ALEXANDER DALLAS BACHE. 113 



Alexander J. Dallas, who was Madison's Secretary of the Treasury, 

 and sister of George M. Dallas, Vice-President of the United 

 States in Polk's administration. 



Dallas Bache, as he was usually called by his intimates, was 

 placed in a classical school at an early age, and proved to be a 

 remarkably bright pupil. The year he was fifteen years old he 

 was appointed a cadet in the Military Academy at West Point. 

 He maintained a high stand in scholarship from the beginning to 

 the end of his course, and graduated in 1825 at the head of his 

 class, although its youngest member. This was no small achieve- 

 ment in a class from which four cadets were assigned to the engi- 

 neer corps, when only one or two members attained this honor in 

 most classes. Moreover, he went through the whole four years 

 without receiving a demerit mark equally remarkable in view 

 of the rigid discipline of the academy, and the only instance on 

 record. Students are none too prone to admire one of their fel- 

 lows who is noted only for studious habits and correct deport- 

 ment, but young Bache had besides the personal qualities that win 

 esteem. Prof. Joseph Henry, in his memoir read before the Na- 

 tional Academy of Sciences, relates of cadet Bache that " his su- 

 periority in scholarship was freely acknowledged by every mem- 

 ber of his class, while his unassuming manner, friendly demeanor, 

 and fidelity to duty secured him the affection as well as the respect 

 of not only his fellow-pupils, but also of the officers of the insti- 

 tution. It is also remembered that his classmates, with instinc- 

 tive deference to his scrupulous sense of propriety, forbore to 

 solicit his participation in any amusement which in the slightest 

 degree conflicted with the rules of the academy. So far from 

 this, they commended his course, and took pride to themselves, as 

 members of his class, in his reputation for high standing and ex- 

 emplary conduct. His roommate older by several years than he 

 was, and by no means noted for regularity or studious habits 

 constituted himself, as it were, his guardian, and sedulously ex- 

 cluded all visitors or other interruptions to study during the pre- 

 scribed hours. For this self-imposed service, gravely rendered as 

 essential to the honor of the class, he was accustomed jocularly to 

 claim immunity for his own delinquencies or shortcomings." 



All of young Bache's predispositions for good were stimulated 

 and sustained by the judicious care of his mother, not only while 

 he was a child at home, but also by means of a ready pen during 

 the whole of his residence at West Point. It should not be in- 

 ferred that the young man attained perfection in his conduct. 

 " When a child he is said to have been quick-tempered, and at 

 later periods of his life, when suddenly provoked beyond his ha- 

 bitual power of endurance, he sometimes gave way to manifesta- 

 tions of temper which might have surprised those who only knew 



VOL. XLvm. 8 



