths are sent to a seminary, it is presumed they are sent for the purpose of learning something that is useful, and not to acquire bad habits, or to spend money; they should consequently be furnished with every thing necessary for their comfort, convenience and improvement, but money should in no instance be put into their hands. So certainly as they have it, just so certainly will they spend it, and this will, in nine cases out of ten, be done in a manner seriously to injure them, without any corresponding advantage. It frequently draws them into vicious and dissolute company, and induces habits of immorality and vice, which ultimately prove their ruin. The over-weening indulgence of parents, has been the cause of the destruction of the morals and future usefulness of many a promising youth. They may eventually discover their error, but alas, it is often too late to correct it. Much better does that person discharge the duties of a real friend to the thoughtless, unwary youth, who withholds from him the means of indulging in dissipated and vicious courses.

5. A fifth defect is the requiring all the students to pursue the same course of studies.

All youth have not the same inclinations, nor the same capacities; one may possess a particular inclination and capacity for the study of the classics, but not for the mathematics and other branches of science; with another it may be the reverse. Now it will be in vain to attempt making a mathematician of the former, or a linguist of the latter. Consequently, all the time that is devoted in this manner, will be lost, or something worse than lost. Every youth, who has any capacity or inclination for the acquirement of knowledge, will have some favorite studies, in which he will be likely to excel. It is certainly then much better that he should be permitted to pursue those, than, that by being forced to attend to others for which he has an aversion, and in which he will never excel, or ever make common proficiency, he should finally acquire a dislike to all study. The celebrated Pascal, is a striking instance of the absurdity and folly of attempting to force a youth to attend to branches of study, for which he has an utter aversion, to the exclusion of those for which he may possess a particular attachment. Had the father of this eminent man persisted in his absurd and foolish course, France would never have seen him, what he subsequently became, one of her brightest ornaments.

6. A sixth defect is the prescribing the length of time for completing, as it is termed, a course of education. By these means, the good scholar is placed nearly on a level with the sluggard, for whatever may be his exertions, he can gain nothing in respect to time, and the latter has, in consequence of this, less stimulus for exertion. If any thing will induce the indolent student to exert himself, it is the desire to prevent others getting ahead of him. It would be much better to allow each one to progress as rapidly as possible, with a thorough understanding of the subject.

Having stated what appeared to him the most prominent defects in the academies and colleges as organized and conducted, he next proceeds to point out the remedies.

1. The organization and discipline should be strictly military.

Under a military system, subordination and discipline are much more easily preserved than under any other. Whenever a youth can be impressed with the true principles and feelings of a soldier, he becomes, as a matter of course, subordinate, honorable, and manly. He disdains subterfuge and prevarication, and all that low cunning, which is but too prevalent. He acts not the part of the assassin, but if he have an enemy, he meets him openly and fairly. Others may boast that they have broken the laws and regulations of the institution of which they are, or have been members, and have escaped detection and punishment, by mean prevarication and falsehood. Not so the real soldier. If he have broken orders and regulations, he will openly acknowledge his error, and reform; but will not boast of having been insubordinate. Those principles, if imbibed and fixed in early youth, will continue to influence his conduct and actions during life; he will be equally observant of the laws of his country, as of the academic regulations under which he has lived; and will become the more estimable citizen in consequence thereof. I shall not pretend, however, that all who wear a military garb, or live, for a time, even under a correct system of military discipline, will be influenced in their conduct by the principles above stated; but if they are not, it only proves that they have previously imbibed erroneous principles, which have become too firmly fixed to be eradicated; or that nature has not formed them with minds capable of soaring above what is low and groveling.

2. Military science and instruction should constitute a part of the course of education.

The constitution of the United States has invested the military defense of the country in the great body of the people. By the wise provisions of this instrument, and of the laws made in pursuance thereof, every American citizen, from eighteen to forty-five years of age, unless specially exempted by law, is liable to be called upon for the discharge of military duty--he is emphatically a citizen soldier, and it appears to me perfectly proper that he should be equally prepared by education to discharge, correctly, his duties in either capacity. If we intend to avoid a standing army, (that bane of a republic, and engine of oppression in the hands of despots,) our militia must be patronized and improved, and military information must be disseminated amongst the great mass of the people; when deposited with them, it is in safe hands, and will never be exhibited in practice, except in opposition to the enemies of the country. I am well aware there are amongst us many worthy individuals, who deem the cultivation of military science a sort of heresy, flattering themselves, and endeavoring to induce others to believe, that the time has now arrived, or is very near, when wars are to cease, and universal harmony prevail amongst mankind. But, my fellow-citizens, be not deceived by the syren song of peace, peace, when, in reality, there is no peace, except in a due and constant preparation for war. If we turn our attention to Europe, what do we behold? A league of crowned despots, impiously called holy, wielding a tremendous military force of two millions of mercenaries! Ill-fated Naples, and more ill-fated Spain, have both felt the effects of their peaceable dispositions, and were it not for the wide-spreading Atlantic, which the God of nature in his infinite goodness has interposed between us, we also, ere this, should have had a like experience. The principles of liberty are equally obnoxious to them, whether found in Europe, Asia, Africa, or America. If rendering mankind ignorant of the art of war, (as a science,) would prevent wars, then would I unite most cordially with those, usually termed peace-men, for the purpose of destroying every vestige of it. But such, I am confident, would not be the result. Wars amongst nations do not arise because they understand how to conduct them skillfully and on scientific principles; but are induced by the evil propensities and dispositions of mankind. To prevent the effect, the cause must be removed. We may render nations ignorant of the use of the musket and bayonet; we may carry them back, as respects the art of war, to a state of barbarism, or even of savageism, and still wars will exist. So long as mankind possess the dispositions which they now possess, and which they ever have possessed, so long they will fight. To prevent wars, then, the disposition must be changed; no remedy short of this, will be effectual. In proportion as nations are rude and unskilled in the art of war, will their military code be barbarous and unrelenting, their battles sanguinary, and their whole system of warfare, destructive. War, therefore, in such a case, becomes a far greater evil, than it does under an improved and refined system, where battles are won more by skill than by hard fighting, and the laws of war are proportionally ameliorated. What rational man, what friend of mankind, would be willing to exchange the present humane and refined system of warfare, for that practiced by an Attila, a Jenghis Khan, a Tamerlane, or a Mahomet, when hundreds of thousands fell in a single engagement, and when conquest and extermination were synonymous terms. On the principles of humanity, then, it appears to me that, so long as wars do exist, the military art should be improved and refined as much as possible; for, in proportion as this is done, battles will be less sanguinary and destructive, the whole system more humane, and war itself a far less evil. But independent of any connection with the profession of arms, or of any of the foregoing considerations, I consider a scientific knowledge of the military art, as constituting a very important part of the education of every individual engaged in the pursuit of useful knowledge, and this for many reasons; viz.:--

First. It is of great use in the reading of history, both ancient and modern.

A large portion of history is made up of accounts of military operations, descriptions of battles, sieges, &c. How, I would ask, is the reader to understand this part, if he be ignorant of the organization of armies, of the various systems of military tactics, of the science of fortification, and of the attack and defense of fortified places, both in ancient and modern times? Without such knowledge it is evident he derives, comparatively but little information from a large portion of what he reads.

Second. It is of great importance in the writing of history. I presume it will not be denied, that in order to write well on any subject, it must be understood. How, then, can the historian give a correct and intelligible account of a campaign, battle, or siege, who is not only unacquainted with the principles on which military operations are conducted, but is also ignorant of the technical language necessary for communicating his ideas intelligibly on the subject? This is the principal reason why, as it appears to me, the ancient historians were so much superior to the modern. Many of their best historical writers were military men. Some of them accomplished commanders. The account of military operations by such writers as Xenophon, Thucydides, Polybius and Cæsar, are perfectly clear and intelligible, whereas when attempted by the great body of modern historians, the most we can learn is, that a fortress was besieged and taken, or that a battle was fought and a victory won, but are left in entire ignorance of the principles on which the operations were conducted, or of the reasons why the results were as they were.

Third. It is essentially necessary for the legislator.

The military defense of our country is doubtless one of the most important trusts which is vested by the constitution in the general government, and it is a well known fact, that more money is drawn from the people and disbursed in the military, than in any other department of the government. Now as all must be done under the sanction of the law, I would beg leave to inquire, whether it be not of the greatest importance, that those who are to make such laws should be in every respect well prepared to legislate understandingly on the subject? That there has been, and still is, a want of information on this subject amongst the great body of the members of Congress, I think will be perfectly evident to any one who is competent, and will take the trouble to examine our military legislation since the conclusion of the Revolutionary war. I feel little hesitation in asserting, that from want of this information, more than from any other cause, as much money has been uselessly expended in our military department alone, as would cancel a large portion of the national debt.

Fourth. It is of great use to the traveler.

Suppose a young man, with the best education he can obtain at any of our colleges or universities, were to visit Europe, where the military constitutes the first class of the community, and where the fortifications constitute the most important appendages to nearly all the principal cities, how much does he observe, which he does not understand? If he attempt a description of the cities, he finds himself embarrassed for want of a knowledge of fortification. If he attempt an investigation of the principles and organization of their institutions, or of their governments, he finds the military so interwoven with them all, that they can not be thoroughly understood without it. In fine, he will return with far less information, than with the aid of a military education he might have derived. As it respects the military exercises, I would observe, that were they of no other use than in preserving the health of students, and confirming in them a good figure and manliness of deportment, I should consider these were ample reasons for introducing them into our seminaries generally; they are better calculated than any others for counteracting the natural habits of students, and can always be attended to, at such times as would otherwise be spent in idleness or useless amusements. Having expressed my views thus fully on this subject, I will next proceed to state more specifically the other branches which I would propose to introduce into a complete course of education: and--

1. The course of classical and scientific instruction should be as extensive and perfect as at our most approved institutions. The students should be earnestly enjoined and required to derive as much of useful information from the most approved authors, as their time and circumstances would permit.

2. A due portion of time should be devoted to practical geometrical and other scientific operations in the field. The pupils should frequently be taken on pedestrian excursions into the country; be habituated to endure fatigue, to climb mountains, and to determine their altitudes by means of the barometer as well as by trigonometry. Those excursions, while they would learn them to walk, (which I estimate an important part of education,) and render them vigorous and healthy, would also prepare them for becoming men of practical science generally, and would further confer on them a correct coup d’œil so essentially necessary for military and civil engineers, for surveyors, for travelers, &c., and which can never be acquired otherwise than by practice.

3. Another portion of their time should be devoted to practical agricultural pursuits, gardening, &c.

In a country like ours, which is emphatically agricultural, I presume it will not be doubted, that a practical scientific knowledge of agriculture would constitute an important appendage to the education of every American citizen. Indeed the most certain mode of improving the agriculture of the country will be to make it a branch of elementary education. By these means, it will not only be improved, but also a knowledge of their improvements generally disseminated amongst the great mass of the people.

4. A further portion of time should be devoted to attending familiar explanatory lectures on the various branches of military science, on the principles and practice of agriculture, commerce and manufactures, on political economy, on the constitution of the United States, and those of the individual states, in which should be pointed out particularly the powers and duties of the general government, and the existing relations between that and the state governments, on the science of government generally. In fine, on all those branches of knowledge which are necessary to enable them to discharge, in the best possible manner, the duties they owe to themselves, to their fellow men, and to their country.

5. To the institution should be attached a range of mechanics’ shops, where those who possess an aptitude and inclination might occasionally employ a leisure hour in learning the use of tools and acquiring a knowledge of some useful mechanic art.

The division of time, each day, I would make as follows, viz.:--

Eight hours to be devoted to study and recitation; eight hours allowed for sleep. Three hours for the regular meals, and such other necessary personal duties as the student may require. Two hours for the military and other exercises, fencing, &c. The remaining three hours to be devoted, in due proportion, to practical agricultural and scientific pursuits and duties, and in attending lectures on the various subjects before mentioned.

Some of the most prominent advantages of the foregoing plan would, in my opinion, be the following; viz.:--

1. The student would, in the time usually devoted to the acquirement of elementary education, (say six years) acquire, at least, as much, and I think I may venture to say more, of book knowledge, than he would under the present system.

2. In addition to this, he would go into the world an accomplished soldier, a scientific and practical agriculturist, an expert mechanician, an intelligent merchant, a political economist, legislator and statesman. In fine, he could hardly be placed in any situation, the duties of which he would not be prepared to discharge with honor to himself and advantage to his fellow-citizens and his country.

3. In addition to the foregoing, he would grow up with habits of industry, economy and morality, and, what is of little less importance, a firm and vigorous constitution; with a head to conceive and an arm to execute--he would emphatically possess a sound mind in a sound body.

After much correspondence Capt. Partridge decided to carry out his principles of education in an institution organized on his own plan and conducted by himself, with such assistance as he could command, in his native village of Norwich, Vermont. Here he opened, on the 4th of September, 1820, the American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy, on which the pupils or their parents had their choice of studies, out of a course as extensive as that of any academy and college in New England combined--in which military training formed a prominent feature, and the mathematics, especially as applied to surveying and engineering, received special attention. During the four years and half of its continuance in Norwich the Academy was attended by 480 pupils, representing twenty-one out of the twenty-four states, and of these, and especially of such as continued on an average two years at the institution, a large proportion became distinguished in military, public, and business life--as large it is believed as the records of any other institution for the same period of time can show. Its success demonstrated beyond cavil, that military exercises and duties are not inconsistent with ardent devotion, and the highest attainments in literary and scientific studies.

In 1824, the citizens of Middletown, Connecticut, made a liberal subscription to secure the location there, of a college about to be established in that State, under Episcopal auspices. Failing in that object, by the location of the institution at Hartford, where it now exists under the name of Trinity College, they invited Capt. Partridge to remove his Academy to their city, and offered to erect and place at his disposal suitable buildings for his accommodation. This invitation and offer were accepted, and on the 1st of April, 1825, he closed his institution at Norwich, and on the 1st of September following, opened his new course of instruction at Middletown, with an attendance of two hundred and ninety-seven pupils in the first year. During the three years--up to September 1828, the American Literary, Scientific, and Military Academy at Middletown remained under his superintendence, there were nearly twelve hundred pupils representing every State and Territory of the United States, the British Provinces, Mexico, several of the South American States, and the West Indies. This attendance shows conclusively, that the military and scientific element, together with an optional course of study, and a term of residence limited by the ability of the pupil to complete the course, met a want not provided for in existing colleges. Of those who completed the full course of study begun at Norwich, as large a proportion, as the corresponding graduates of any American college, attained a high degree of usefulness and eminence in widely diversified fields of labor. Among its graduates are to be found the founders or professors of several State Military Institutes, many officers of the highest rank in the military service of the United States, several eminent civil engineers, superintendents, of railroads, members of Congress, lawyers, and men of practical efficiency and success in every line of business.

One of the characteristic features of Captain Partridge’s system of instruction and discipline at Middletown, was the military marches and pedestrian excursions for scientific and recreating purposes conducted under his personal command, or in his company. Several of these excursions occupied three or four weeks, extending in one instance to Washington. The military marches amounted in the aggregate to over two thousand miles, and these and the various pedestrian excursions, included visits to nearly all points of military and historical interest in New England and New York. The immediate and controlling reasons which induced Capt. Partridge to leave Middletown, are not known to the writer of this memoir. He has however, understood it was owing partly to a desire for temporary relief from the cares and confinement of immediate superintendence, that he might start a similar institution in the neighborhood of New York, and partly from disgust at the refusal of the Legislature of Connecticut in 1828, to grant to the institution at Middletown, the usual privileges and powers of a college.

In 1833,1834, 1837, and 1839, Capt. Partridge was elected representative from the town of Norwich, to the Legislature of Vermont, and in that capacity labored to give efficiency to the military system of the State. In 1834, he secured for certain petitioners a charter for the Norwich University, in which the Trustees are required “to provide for a constant course of instruction in military science and civil engineering,” and are “prohibited from establishing any regulations of a sectarian character, either in religion or politics.” Of this corporation, consisting of twenty-five trustees, Capt. Partridge was a member, and in organizing the institution in 1825, he was elected president of the Faculty. He continued to instruct in his own department of military science and engineering, and administered the affairs of the university till 1844, when owing to some difficulties arising out of the use of the building, arms, and accourtrements, which were his private property, he resigned.

In 1838, he was influential in calling together a convention of military officers and persons interested in giving greater efficiency to the organization of the militia of the several states, to meet for consultation. This convention met at Norwich on the 4th of July; and continued to meet annually for many years, to discuss plans for the organization and discipline of the militia, for the dissemination of a knowledge of military science, for the defense of the coast, &c. Many reports of this body were drawn up by him, and the proceedings were forwarded to, and printed by order of the Congress of the United States.

In 1839, on the request of many influential citizens, he visited Portsmouth, Virginia, to establish a Military School, which he did, and which was soon after recognized by the Legislature of the State as the Virginia Literary, Scientific, and Military Institute, and aided by an appropriation out of the Literary Fund. This Institute, with an Institute of a similar character at Lexington, in the western part of the State, has been greatly instrumental in diffusing widely in Virginia a knowledge and taste for military affairs. The success of this institution, and the personal influence of many of his own scholars at Norwich and Middletown, led to the establishment of similar schools in other southern states.

In May, 1842, Capt. Partridge accepted the position of Camp Instructor for a large body of officers and men of the Pennsylvania volunteer militia in encampment at Reading, Berks County. Each evening he delivered a lecture to officers assembled in the General’s marquee, and during the day exercised the troops in the manual of arms, and in company, regimental, and brigade movements in the field. On this, and many similar occasions, he demonstrated the correctness and practicability of his theory of national defense, so far as testing the qualifications of officers for command, and giving accuracy, rapidity, and steadiness of exercise and movements to troops, by assembling officers and men of the State Militia, once or twice in the year, in convenient numbers and places, under instructors properly qualified for the work. A few instructors, themselves trained in the best military institutions, and familiar with every improvement in military organization, equipment, and movement, and especially when clothed with the reputation of success in actual service, would soon bring the entire militia of the states into a uniform system, and give respectability and efficiency to this department of the public service. This result would be more speedily realized if a number of educational institutions similar to those which he had organized under many disadvantages and against many prejudices, could call out and cultivate military taste and accomplishments among a portion of the young men of each state.

In 1853, he opened at Brandywine Springs, near Wilmington, in the State of Delaware, another institution in which he fondly hoped his ideal of a National school of education would be realized--an institution in which physical training in connection with military exercises and movements, should accompany the acquisition of practical knowledge of the great principles of science that underlie all the arts of peace and war, and resorted to by students from every state of the American Union. His plan as developed in conversation with those directly interested, embraced his old ideas of scientific, and literary studies with systematic pedestrian excursions,[21] and marches in vacations to the great objects of natural, economical, and historical interest in different parts of the country. In this latter particular, he unconsciously applied the suggestion of Milton in his letter to Samuel Hartlib, that “the students of his Academy should go out in companies with prudent and staid guides to all quarters of the land, learning and observing all places of strength, and all commodities (facilities) of building and of soil, for towns and tillage, harbors and ports of trade,--even sometimes taking sea as far as to our navy to learn there also, what they can in the practical knowledge of sailing and sea-fight.” Arrangements were made for a class of ten or twelve of the most advanced and matured cadets to accompany him to Europe to study the strategy of the great battles of the world, and the armies, armories, and resources of the great nations of Europe--thus again realizing Milton’s plan of gratifying “the desire of the more hopeful youth” “to see other countries at three or four and twenty years of age, not to learn principles, but to enlarge experience and make wise observation.” But these hopes were darkened for a time by a great disaster, and soon extinguished in the sudden death of the great projector. In the autumn of 1853, the buildings at Brandywine Springs, were consumed by fire, and although arrangements were at once made to secure suitable accommodations at Bristol, Pennsylvania, and upwards of one hundred pupils enrolled their names to attend for a year at that place, still the great motive power of the enterprise was stricken down.

[Footnote 21: Captain Partridge attached much importance to pedestrian excursions in reference both to hygenic, and educational considerations. To these excursions he attributed his own robust health, and his familiar knowledge of all the details of American battles. In one year, (1830,) he made four excursions from Norwich, each occupying from four to six days--and from one hundred and fifty to four hundred miles--the last day’s walk generally averaging over sixty miles. He had ascended and measured the altitude of all the highest mountain elevations in the Northern States.]

At the close of the year, 1853, Capt. Partridge returned to Norwich, where his family still resided, in apparently good health and the best spirits. A few days after he reached home, he was attacked by sharp and excruciating pains in his back, which were soon subdued by anodynes, but from the prostration and the cause, which proved on a post-mortem examination to be an aneurism near the base of the spine, and which had been exhausting his vitality for years--he never rallied, and on the 17th of January, 1854, he breathed his last--widely and deeply mourned by troops of friends, who loved and admired him as their teacher, or looked up to him as the best expounder of principles of military science and education, and of national defense.

Although living most of his life in the discharge of educational and public duties, under circumstances inconsistent with “a local habitation,” he had strong domestic tastes and attachments, and was a genial companion in his own room and home. In 1837, he married Miss Swazey, the daughter of a merchant in Claremont, New Hampshire, and to this happy union were born two children. The oldest boy, George, was educated by the father on his own system, and had displayed vigorous health, and strong partialities and attainments in mathematical studies and their applications; but he survived his father only a few months--“long desolate months they were to the widow and children ”--and the tenement of that bright intellect was laid by the side of that of his hardy and indefatigable father in the little village burying-ground. The other son Henry, as he grew up, showed a partiality for the profession of law, and was pursuing his studies in Warren, Penn., when the call of the President of the United States for volunteers, summoned him to the defense of the flag of the country. He enlisted for the war, and was promoted to a captaincy in a Pennsylvania regiment, which was attached to the army of the Potomac, whose varying fortunes he shared till, greatly weakened by exposure and disease, he was honorably discharged from the service. His superior officer in writing to his mother, says: “He is in every respect a model officer. How could he be otherwise? He has it all by right of inheritance, and I fully appreciate that you have made a very great contribution to the government and the country in sending him forth to fight the battles which have been forced upon us.”

POPULAR OBJECTIONS TO A NATIONAL MILITARY SCHOOL.

NOTE.

As an Appendix to our Memoir of Capt. Alden Partridge, we republish the following Memorial by him to the Congress of the United States, not because we approve the objects or the arguments of either document, but as part of the educational history of the country.

MEMORIAL OF ALDEN PARTRIDGE,

Relating to the Military Academy at West Point, and praying that young men educated at other military schools may have an equal chance for admission to the army as those young men have who are educated at West Point. January 21, 1841. Referred to the Committee on Military Affairs.

To the Honorable Congress of the United States:--The memorial of Alden Partridge, President of the Norwich University, at Norwich, State of Vermont, respectfully showeth:

That your memorialist holds it to be a cardinal principle of our republican institutions, that stations of honor, trust, and emolument should be equally open to all our citizens, to which all have an equal right to aspire, and from which none can constitutionally be excluded by any law, rule, or regulation whatever. Your memorialist has, however, witnessed, with deep regret, a direct violation of this vital principle of our constitution, by the rules and regulations adopted for the organization and government of the Military Academy at West Point. The cadets of that institution, all of whom are educated at the public expense, have, for many years, monopolized nearly, if not quite, all of the stations of honor, trust, and emolument, above that of a non-commissioned officer, in the military establishment of the United States, to the utter exclusion of those who are equally well qualified, equally meritorious, and who are educated at their own expense. But, in order to place this subject more clearly before your honorable body, your memorialist would call your attention to the law of the 29th of April, 1812, entitled, “An act making further provision for the corps of engineers.” By the provisions of this act, no candidate can be admitted into the Military Academy who is under fourteen, or over twenty-one, years of age. The effect of this provision is to exclude every young man in the United States who is above twenty-one years of age from the appointment of cadet, while the rules of the War department require that none except those educated at this academy can be commissioned in the army of the United States. The effect, then, of the law and regulation is to utterly exclude all the youth of our country, except such select few as the President may think proper to place in this “public charity school,” from the military service of their country, who are above twenty-one years of age, unless they will enter in the humble capacity of privates or non-commissioned officers. And can such a system be in accordance with the principles of our constitution? Your memorialist believes not. On the contrary, he feels confident in the assertion that it is a most flagrant and palpable violation of them. The direct and certain effect of this institution is to extend Executive patronage; for the President has the entire selection of the chosen two hundred and fifty who are to be placed in the institution, and also to establish an aristocracy of the most dangerous kind, viz.: a military aristocracy in the United States. What, your memorialist would ask, is an aristocracy? Is it not where any particular class in a State claims and exercises privileges of which the great body of the people are deprived? And do not the cadets at West Point enjoy such privileges? and if so, do they not constitute an aristocracy? Your memorialist believes that neither the fact nor the inference can be controverted. But your memorialist will go further, and aver that the regulations at West Point have not only constituted an aristocracy in the United States, but that this aristocracy has already become, in a great degree, hereditary. How many individuals, your memoralist would ask, who have held offices of honor, trust, or emolument, under the Government, for the last twenty-five years, have had their sons, brothers, nephews, or other relatives, educated at the public expense at West Point, to the entire exclusion of those who (to say the least,) were equally meritorious, and equally capable of rendering service to the republic? And how many of those thus educated have ever rendered any service whatever? A reference to the rolls of the institution will answer these inquiries. Your memorialist has personal knowledge of many instances. Your memorialist is well aware that it has been attempted, by the friends of this monstrous invasion of the rights of the people, to cast around it the mantle of Mr. Jefferson. Your memorialist is ready to grant that the institution was established during the early part of the first term of Mr. Jefferson’s administration; but denies that any inference can be drawn from that circumstance to sustain the present system. The institution then consisted only of the corps of engineers, which was limited to sixteen officers and four cadets, without any of those exclusive privileges which have since been conferred upon it. On the 29th of April, 1812, (just previous to the declaration of war,) a law was, however, passed, entitled “An act making further provision for the corps of engineers;” by the provisions of which, the whole number of cadets, whether of infantry, artillery, or riflemen, was not to exceed two hundred and fifty; and the President to appoint a limited number of cadets, and conferring on him a discretionary power to attach them to the Military Academy, was evidently induced by the certainty of immediate war with Great Britain, and had a direct reference to a war establishment. Your memorialist would respectfully call the attention of your honorable body particularly to the provisions of the law of 1812 just referred to; and, if he does not much mistake, it will satisfactorily appear that the President is not required, but simply authorized, to appoint a single cadet; and that it is left entirely discretionary with him, after they are appointed, to attach them to the Military Academy, or to attach them to their respective companies, agreeably to the provisions of other laws then in existence. And here your memorialist would observe that, in the peace-establishment of the army previous to the late war, two cadets were allowed to each company of artillery, light infantry, and infantry, amounting, in the total, to a larger number than was authorized by the law of 1812. But neither President Jefferson, nor President Madison considered that the law required of them to fill those vacancies so long as they considered their services were not required; and they consequently did not fill them. The largest number of cadets ever in service at the same time, previous to the late war, did not exceed forty, and seldom exceeded twenty-five. Do the necessities of the country require that any larger number should be retained in service now, than were deemed necessary by Presidents Jefferson and Madison during a time of peace? Your memorialist believes not. But it is urged, in favor of this academy, that it presents a most favorable opportunity for the education of meritorious young men who are poor, and, consequently, unable to educate themselves. Your memorialist, however, has yet to learn by what constitutional authority Congress is empowered to appropriate any portion of the public revenue for the support of a national charity school for the education of the poor. Besides, if this power did exist, (which your memorialist presumes no reasonable person will contend does,) all the poor in the United States have an equal right to the benefits to be derived from its exercise, and that, consequently, the institution at West Point is on quite too limited a plan for the accomplishment of the contemplated object. Either, then, the institution should be very much enlarged, or several others established in different parts of the United States, which would be far more convenient for the great body of the poor. If, however, the rolls of this institution for the last twenty years be examined, it will be found that many more of the rich and influential have been educated there, than of the poor. Poverty, however meritorious the subject of it may be, is but a sorry recommendation for admission to this aristocratic establishment.

But it is further urged, that this institution is necessary for the education of the officers of the army; and that, were it abolished, the candidates for commissions would not be properly qualified for the discharge of their duties as officers. Before your memorialist proceeds to examine the truth of this position, he would inquire, at what institution, and at whose expense, Generals Washington, Greene, Knox, Putnam, Lincoln, Sullivan, Morgan, Wayne, Sumter, Pickens, Marion, and all the other officers of the revolutionary army, by whose valor, skill, and patriotic exertions, these United States now constitute a free and independent nation, received their education? The answer is ready: at the ordinary institutions of the country, and at their own expense; just as every American citizen should be educated. And have the proteges of the West Point Academy, on whose education so many millions of dollars of the peoples’ money have been expended within the last twenty years, exhibited more skill, more valor, or more patriotism, than did the officers of the revolutionary army? Let the events of the Florida war, as compared with those of the Revolution, answer the question. The truth is, (and it can not be much longer concealed from the view of the people, by the reports of boards of visitors,) that the whole system of education at West Point is well calculated to form military pedants and military dandies, but will never form efficient soldiers. Much more important to them is their attention to the cut of the coat, the placing of a button, and the snowy whiteness of gloves and pantaloons, than to those physical and moral qualities which are absolutely necessary to the correct and efficient discharge of the active duties of the field.

But your memorialist denies the truth of the position, that the West Point Academy is necessary for the education of young men for the army. There are other institutions where military science and instruction constitute a branch of education for the pupils. Of these institutions, however, your memorialist will particularize but one--and that is the Norwich University, at Norwich, Vermont, over which he has the honor to preside. This institution was incorporated by the Legislature of Vermont, in November, 1834, with full power to confer diplomas, &c. By the act of incorporation, military science is made a part of the education of all the pupils. They are consequently correctly and thoroughly instructed in the theoretical part of military science, and also in the practical duties of the soldier, and every one who graduates at this institution is well qualified to discharge the duties of a company officer (and even, if necessary, to command a battalion) in any corps of the army. In order further to prepare them to discharge the more hardy and active duties of the soldier, they occasionally perform military marches. In the month of July, 1840, they performed a march, under the personal command of your memorialist, to the celebrated military post of Ticonderoga, carrying their arms, accoutrements, knapsacks, &c.; the whole length of which was one hundred and sixty-five miles. Of this distance, one hundred and forty miles was on foot, and twenty-five miles by steamboat. The march on foot was performed in a little more than five days, crossing the Green Mountain range twice, and the ground, with the heavens for covering, constituted their only resting-place at night. The weather, during the whole march, was hot; and they were enveloped in a cloud of dust, occasioned by the severe drought, nearly the whole distance. They all returned in excellent health and spirits. The youngest member of the corps was thirteen years of age. The other branches of literature and science are attended to as extensively, and the latter much more practically, than at any other institution in the United States; and the students are consequently equally well qualified to discharge their duties in the cabinet and in the field. But notwithstanding the members of this institution are, to say the least, as well qualified for commissions of any grade, and in any corps of the army, as those of any other institution in the country, and have also obtained the necessary qualifications at their own expense, they are virtually excluded therefrom by the arbitrary and monopolizing regulations (established without the least sanction of law,) of the Military Academy at West Point. In the month of September, 1840, a member of the Norwich University, the son of a highly respectable gentleman in the city of New York, well recommended, applied to the Secretary of War for a commission in the army, but was informed that there were no vacancies, and that the cadets from West Point were more than sufficient to fill all the vacancies. On the 21st of December, 1840, your memorialist wrote to the Secretary of War, recommending three young gentlemen, members of the Norwich University, for commissions in the army of the United States; and received an answer, dated War Department, December 29, 1840, from which the following is an extract: “I acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 21st instant, recommending Messrs. Morris, Stevens, and Dorne, for appointments in the army; and I have here to inform you, in reply, that there being no vacancies at present, the application will be filed for consideration, when any occur, to which they can be appointed.” Now your memorialist feels confident that the records of the War Department will show that a large number of cadets at West Point are commissioned every year; and he presumes that such will continue to be the case, unless a radical change is effected. But when young gentlemen of equal respectability and attainments, who have not been of the favored few whom Executive favor has admitted into this nursery of aristocracy, to be educated at the expense of the honest working men of the country, become applicants, their claims are entirely set aside. Against this unconstitutional, unequal, and monopolizing practice, your memorialist deems it his duty respectfully, but most decidedly, to protest; and to ask of your honorable body the establishment of some rule whereby the members of the Norwich University, at least, (to whom, in many respects, he stands in the relation of guardian,) may be restored to their constitutional rights; that when they become applicants for stations of honor, trust, or emolument, in the military service of their country, they shall stand on terms of equality with the cadets at West Point.

Your memorialist deems it proper here to remark, that in October, 1840, he addressed a communication to the President of the United States, on this subject, requesting to be informed whether, in the opinion of the President, he possessed the power to remedy the grievance of which your memorialist complains; and, if so, whether such power would be exercised for that purpose. To this communication no answer has been received. Your memorialist, availing himself of the privileges granted to every American citizen, by the first amendment of the constitution of the United States, would beg leave to call the attention of your honorable body to some subjects, which he considers grievances of a high order, and respectfully but earnestly solicits that they may be redressed, viz:

1st. Your memorialist considers the Military Academy at West Point a grievance. Under its present organization, it is unconstitutional, calculated to foster a military aristocracy in the country; calculated to depress the militia, (our only constitutional defense,) by engrossing all the patronage of government; and is entirely unnecessary, as military science can be attained at other institutions, from which the necessary officers for the army can be supplied without any tax on the people. Your memorialist, therefore, asks that this institution may be abolished, and that the money that is annually appropriated for its support may be applied to aid in disciplining the militia, and disseminating military information amongst the people, who are its constitutional and safe depositories.

2nd. Your memorialist considers the Board of Visitors that annually assemble at West Point a grievance. This board never had any existence whatever in law, but was established by Executive usurpation; yet, to pay the expense of this illegal board, your memorialist believes that more than fifty thousand dollars has been drawn from the public treasury. Your memorialist earnestly solicits that this appropriation, the making of which is a direct sanction to Executive usurpation, should be discontinued.

3rd. Your memorialist considers the removal of the head-quarters of the corps of engineers from West Point to Washington a grievance, because it is a direct violation of the law of the 16th of March, 1802, establishing that corps. That law requires the commandant of engineers to reside at West Point, unless ordered, by the President of the United States, on duty at some other place in the line of his profession; and, when, at West Point, the law makes him superintendent of the Military Academy; and when he is absent, the next in rank (who is then present,) is made the legal superintendent. The appointment, therefore, of any particular officer as permanent superintendent, is evidently illegal, as the law has clearly specified who the superintendent shall be.

All of which is respectfully submitted,

A. PARTRIDGE, President of Norwich University.

JANUARY, 13, 1841.

REMARKS BY THE EDITOR.

We publish the foregoing Memorial of Capt. Partridge, asking Congress to redress “the grievance” of the Military Academy, not because we have the slightest sympathy with the object or main arguments of the memorialist, but as specimens of the opinions held and propagated by a graduate, professor, and superintendent of the Academy, who did more than any other individual to introduce military instruction and exercises in schools not national or professionally military. We can not, however, put it forth without accompanying it with a few brief remarks.

To Capt. Partridge, more than to any one man, and to his pupils, and personal friends, as we believe, is due the popular objections which prevail respecting the United States Military Academy, except so far as the objections spring from the abuse of the mode of appointing Cadets. For nearly twenty years Capt. Partridge was never known to express any doubt of the constitutionality or usefulness of this institution. His objections first took shape and utterance when he was superceded in the superintendence by Colonel Sylvanus Thayer. Of the circumstances and results of his removal, and of the appointment of Col. Thayer, and the subsequent reorganization of the Academy, something has already been said in the History of West Point, in this volume, (p. 17-48,) and more will be said when we come to speak of the labors of Col. Thayer.

So far as these objections are directed to the constitutionality of the laws for establishing the Cadet Corps, as distinct from any other Corps of the army, or against training officers collected together and organized as a school, we think them preëminently frivolous. If any friend of the Academy would assure his doubtful faith in its constitutionality, let him read Capt. Partridge’s Memorial, asking the same Congress to establish a system of National Education, which he petitions to redress the grievance of a special school, that every civilized government holds to be indispensable to the right organization of its armies.

So far as these objections are aimed at the mode of appointment and promotion,--confining both to the patronage of one man in the country, or one man in a Congressional District, acting in either case without personal examination of the party to be admitted or promoted, and excluding others, it may be, better qualified,--we hold them to be valid. A more disgraceful record of failures, where an opportunity of selecting the most meritorious candidates existed, can not be shown.

While we believe that candidates are too often recommended and nominated to the appointing power, from family and party considerations, we have seen no reason to believe that the social condition or occupation of parents has influenced the appointments. On the other hand, the records of the Academy, as made out in this particular by the Cadets themselves, exhibit a fair representation from all classes and occupations of society.

According to an official Statement, prepared by Capt. Boynton, and published in his History of the Academy, of 5206 cadets admitted from 1842 to 1863 inclusive, the fathers of 1,300 were farmers or planters; of 681, were lawyers; of 672, were merchants; of 377, were mechanics; of 69, were physicians; of 256, were in the civil service; of 116, were clergymen; of 467, were in the army or navy; of 572, were editors, masters of vessels, &c. Of the whole number, 1,136 were orphans, 1,585 were in moderate, 534 in reduced, 62 in indigent, and 324 in independent circumstances. We shall publish the Statement in our next Number.

The views presented in the memorial of Capt. Partridge in 1841, have found advocates in and out of Congress before and since. They were anticipated by the Secretary of War (John C. Calhoun), under whose energetic administration of the Department in 1816, the Academy first assumed the organization of an efficient military school--a place of thorough scientific instruction in the knowledge not simply of military drill, but of the duties of an accomplished artillerist and military engineer; and they have been deepened by the radically vicious system of appointment to cadetship, in which personal and political considerations have in too many instances outweighed the merits of young men, whose natural aptitude and generous ambition would have found here the special field for their largest development and usefulness. These views found expression in the elaborate speech of Franklin Pierce, then a member of the House from New Hampshire, in the discussion of an amendment to the appropriation bill in 1836 (June 30), who “felt bound to oppose the bill in every stage of its progress”--mainly on the ground that “the institution conferred exclusive and gratuitous privileges.”

It is gratuitous, because those who are so fortunate as to obtain admission there, receive their education without any obligation, except such as a sense of honor may impose, to return, either by service or otherwise, the slightest equivalent. It is exclusive, inasmuch as only one youth out of a population of more than 47,000 can participate in its advantages at the same time; and those who are successful, are admitted at an age when their characters cannot have become developed, and with very little knowledge of their adaptation, mental or physical, for military life. The system disregards one of those great principles which, carried into practice, contributed perhaps, more than any other, to render the arms of Napoleon invincible for so many years. Who does not perceive that it destroys the very life and spring of military ardor and enthusiasm, by utterly foreclosing all hope of promotion to her soldier and non-commissioned officer? However meritorious may be his services, however pre-eminent may become his qualifications for command, all are unavailing. The portcullis is dropped between him and preferment, the wisdom of your laws having provided another criterion than that of admitted courage and conduct, by which to determine who are worthy of command. They have made an Academy, where a certain number of young gentlemen are educated annually at the public expense, and to which there is, in consequence, a general rush, not so much from sentiments of patriotism, and a taste for military life, as from motives less worthy--the avenue, and the only avenue, to rank in your army.

I deny utterly the expediency and the right to educate at the public expense, any number of young men who, on the completion of their education, are not to form a portion of your military force, but to return to the walks of private life. Such was never the operation of the Military Academy until after the law of 1812; and the doctrine, so far as I have been able to ascertain, was first formally announced by a distinguished individual, at this time sufficiently jealous of the exercise of executive patronage, and greatly alarmed by what he conceives to be the tendencies of this Government to centralism and consolidation. It may be found in the report of the Secretary of War, communicated to Congress in 1819.

Mr. Pierce, afterwards President Pierce, quotes with approbation the suggestion of Col. Williams in a report to Mr. Jefferson in 1808--that the plan should be large enough to take not only minor officers, “but also any youth from any of the States who might wish for such an education whether designed for the Army or Navy, or neither, and let them be assessed to the value of their education, which might form a fund for extra or contingent expenses.”

These are the true doctrines upon this subject; doctrines worthy of the administration under which they were promulgated, and in accordance with the views of statesmen in the earlier and purer days of the Republic. Give to the officers of your army the highest advantages for perfection in all the branches of military science, and let those advantages be open to all in rotation, and under such terms and regulations as shall be at once impartial toward the officers, and advantageous to the service; but let all young gentlemen who have a taste for military life, and desire to adopt arms as a profession, prepare themselves for subordinate situations at their own expense, or at the expense of their parents or guardians, in the same manner that the youth of our country are qualified for the professions of civil life.

I am far from desiring to see this country destitute of a Military Academy; but I would have it a school of practice, and instruction, for officers actually in the service of the United States; not an institution for educating, gratuitously, young gentlemen, who, on the completion of their term, or after a few months’ leave of absence, resign their commissions, and return to the pursuits of civil life.

There has already been expended upon the institution more than three millions, three hundred thousand dollars. Between 1815 and 1831, thirteen hundred and eighteen students were admitted into the Academy; and of all the cadets who were ever there, only two hundred and sixty-five remained in the service at the end of 1830. Here are the expenses you have incurred, and the products you have realized.

When the War of Secession broke out, and graduates of the Academy then in the army,--like many other Southern men, in the civil service of the United States, imbued with the political doctrines and sympathizing with the domestic institution, on which the War was based--sided with the political leaders of their several states, the opposition to the institution took another direction. The record of the War silenced these objectors. According to Gen. Cullum’s Biographical Register of the Graduates of the Military Academy, out of 1,249 graduates living at the beginning of the Rebellion, 99 in civil life and 184 from the army, joined in the war against the United States. Three-fourths remained faithful. Of 821 graduates in the Army at the time, 184 (about one-fifth) joined in the Rebellion. Of the 99 in civil life all but one were residents in slave territory. Of 350 graduates who were born in or appointed from slave States, 162 remained loyal. Of the 292 loyal graduates in civil life, at the date of secession, 115 re-entered the Army--all below the age of 45, except those who were disabled for active duty, and most of these served in civil capacities. One-fifth of all the graduates who served in the battles of the Rebellion, one-fifth laid down their lives, and more than one-half were wounded in defence of the flag.

IV. AMERICAN LITERARY, SCIENTIFIC, AND MILITARY ACADEMY.

AT NORWICH, VERMONT.

The American Literary, Scientific, and Military Academy, at Norwich, Vermont, was opened on the 4th of September, 1820, by Capt. Alden Partridge, and continued under his personal superintendence and instruction, assisted by several professors, until April 1st, 1825, when it was discontinued at Norwich, and reopened at Middletown, Connecticut. The catalogue of the officers and cadets published August, 1821, contains a prospectus from which we make extracts to exhibit the aims of that school and of this particular class of institutions at that date.

TERMS OF ADMISSION.

The requisite qualifications for becoming members of the Institution are the following, viz: That the candidate be of good moral character, that he be able to read and spell correctly, to write a fair, legible hand, and work the ground rules of arithmetic.

COURSE OF INSTRUCTION.

Young gentlemen destined for a college education, can be prepared at this seminary for admission into any college or university in the country, either as freshmen, or one or two years in advance, and in the mean time will be enabled to acquire a good military and practical scientific education. Young gentlemen also, destined for the navy, can here be instructed in the scientific part of their profession, and at the same time, obtain a correct knowledge of fortification, and of military operations generally, on land, which it is believed they would find highly useful in future life. Parents and guardians who are desirous of placing their sons or wards at this seminary, are requested to state whether they wish them to go through with the full course of education; and if not, to specify, particularly, those branches to which they desire them to attend, and also to mention their ages.

The course of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, and English languages, Arithmetic, the construction and use of Logarithms, Algebra, Geometry, Plane and Spherical Trigonometry, Planometry, Stereometry, Mensuration of heights and distances by Trigonometry, and also Geometrically, practical Geometry generally, including particularly Surveying and Leveling, Conic Sections, the use of the Barometer, with its application to measuring the altitudes of mountains and other eminences, Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Hydraulics, the elements of Chemistry and Electricity, Optics, Astronomy, Navigation, Geography, including the use of Maps and the Globes; Composition, Logic, History, Ethics, the elements of Natural and Political Law, the Law of Nations, Military Law, the Constitution of the United States, and of the states severally, Metaphysics; Agriculture, Permanent and Field Fortification, Field Engineering generally, the construction of Marine Batteries, Artillery duty, the principles of Gunnery, a complete course of Military Tactics, the attack and defense of fortified places, Castrametation, ancient Fortification, the ancient modes of attacking and defending fortified places, the ancient Tactics, particularly those of the Greeks and Romans, with a description of the organization and discipline of the phalanx and legion; Book-Keeping, Music, Fencing, Military Drawing, Topography, Civil Engineering, including the construction of Roads, Canals, Locks, and Bridges; Architecture.

The Hebrew and French languages, Fencing and Music will not be considered as comprised in the regular course of education, and consequently those who attend to them will be charged separately.

MILITARY EXERCISE, AND DUTIES.

The students will be regularly and correctly instructed in the elementary school of the soldier, and also in those of the company and battalion; they will likewise be taught the regular formation of military parades, the turning off, mounting, and relieving guards and sentinels; the duties of officers of the guard, officers of the day, and adjutants; the making out correctly the different descriptions of military reports; in fine, all the duties incident to the field or garrison. The military exercises and duties will be so arranged as not to occupy any of the time that would otherwise be devoted to study; they will be attended to at those hours of the day which are generally passed by students in idleness, or devoted to useless amusements, for which they will be made a pleasing and healthful substitute. Practical scientific operations will be frequently attended to, which will conduce equally to health and improvement.

The students will be required to sleep on matrasses, or straw-beds; no feather-beds will be allowed in the establishment.

For the purpose of giving to the students a military appearance, when engaged on military duty, and also on a principle of economy, they are required to wear a uniform dress, a description of which is hereunto annexed. In prescribing a dress, it has been endeavored to combine as far as possible, cheapness and a neat military appearance, with such a form as, while it leaves the student the free and unrestrained use of his limbs, will at the same time encumber him the least possible. The discipline will be strict, but correct; and particular attention will be given to the full development and due cultivation of all those liberal, manly, noble and independent sentiments which ought to characterize every American, whether citizen or soldier. The strictest attention will be given to the health, manners and morals of the students. They will be continually under the personal inspection of the superintendent, who will bestow upon them all that care and attention which it is believed their parents, under similar circumstances, would bestow.

MILITARY LECTURES.

For the accommodation of gentlemen, (particularly of those holding commissions in the volunteer corps and militia,) who may not wish to go through with a regular course of military studies and instruction, and also for the purpose of diffusing military science more generally, Capt. Partridge will deliver annually at the before-mentioned seminary, three courses of public lectures; the first course to commence on the second Monday in May, the second course on the second Monday in July, and the third course on the first Monday in October, annually. These lectures will embrace the following branches of military science and instruction, viz.:--

1st. Permanent and field fortification, the construction of field works generally, and also of marine batteries.

2d. The attack and defense of fortified places.

3d. The use of artillery, with a general exposition of the principles of gunnery.

4th. Military Tactics.

5th. Garrison and field service of troops, embracing particularly their police and rules for turning off, mounting and relieving guards and sentinels, and also for guard duty, likewise castrametation.

6th. General rules for the attack and defense of a province or country embracing an exposition of the principles of base lines of operation.

7th. Rules for the inspection and review of troops.

8th. A summary of ancient fortification, and also of the ancient modes of attacking and defending fortified places.

9th. A summary of the ancient tactics, particularly those of the Greeks and Romans.

10th. A description of some of the most celebrated battles and sieges, both of ancient and modern times, for the purpose of practically illustrating the principles explained in the lectures. In order to render the lectures on fortification perfectly intelligible, plans will be prepared, on which the several parts of a work will be clearly and distinctly exhibited.

Particular attention will be given to a full explanation of all the technical terms used in fortification, as well as in the other departments of military science. A full course will comprise about twenty lectures; five to be delivered in each week until the course be finished. The terms for attending a course will be ten dollars. Gentlemen subscribing for two courses, will be allowed ever after to attend gratis. All those attending the lectures, will be entitled, during the time of such attendance, to practical military instruction, and also to the privilege of the reading-room, without any additional charge.

On the 1st of April, 1825, Capt. Partridge was induced by liberal overtures from citizens of Middletown, Conn., to leave his institution at Norwich, and remove to Middletown, Conn., and reopen it in that city. Before doing so he published a card in which he exhibits the progress and results of his labors at Norwich.

This seminary was opened at Norwich, in the state of Vermont, on the 4th of September, 1820, under my immediate direction and superintendence; and although the plan was new and untried, besides containing principles, which were by many considered discordant with each other, viz., the connecting of mental improvement with a regular course of bodily exercise, and the full development of the physical powers, the whole conducted under a military system of discipline; still its success has exceeded, rather than fallen short, of my most sanguine expectations.

The following extract from a recent report of the adjutant of the institution, compiled from the rolls and other authentic documents, will enable the public to form their conclusions, from facts on this subject.

1st. The total number of cadets who have joined the institution, since its organization, is 480.

2d. The numbers from the respective states, and other sections hereafter mentioned, are as follows, viz.:--

From Maine, 28 Massachusetts, 89 New Hampshire, 57 Vermont, 115 Connecticut, 33 Rhode Island, 10 New York, 40 Pennsylvania, 15 New Jersey, 6 Delaware, 2 Maryland, 4 Virginia, 1 North Carolina, 7 South Carolina, 45 Kentucky, 2 Georgia, 7 Ohio, 1 Louisiana, 4 Mississippi, 5 Missouri, 1 Michigan, 2 District of Columbia, 2 Lower Canada, 2 Havana, Island Cuba, 1 Island Scio, Greece, 1

3dly. Of the above number, twenty are commissioned and warrant officers of the U.S. Navy, viz., 4 lieutenants, 1 assistant-surgeon, and 15 midshipmen.

4thly. Out of the whole, 441 have been engaged in the study of the Mathematics, and out of this number 145 have completed a full course of “Hutton’s Mathematics.” Of these, 80 have, in addition, attended to practical Mathematics, 56 have continued their course through the study of Philosophy, and others are now fast progressing in the accomplishment of those higher branches also.

5thly. The whole number who have studied the Greek and Latin languages, is about 150. Of these, 25 have advanced far towards completing a course, although none have gone entirely through. Of those not included in the last-mentioned number, many have fitted for college, or progressed still farther, and many are progressing. What is here considered a course, is the same which is laid down in the prospectus, which could be scarcely completed in the period since the establishment of the institution.

6thly. The number of those who have attended to the French language, is about 130. Twenty have become well acquainted with the language--30 are very well advanced, and many of the remainder have made respectable progress.

7thly. About ten or twelve of those who have been, or are now members of the institution, have devoted considerable time and instruction of the militia or volunteer corps, in this and various other sections of the country, and many of them are still engaged in that useful employment.

Of those who have been, or are now, engaged in the study of the Latin and Greek languages, I flatter myself there are several who would not suffer by a comparison with any of the same degree of advancement at our older and most approved seminaries; and as a school of practical science, I have little hesitation in asserting, that it is second to none in our country. In confirmation of this assertion, I would observe, that since the establishment of the seminary, my pupils, in addition to their usual exercises in practical geometry, and many operations of minor consequence, have executed, in a very handsome manner, a profile of the country, exhibiting the perpendicular altitudes of all the prominent points, above tide water, as determined by actual observation, from the summit of Manchester mountain, in the state of Vermont, to the summit of mount Washington, the highest elevation of the White Mountains, in the state of New Hampshire, a distance of 165 miles. They have also executed a similar profile from Norwich to Whitehall, in the state of New York, a distance of sixty-eight miles, and have further executed a trigonometrical survey of the country around Norwich, for a distance in some directions, of about twenty miles. This survey was commenced, and has been prosecuted, in such a manner as to serve as a basis for any further operations that may be thought necessary. A handsome topographical plan of this survey is finished.

In the department of French, it is believed, the pupils have made as rapid progress as at any seminary in our country, and in Mineralogy, Botany, &c., although but recently commenced, there appears to be much zeal, and a corresponding improvement, amongst the classes which have attended, and those still attending, numbering about sixty.

Music and fencing have been attended by a large proportion of the members, and with a progress highly creditable to them.

The military exercises and duties are common to all the cadets, and it is believed very few have left the seminary, who were not competent to instruct from the elementary drill of the soldier, to embrace the school of the battalion, and who, in addition, did not possess a very competent knowledge of the principles of the grand tactics, of the elements of permanent and field fortification, of the principles of gunnery, &c. The beneficial effects of the regular system of exercise and active duty, to which my pupils are subject, upon their health, has been fully equal to my expectations. But one death has happened at the institution, since its commencement; and this was a youth who had just entered his name on the rolls, but was attacked by a prevailing epidemic, of which he died, before commencing his studies or regular duties. Several who joined the seminary feeble and debilitated, have in a short time been entirely restored to vigorous health. Indeed, such has been the result, I believe, without a single exception. That a youth may, by means of a regular system of exercise, preserve all his bodily activity and vigor, and at the same time apply himself most assiduously to study, I have never had any doubts; but if I had, the facts developed since the establishment of this seminary, would have dispelled them. Many of my pupils, and those the closest applicants to study, walk with facility forty miles per day. In the summer of 1823, several of them left Norwich at day-break in the morning, walked to the summit of Ascutney mountain, and returned to Norwich about 9 o’clock in the evening of the same day--the whole distance forty-six miles: which, considering the fatigue and difficulty of ascending and descending the mountain, (upwards of 3,000 feet high,) may reasonably be estimated as equivalent to sixty miles on the usual roads of the country. They continued their regular studies and other duties the following day. In September, 1823, a party of nearly thirty accompanied me on a pedestrian tour to the summit of Manchester mountain, in the state of Vermont, a large portion of whom traveled 150 miles in four days, and on the fourth day one of the party, a youth of sixteen years of age, walked by my side forty-five miles. On a recent excursion, to the summit of the most elevated of the White Mountains, with a party of fifty of my pupils, a large portion of them, on the last day, walked forty-two miles. Belonging to this party, was a youth of but twelve years of age, who walked the whole distance, (160 miles,) carrying his knapsack, with clothes, &c., and returned in perfect health.

Since the latter part of June, 1821, the cadets, as a military corps, have executed, under my personal command, six military marches, amounting, in the aggregate, to 637 miles. Different detachments from the corps have also, within the same time, in addition to several of minor importance, performed, under my personal direction, four pedestrian excursions, for practical scientific purposes, amounting in the aggregate to 684 miles, and which, added to the former, gives 637×684=1321 miles. To this may be added an excursion to the White Mountains, whole distance 170 miles, by a party which I did not accompany, and which will make the total distance traveled in those marches and excursions, 1491 miles.

The foregoing facts are stated for the purpose of illustrating and confirming the correctness of the opinion I have so often advanced in my lectures on education, relative to the practicability, and even facility, of combining the full development and perfection of the physical powers of youth, with a due cultivation and improvement of the mental faculties. Whether a young man, who enters on the grand theater of active life, with a mind and body equally vigorous and improved, who, while he has a head to conceive, possesses also an arm to execute, will or will not possess advantages in the discharge of the various duties he may be called upon to perform, over one, who has grown to the age of manhood, puny and debilitated, destitute of physical energy, and incapable of bodily exertion, I shall leave to the sound discretion of the American people to decide.

As it respects the effect of the system on the morals of youth, I would observe, that I feel confident no one has left the institution worse than he joined it, and that I flatter myself, several have, in this respect, been improved. Next after the influence of religion, I consider habits of industry and economy as constituting the surest basis of morals amongst youth. To instill these into the minds of my pupils, ever has, and ever will be, a leading object; and I consequently shall imperatively require the strictest adherence to ail the regulations bearing on those points, by all concerned. I would therefore beg leave to assure the parents, guardians, and relatives of my pupils, that the regulations prohibiting the cadets being furnished with money, otherwise than by the superintendent, or by his express permission, is to be taken in its literal meaning, (without exception,) and must be adhered to under all circumstances; and that any deviation from it will be followed by immediate dismission. I would much prefer that the great body of my pupils should enter young, and grow up under my system. The mind and body are then more susceptible of improvement, than at a more advanced period. Few, if any, vicious habits have then been formed, and the morals, under a strict and regular discipline, may easily be preserved. It is my fixed determination not, knowingly, to admit any young man of confirmed vicious or dissipated habits into the institution. I would accordingly recommend to parents and guardians not to send me any of this description; for if they should gain admission, and did not immediately reform, (which seldom occurs when the habits are confirmed,) it would only eventuate in their dismission, and consequent disgrace. It is much easier to prevent a youth from acquiring bad habits, than to correct them after they are acquired. If parents and guardians will send me their sons and wards free from habits of dissipation, immorality, and vice, I will guarantee, as far as human agency will authorize, that they shall be preserved free from such habits, while they remain under my care. Every requisite means will be used to correct the foibles and faults incidental to youth--to accomplish this object no pains will be spared. With their foibles I will bear as much as any person, but with their vices I will make no compromise. For the purpose of enabling me the more readily and the more certainly to accomplish this important object, I must request parents and guardians, if their sons or wards have foibles or faults, frankly to state them to me. On this subject there should be no reserve; as, with such information, I should know much better what course to pursue with them.

The favorable view taken of the aims, progress, and results of the scientific and military training provided by Capt. Partridge in his Academy at Norwich, was amply justified by the success of his pupils at Middletown, as practical men in various departments of business and public life.

On account of the condition on which he held a portion of his property at Norwich, Capt. Partridge was obliged to maintain there a literary institution, after his removal to Middletown. When he discontinued his labors at the latter place, and not succeeding in his plans for establishing a scientific and military school in the neighborhood of New York, he returned to Norwich, and in 1832, made preparation to reëstablish his Academy on its old basis, and with enlarged premises. With this view he erected the building known as the North Barracks, which were occupied for two years by Rev. Amasa Buck, for the purposes of a Methodist school, known as the Franklin Seminary.

NORWICH UNIVERSITY.

In the spring of 1834, a number of gentlemen associated to establish at Norwich, not an academic, but a collegiate institution, after Capt. Partridge’s views, and in the autumn of that year, obtained from the Legislature of Vermont, a charter by which the petitioners were constituted a Board of Trustees of an institution by the name of the Norwich University. The charter further provides “that the said Board shall be required to furnish at said institution constantly a course of Military instruction, both theoretical and practical, and also in Civil Engineering, and the practical sciences generally; and the President of said institution, with the consent of the Trustees, shall have power to give and confer all such diplomas, degrees, honors, or licenses, as are usually given or conferred in Colleges or Universities, at their discretion; provided, however, that in so doing they shall have respect to the morals and merits of the candidate alone.”

This act of incorporation named fourteen gentlemen, and provided for the election of eleven others, which twenty-five should constitute the Board of Trustees of Norwich University. The first meeting of the Trustees was held at Norwich, Vt., January, 1835. The vacancies in the Board were then filled, and the first members of the Faculty were elected, viz.:--ALDEN PARTRIDGE, “President and Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy, History, Science of Government, Political Economy, and Military Science and Tactics;” TRUMAN B. RANSOM, Vice-President, and Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy, Mathematics, Theoretical and Practical, and Civil Engineering; M. NORAS, Professor of Ancient and Modern Languages; and FRANKLIN MARSH and I. M. HORR, assistants in the English Department. These gentlemen were authorized to form a course of study and laws for the government of the institution.

In May, 1835, the University was opened under the auspices and in the buildings owned by Capt. Partridge, with a full course of literary, scientific, and military studies. Among those enumerated in the first prospectus were Military Law, Military Drawing, Civil and Military Engineering. “Military Science being considered an important appendage to the education of every American youth is taught theoretically in all departments of the University. The military exercises are attended at those hours of the day which are generally passed by students in idleness or devoted to useless amusements, for which they will be made a pleasing and healthful substitute.” “The discipline will be strict, but correct; in principle, military. It will be a great and leading object to instill into the minds of students liberality of sentiment and principles of honorable integrity and attachment to our republican institutions. Everything of a sectarian character in religion will be entirely excluded and all literary honors will be conferred in accordance with scholarship and moral worth alone.”

At the close of the academic year, 1835-6, (August 18, 1836,) the first Annual Commencement took place, and the class of 1836 then graduated, consisted of one person, Alonzo Jackman, now Brigadier-General in Vermont, and Professor of Mathematics, Military Science, etc., at the University. Professor Ransom, entered the United States Navy about this time, and Mr. Jackman was appointed to fill the vacant Professorship. Soon after this, Rev. Zerah Colburn, succeeded Professor Noras. August 17, 1837, the second Annual Commencement was held, and Hon. George McDuffie, of South Carolina, delivered the address; the next year Robert Rantoul, Jr., of Massachusetts, was the orator; in 1839, John Wentworth, of Illinois, and Thomas H. Seymour, of Connecticut, were speakers; and in 1840, Benjamin F. Hallett, of Boston. The catalogues of each of these years show that the number of students, or cadets, averaged a little less than a hundred, and in all the catalogues, the regulations for the Police of the Cadets’ Quarters were given in full. They provided for all the military duties of the students, for the wearing of uniform, etc., etc.

In July, 1840, the Corps of the University under the command of Captain Partridge, performed a military march across the State to Fort Ticonderoga. They were just a week on the excursion, and in that time, they marched nearly a hundred and fifty miles on foot, about twenty-five miles per day. Notwithstanding the excessive warmth of the day, and the exposure to the air of the night, with no other covering than the soldiers’ blanket, the Cadets all returned in good health and spirits.

During the year 1843, several changes took place in the University. From the time Mr. Ransom resigned the Vice-Presidency, until May, 1843, that office was filled by Hon. Aaron Loveland. Mr. Ransom returned at this time, and was again made Vice-President, and Professor of Civil and Military Engineering, etc. The buildings and land used up to this time, were the property of Capt. Partridge. During May, arrangements were made for the purchase of this property by the University, but some misunderstanding occurred before this was done, and in November, President Partridge resigned, and took from the armory all the arms and accoutrements, attempted to revive his old Academy in another part of the village, and finally, when the University could not purchase his property at his prices, obliged the students to remove from the buildings. On his resignation, Truman B. Ransom was chosen President, and for the two years the institution was carried on in other buildings in the town. The Legislature was applied to, and appropriated a hundred stand of arms, sets of accoutrements, etc., for the use of the students. At last an arrangement was made with Capt. Partridge, for the purchase of his property, and the University returned to its old quarters. The number of students was small during these difficulties, but the military department was always active, a good military education was given, and men were graduated who now hold responsible places in the military service of the United States among the Federal troops.

In May, 1847, President Ransom, then Major-General of the Vermont Militia, resigned his place at the University, accepted that of Colonel of the “New England regiment,” ninth infantry, and went with that body to Mexico. September 13th of the same year, he was shot while gallantly leading the charge of his regiment upon the fortifications of Chapultepec. When Gen. Ransom left, Prof. James D. Butler was appointed President pro tem., and in January, 1848, Gen. Henry S. Wheaton, of Massachusetts, was elected President, and served as such till August, 1849; he was succeeded in September, 1850, by Rev. Edward Bourns, LL. D., who still (1863,) holds that office.

Soon after 1850, the opposition to anything of a military education became very strong, the number of Cadets at this institution diminished, and the tone of the prospectus changed to suit the public. “The discipline is military in principle and form. The Cadets are under military organization, they dress in uniform, are regularly drilled with arms. But they are not made lovers of war! They are not found to adopt the profession of arms more than others of the same age, however educated; oftentimes the harmless practice of handling arms at this age, is found to satisfy the craving for the use of them, and these young men settle down into the ranks of peace more easily and more contentedly than those that have had no such training. The drill is an agreeable exercise. The system of discipline is strict, though not oppressive, its sole object is to preserve order and promote study.” “The object is not to make soldiers, but to strengthen the body.” During these years (from 1850 to 1860,) the prospects of the University were not bright. It was at once engaged in lawsuits, and troubled with debt and opposition. In 1853, it was proposed to move the University to Montpelier, but the project was finally abandoned, the last of the old Academy property was bought, the buildings were repaired and the institution freed from debt. Previous to 1850, the finances were in a very confused state. When the charter was obtained, land to the value of fifteen hundred dollars was brought and deeded to the University. The sale of this, and subscriptions from Trustees and citizens of Norwich, produced enough to purchase the North Barracks. The money received of students for tuition was always, and is still, all used for paying the salaries of the instructors. The room-rents scarcely paid the rent and repairs of the South Barracks, and the University ran slightly into debt. The State, in 1853-4, gave the institution about thirteen hundred dollars of an unappropriated school fund, and enough more was raised by friends of the University to purchase the South Barracks, and pay off old debts, and put all the buildings in good repair. For several years it was obliged to struggle against a load of popular prejudice on account of its military feature, but since 1861, it has brushed up its uniform, and its Military Department no longer seeks to hide itself. No such semi-apologies for the military training of its students appear in its catalogues and prospectus for 1861 and 1862.

“The Norwich University differs from most colleges in two respects. These are its double system of study, consisting in an Academic and a Scientific course; and its department of Military Science. The Academic course comprises those studies usually pursued in other colleges; the Scientific embraces Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Belles-Lettres, Surveying, and Engineering. Four years are required to complete the former, and three, the latter course of study. Students are also allowed to take a partial course in either department. The students of all departments are regarded as equals.

“The feature, however, which more than any other distinguishes Norwich University from other Collegiate institutions, is the department of Military Science and Tactics.

“Agreeably to the provisions of its charter, the students are all under Military discipline--are called Cadets--dress in uniform, and are instructed in Infantry, Rifle, and Artillery Drill, Bayonet Exercise, Fortification, Reconnoissance, Castrametation, Guard and Out-Post duty, &c., &c. All the arms and equipments necessary for drills are furnished by the State of Vermont. * * *

“The military feature of this institution is one which should particularly commend it to the notice, and patronage of the public at this time. The want of men skilled in Military Science and Tactics, to take command of volunteer forces, and discipline them into effective soldiers, has been severely felt in organizing the present army of the United States. The reverses with which it has met are, without doubt, owing largely to this cause. To guard against this defect in the future, it is now generally felt that young men should be educated thoroughly in every department of Military Science. In times of peace this knowledge would not incapacitate men for nor interfere with any other business;--while in times of war, it would become invaluable to the country in training an army for efficient service.”

The following persons constituted the Faculty in 1862. Rev. EDWARD BOURNS, LL. D., President, and Professor of Moral Sciences, Ancient Languages, and Literature; ALONZO JACKMAN, A.M., Brigadier-General Vermont Volunteer Militia, Professor of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Military Science, and Tactics; THOMAS R. CROSBY, M.D., Professor of Anatomy, Physiology, and Natural History; CLINTON S. AVERILL, A.M., Acting Professor of Natural Sciences; GEORGE BAILLARD, Professor of Modern Languages, and Linear and Architectural Drawing; SAMUEL W. SHATTUCK, B.S., Tutor in Mathematics and Military Tactics; ALONZO JACKMAN, A.M., Librarian.

MILITARY ELEMENT IN SCHOOLS OF ALL GRADES.

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