'You are out
of the service and will stay out,' for 'the Academic
Board will not recommend you to come back under any
circumstances,' shows that it is the Academic Board
That must choose our representative, and not we
ourselves, and that our wishes are only secondary in
comparison with those of the service and the Academic
Board. We are no longer free citizens of a sovereign
State, and of the United States, with the right to
choose for ourselves those who shall represent us; but
we must be subordinate to the Secretary of War and the
Academic Board, and must make our wishes subservient to
those of the above-named powers, and unless we do that
we are pronounced to be 'naturally bad'--as remarked
the Adjutant of the Academy, Captain R. H. Hall, to a
Sun reporter--and must have done for us 'what had never
been done for a white boy in like circumstances.' Now,
sir, let us see what has 'been done for a white boy in
like circumstances.' In July, 1870, the President was
in Hartford, Ct., and in a conversation with my friend
the Hon. David Clark, in reference to my treatment at
West Point, he said: 'Don't take him away now; the battle
might just as well be fought now as at any other time,'
and gave him to understand that he would see me protected
in my rights; while his son Fred, who was then a cadet,
said to the same gentleman, and in the presence of his
father, that 'the time had not come to send colored boys
to West Point.
Pages:
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365