74 Presidential Addresses 



I heard of two or three instances; you can not get 

 in any body of men absolute uniformity of good 

 conduct; but I am happy to say that I never was 

 an eyewitness to such misconduct. It was my good 

 fortune to see what is the rule, what is the rule 

 with only the rarest exception; the rule of duty 

 done in a way that makes a man proud to be an 

 American, the fellow-citizen of such Americans. 



Your duty here at West Point has been to fit 

 men to do well in war. But it is a noteworthy 

 fact that you also have fitted them to do singularly 

 well in peace. The highest positions in the land 

 have been held, not exceptionally, but again and 

 again by West Pointers. West Pointers have risen 

 to the first rank in all the occupations of civil life. 

 Colonel Mills, I make the answer that a man who 

 answers the question must make when I say that, 

 while we had a right to expect that West Point 

 would do well, we could not have expected that 

 she would do so. well as she has done. 



I want to say one word to those who are grad 

 uating here, and to the undergraduates as well. I 

 was greatly impressed the other day by an article 

 of one of your instructors, himself a West Pointer, 

 in which he dwelt upon the changed conditions of 

 warfare, and the absolute need that the man who 

 was to be a good officer should meet those changed 

 conditions. I think it is going to be a great deal 

 harder to be a first-class officer in the future than 

 it has been in the past. In addition to the courage 

 and steadfastness that have always been the prime 



