92 



guard against the sheer ignorauce of all military art which shrouded the coun- 

 try, and especially the North, at the time when the tocsin of war sounded at 

 Fort Sumter." 



These words elearlv explain the oliject which Mr. Morrill had in view in 

 making provision for instruction in military tactics in the colleges of agriculture 

 and the mechanic arts. 



The presence of a great conflict, which found the nation unprepared to meet 

 either internal or external enemies, awakened public opinion to a sense of 

 danger— a danger not only in the past, but ever present ; a danger which could 

 not be met bv an extern podzed army, or a levy en masse, but only by a provision 

 which should be of the nature of an institution, not subject to temporary change 

 of feeling, not liable to failure from neglect or forgetfulness. To statesmen 

 looking beyond existing tumults the Republic meant peace, but they were then 

 for the first time learning that peace exists only in those nations that know how 

 to maintain peace. To l^eep up a large standing army was contrary to the 

 genius of American liberty and to all national traditions. But here was an 

 opportunity to do something toward meeting this ever-present danger of " unpre- 

 paredness " by distributing throughout peace-loving and industrial communities 

 in every State a certain amount of *' military scliooling," as Mr. Morrill calls it, 

 and the result of such schooling in a goodly numl)er of men, highly trained in 

 other resi)ects, with a modicum, more or less, as tlie plan should work out, of 

 militarv training sui)eradded. 



It may be pertinent to note that. when, twenty-eight years after the passage 

 of the bill, in the " piping times of peace." Mr. :\Iorrill again asked Congress to 

 consider the needs and claims of the education offered in the colleges of agri- 

 culture and the mechanic arts and to increase their scope and their efficiency 

 by an increased endowment, no further provision was made fur. and no mention 

 was made of. military instruction. 



Passing now from consideration of the motives and utterances of the founder 

 of the colleges to the language of the organic act, we find that the intent and 

 purpose of ithe act as regards military instruction gets rather scant expression. 

 It is all embraced in three words— " including military tactics "—" one college 

 where the leading ol)ject shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical 

 studies, and including military tactics, to teach, etc." That constitutes tlie 

 entire mandate on the subject. It is evident that the intent of the act was not 

 to establish militarv institutions— that is. institutions in which the leading 

 object is to teach the military art. Classical and other scientific studies are not 

 to be excluded, and military tactics are to be included, but th.e leading ol>ject 

 is to teach branches of learning related to agriculture and the mechanic arts. 

 Evidently there were not to be military academies after the manner of ^\est 

 Point in all the States, nor feeble imitations of West Point. 



If some institutions or some army officers detailed as military instructors in 

 the colleges have desired to make the military the leading feature, to insist on 

 army ideas and methods in the government of the institutions, and to subordi- 

 nate practically the other elements to the military, this has been without warrant 

 from the ordai\nng act. If this had been the intent and purpose of the founder 

 and of the act of Congress, they would have declared military training to be 

 the leading object, whereas it is not included among the leading objects. 



\Yhat is meant by the term " military tactics." which the act says are to be 

 included in the braiiches taught in the colleges? Obviously the word " tactics |^ 

 is used in a general and popular, not in a technical sense. " Military tactics " 

 is a broad and elastic term, including much that would not come within a strict 

 definition. This l)readth and comprehensiveness, in distinction from a rigid 

 prescription of specific things to be done, is characteristic of the whole act. It 

 recognizes the great diversity of conditions existing in different .parts of the 

 country, and now that it is operative in forty-five different States, this elasticity 

 and adaptability to conditions appears still more admirable. It is matter for 

 congratulation that we have in this grand scheme for national education, not a 

 thoroughly organized, bureaucratic system like that which fits in well with the 

 genius of' the French people, but a simple outline, a broad, free, suggestive 

 sketch plan, of the general objects to be sought, leaving to the several localities, 

 and specifically to the legislatures of the several States, to fill in the details as 

 their special needs and interests may prescribe. As in the case of all other 

 branches of learning, so in case of the military science and art, the institutions 

 are left free to work out their own problems in their own way, provided that 

 way comes fairly within the express provisions of the act of Congress. As we 

 have seen, the incorporation of military instruction into the curriculum of tlie 



