THE NE}Y WEST POINT. 



33 



little army of only a few thousands, officered almost wholly by West 

 Point graduates, Winfield Scott marched from the Gulf to the Valley 

 of the City of Mexico, gaining victory after victory, to finally dictate 

 the terms of peace from 'the Halls of Montezuma.' 



The change of sentiment among the people as to 'graduated cadets' 

 was instantaneous, and from that day no thought has found expression 

 adverse to the interests of educating and maintaining a considerable 

 body of competent officers. 



The reasons for the people's change of sentiment are not to be 

 found alone in the proved ability of West Point men in campaigning, 

 or in any superior valor in action. Others than graduates have shown 

 great skill in strategy, and the volunteer has always been easily his 



^^ 





liliil 





The First Academy. 



equal in courage and endurance, with perhaps that moral advantage 

 of not being a 'hireling soldier.' It is that through now a full cen- 

 tury the record of the graduates of West Point has been spread before 

 the country, and has been found to be on the average so exceedingly 

 high as to be a matter not only of congratulation, but astonishment. 

 There are West Point men who have gone badly astray; some have 

 been promptly cashiered out of the service ; others have fled with ill- 

 gotten spoils beyond a 'process,' and others yet have had short shrift 

 in a penitentiary. There are such, but they are marvelously few. Not 

 only in the army, but in civil life, the standard of honor and of in- 

 tegrity has been and is marvelously high. 



This has come, not that among the four thousand graduates the 

 same blood does not run and the same influences work for good or ill 

 as among a similar number of others; if they are on the average more 

 high-minded, more duteous in every department of life, it is that the 

 penalty for departure from the straight and narrow path is so ex- 

 tremely swift and terrible. Wliat is true in this respect in the army 

 and in business affairs is true perhaps to a greater extent in the 



VOL. LXIV. — 3. 



