I have the right--no one will deny it--of
choosing or rejecting as companions whomsoever I will.
If my choice be based upon color, am I more wrong in
adopting it than I should be in adopting any other
reason? it may be an unchristian opinion or fancy that
causes me to do it, but such opinion or fancy is my own,
and I have a right to it. No one objects to prejudice
as such, but to the treatment it is supposed to cause.
If one is disposed to ill-treat another, he'll do it,
prejudiced or not prejudiced. Only low persons are so
disposed, and happily so for West Point, and indeed for
the whole country.
"The system of competitive examination for admission,
so largely adopted within the past few years in many
of our large cities, has resulted in recruiting the
corps with lads of bright intellect and more than
ordinary attainments, while the strict physical
examination has rigorously excluded all but those of
good form and perfect health. The competitive system
has also given to the Academy students who want to
learn, instead of lads who are content to scramble
through the prescribed course as best they can,
escaping being "found" (a cadet term equivalent to
the old college word 'plucked') by merely a hair's-
breadth."
The old way of getting rid of the rough, uncouth
characters was to "find" them. Few, very few of
them, ever got into the army. Now they are excluded
by the system of competitive examination even from
entering the Military Academy, and if they should
succeed in getting to West Point, they eventually
fail, since men with no fixed purpose cannot
graduate at West Point.
Pages:
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153