CHAPTER XI.

ACTION TAKEN BY CONGRESS AND INCREASE OF THE NUMBER OF CADETS. URGENT RECOMMENDATIONS IN FAVOR OF THE INSTITUTION BY PRESIDENT MADISON.-REORGANIZATION OF THE INSTITUTION IN 1812, BY WHICH IT BECAME A BRANCH OF THE ARMY.-REDUCTION OF THE LATTER, AND RECOMMENDATION OF THE PRESIDENT TO ENLARGE THE ACADEMY.—INQUIRY INTO THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF THE INSTITUTION.-UNANIMITY OF BOARDS OF INVESTIGATING COMMITTEES ON THE SUBJECT.-PROGRESS OF THE INSTITUTION, AND THE DIFFICULTIES IT ENCOUNTERED--CHANGES AMONG THE TEACHERS.—ORGANIZATION UNDER THE LAW OF 1812.—RESIGNATION OF COLONEL WILLIAMS; COLONEL SWIFT HIS SUCCESSOR.-INTRODUCTION OF THE INSPECTOR.-RULES WITH RESPECT TO THE PROMOTION OF CADETS.-APPOINTMENT OF A Board of VISITORS.-UNIFORM OF THE CADETS.---Report of THE CHIEF-ENGINEER.

THE Message before mentioned was referred to Messrs. Nicholas, of Virginia, Troup, of Georgia, Desha, of Kentucky, Upham, of Massachusetts, and Milner, of Pennsylvania. The names of some of these gentlemen are identified with republican principles, and they will not be suspected of having lost sight of or disregarded the strict requirements of the Constitution. This Committee reported a bill on the 12th of April, 1808, which added one hundred and fifty-six members to the corps of cadets, and which passed in the House by a vote of 95 to 16.

Under the succeeding administration, the welfare and interests of the Institution were repeatedly recommended

to the favorable consideration of Congress by the Execu tive. In his annual communication, dated 5th December, 1810, Mr. Madison maintains its usefulness with great earnestness and power, and combats successfully a popular impression, that such establishments were only suited to nations whose policy was, to a considerable extent, and by the necessity of their position, warlike.

"The Corps of Engineers, with the Military Academy, are entitled to the early attention of Congress. But a revision of the law is recommended, principally with a view to a more enlarged cultivation and diffusion of the advantages of such institutions, by providing professorships for all the necessary branches of military instruction, and by the establishment of an additional Academy at the seat of government or elsewhere.

"The means by which wars, as well for defence as offence, are now carried on, render these schools of the more scientific operations an indispensable part of every adequate system. Even among nations whose large standing armies and frequent wars afford every other opportunity of instruction, these establishments are found to be indispensable for the due attainment of military science, which requires a regular course of study and experiment.

"In a country, happily without the other opportunities, seminaries, where the elementary principles of the art of war can be taught without actual war, and without the expense of extensive and standing armies, have the precious advantage of uniting an essential preparation against external dangers, with a scrupulous regard to internal safety. In no other way, probably, can a pro

vision of equal efficiency for the public defence be made at so little expense, or more consistently with the public liberty. It seems almost superfluous to remark, that the recommendation for creating a new Academy, as well as the whole tenor of this extract, is conclusive evidence that the constitutionality of these institutions was considered by Mr. Madison to be unquestionable. The maintenance of an unconstitutional establishment could not, with any propriety, be said to be consistent "with a scrupulous regard to internal safety," and "with public liberty." In 1811, Congress was again reminded by the President of the importance of these military seminaries, which, in every event, will form a valuable and frugal part of our military establishment."+

And before the close of the session, the Act of April 29, 1812, was passed, which declares that the Military Academy shall consist of the Corps of Engineers, and the following professors and assistants, in addition to the teachers of French and Drawing already provided for: viz., a Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy; a Professor of Mathematics; a Professor of Engineering; with an assistant for each. A Chaplain was also to be appointed, and required to officiate as Professor of Geography, Ethics, and History. The number of cadets was limited to two hundred and sixty; the requirements for admission, the term of study and service, and the rate of pay and emoluments were pre

scribed.

The broad basis of the Military Academy was thus laid; and as the Act of 1802 expressly declares, “that

* Jour. House Reps., 11th Cong., 436.

Jour. House Reps., 12th Cong., 8.

the Corps of Engineers shall constitute a Military Acad emy," and the Act of 1812 reiterates "that the Military Academy shall consist of the Corps of Engineers and the following professors and assistants, in addition," &c.; it will be perceived that the Military Academy, as designed by its founders, does not consist in buildings, apparatus, and location, where instruction is communicated, but in a regularly constituted military body, whose officers and professors are appointed, confirmed, and commissioned, in the same manner and form as other army officers, and subjected to the same Rules and Articles of War as govern all the land forces of the United States.*

By the Act of March 3, 1815, the Army was reduced to ten thousand men, a number deemed to be sufficiently large, in view of the segregation of this country from Europe, and the diminished strength of the Indian tribes. In his last Message, dated December 5, 1815, Mr. Madison urged "an enlargement of the Military Academy, and the establishment of others in sections of the Union. "If experience has shown in the recent splendid achievements of the militia the value of this resource for public defence, it has shown, also, the importance of that skill in the use of arms, and that familiarity with the essential rules of discipline, which cannot be expected from the regulations now in force."

During the sessions of Congress in 1815 and 1817, bills were introduced in the House of Representatives for creating additional Military Academies, which, however, received no decisive action. In 1821 the Army

* Attorney Gen. U. S., Aug. 25, 1819; Sect. of War, May 6, 1846.

was further reduced to six thousand men, but the act of this year, as well as that of 1815, authorized the retaining of the Corps of Engineers as already organized.

These legislative enactments in relation to the Academy, considered in connection with the army, clearly indicate it to have been the settled policy of that day not to rely upon the rank and file of the army, which were enlisted for a short period, and could never be thoroughly disciplined, but to educate officers, so that instructors could always be found ready and competent to teach new levies, whenever changes in the political condition of the country might require them to be raised.

The proceedings in the House of Representatives in 1821, demonstrate most conclusively that public sentiment, so far as it could be expressed through the representatives of the people, was strongly and almost unanimously in favor of the perpetuity of this method of providing for future military instruction.

On February 6th, of that year, a resolution was introduced, proposing an inquiry into the constitutionality of the Military Academy. Ten days after, a motion was made to discontinue the pay and rations of the Cadets, and discharge them from the Academy and the service of the United States-a motion, the certain effect of which would have been the abolition of the Institution.

The opinion of the House upon the subject in general, and the two propositions in particular, was emphatically shown in the vote on the last, which was rejected by a majority of eighty-nine. Subsequent to these proceedings in the popular branch of the government, President Monroe, in his annual message in 1822, pronounced this