The privileges allowed cadets during an
encampment are different generally for the different
classes. These privileges are commonly designated by the
rank of the class, such, for instance, as "first-class
privileges," "third-class privileges," etc. Privileges which
are common receive their designation from some
characteristic in their nature or purpose. Thus we have
"Saturday afternoon privileges," and "Old Guard privileges."
The cadets are encamped and are not supposed to leave their
camp save by permission. This permission is granted by
existing orders, or if for any reason it be temporarily
denied it can be obtained by "permit" for some specified
time. Such permission or privilege obtained by "permit" for
a particular class is known as "class privileges," and can
be enjoyed only by the class that submits and gets the
permit.
"First-class privileges" permit all members of the first
class to leave camp at any time between troop and retreat,
except when on duty, and to take advantage of the usual
"Saturday afternoon privileges," which are allowed all
classes and all cadets. These privileges, however, cannot be
enjoyed on the Sabbath by any except the first-class
officers, without special permission.
The usual form of a permit is as follows:
West Point, N. Y., November 6, 1876.
Cadet A B C has permission to walk on public lands between
the hours of 8 A.M. and 4 P.M.
Lieut. Colonel First Art'y Comd'g Corps of Cadets.
Commanding Company "A."
By "Saturday afternoon privileges" is meant the right or
privilege to walk on all public lands within cadet limits on
Saturday afternoon. This includes also the privilege of
visiting the ruins of old Fort Putnam, which is not on
limits. These privileges are allowed throughout the year.
The second class being absent on furlough during the
encampment, of course have no privileges. Should any member
of the class be present during the encampment, he enjoys
"first-class privileges," unless they are expressly denied
him.
"Third-class privileges" do not differ from "first-class
privileges," except in that they cannot be taken advantage
of on the Sabbath by any member of the class.
The fourth class as a class have no privileges.
"Old Guard privileges" are certain privileges by which all
members of the "Old Guard" are exempted from all duty on the
day they march off guard until one o clock, and are
permitted to enjoy privileges similar to those of Saturday
afternoon during the same time. They also have the privilege
of bathing at that time.
The baths are designated as "first," "second," and "third."
The officers and non-commissioned officers have the first
baths, and the privates the others.
Cadets who march off guard on Sunday are restricted in the
enjoyment of their privileges to exemption from duty on the
Sabbath only. They may take advantage of the other
privileges on the following Monday during the usual time,
but are not excused from any duty. All members of the "Old
Guard," to whatever class they may belong, are entitled to
"Old Guard privileges."
Besides these there are other privileges which are enjoyed
by comparatively few. Such are "Hop managers privileges."
"Hop managers" are persons elected by their classmates from
the first and third classes for the management of the hops
of the summer. To enable them to discharge the duties of
their office, they are permitted to leave camp, whenever
necessary, by reporting their departure and return.
Under pleasures, or rather sources of pleasure, may be
enumerated hops, Germans, band practice, and those incident
to other privileges, such as "spooneying," or "spooning."
The hops are the chief source of enjoyment, and take place
on Mondays and Fridays, sometimes also on Wednesdays, at the
discretion of the Superintendent.
Germans are usually given on Saturday afternoons, and a
special permit is necessary for every one. These permits are
usually granted, unless there be some duty or other cause to
prevent.
Two evenings of every week are devoted to band practice,
Tuesday evening for practice in camp, and Thursday evening
for practice in front of the Superintendent s quarters. Of
course these entertainments, if I may so term them, have the
effect of bringing together the young ladies and cadets
usually denied the privilege of leaving camp during the
evening. It is quite reasonable to assume that they enjoy
themselves. On these evenings "class privileges" permit the
first and third-classmen to be absent from camp till the
practice is over. Sometimes a special permit is necessary.
It might be well to say here, ere I forget it, that
Wednesday evening is devoted to prayer, prayer meeting being
held in the Dialectic Hall. All cadets are allowed to attend
by reporting their departure and return. The meeting is
under the sole management of the cadets, although they are
by no means the sole participants. Other privileges, more or
less limited, such as the holding of class meetings for
whatever purpose, must be obtained by special permit in each
case.
We have not much longer here to stay,
Only a month or two,
Then we'll bid farewell to cadet gray,
And don the army blue.
Army blue, army blue,
We'll don the army blue,
We'll bid farewell to cadet gray and don the army blue.
To the ladies who come up in June,
We'll bid a fond adieu,
And hoping they will be married soon,
We'll don the army blue.
Army blue, army blue,
We'll don the army blue,
We'll bid farewell to cadet gray and don the army blue.
Addresses to the Graduating Class of the U. S. Military
Academy, West Point, N. Y., June 14th, 1877. By
Professor C. O. Thompson,
Major-General Winfield S.Hancock,
Honorable George W. Mccrary, Secretary Of War,
Major-General John M. Schofield, Superintendent U. S.
Military Academy.
Address By Professor C. O. Thompson,
President of the Board of Visitors.
Young Gentlemen Of The Graduating Class: The courtesy of
your admirable Superintendent forbids a possible breach in
an ancient custom, and lays upon me, as the representative,
for the moment, of the Board of Visitors, the pleasant duty
of tendering to you their congratulations on the close of
your academic career, and your auspicious future.
The people of this country have a heavy stake in the
prosperity of this institution. They recognize it as the
very fountain of their security in war, and the origin of
some of their best methods of education. And upon education
in colleges and common schools the pillars of the State
assuredly rest.
To participants and to bystanders, this ceremony of
graduation is as interesting and as exciting as if this were
the first, instead of the seventy-fifth occurrence. Every
such occasion is clothed with the splendor of perpetual
youth. The secret of your future success lies in the
impossibility of your entering into the experience of your
predecessors. Every man s life begins with the rising sun.
The world would soon become a frozen waste but for the
inextinguishable ardor of youth, which believes success
still to be possible where every attempt has failed.
That courage which avoids rashness by the restraints of
knowledge, and dishonor by the fear of God, is the best hope
of the world.
History is not life, but its reflection.
The great armies of modern times which have won immortal
victories have been composed of young men who have turned
into historic acts the strategy of experienced commanders.
To bystanders, for the same and other reasons, the occasion
is profoundly interesting.
For educated men who are true to honor and to righteousness,
the world anxiously waits; but an educated man who is false,
the world has good reason to dread. The best thing that can
be said of this Academy, with its long roll of heroes in war
and in peace, is, that every year the conviction increases
among the people of the United States, that its graduates
are men who will maintain, at all hazards, the simple
virtues of a robust manhood like Chaucer s young Knight,
courteous, lowly, and serviceable.
I welcome you, therefore, to the hardships and perils of a
soldier s life in a time of peace. The noise and the
necessities of war drive men in upon themselves and keep
their faculties awake and alert; but the seductive influence
of peace, when a soldier must spend his time in preparation
for the duties of his profession rather than in their
practice, this is indeed a peril to which the horrors of
warfare are subordinate. It is so much easier for men to
fight other men than themselves. So much easier to help
govern other men than to wholly govern themselves.
But, young gentlemen, as we have listened to your
examination, shared in your festivities, and enjoyed
personal acquaintance with you, we strongly hope for you
every thing lovely, honorable, and of good report.
You who have chosen the sword, may be helped in some trying
hour of your coming lives by recalling the lesson which is
concealed in a legend of English history. It is the old
lesson of the advantage of knowledge over its more showy
counterfeits, and guards against one of the perils of our
American society.
A man losing his way on a hillside, strayed into a chamber
full of enchanted knights, each lying motionless, in
complete armor, with his horse standing motionless beside
him. On a rock near the entrance lay a sword and a horn, and
the intruder was told that he must choose between these, if
he would lead the army. He chose the horn, and blew a loud
blast; whereupon the knights and their horses vanished in a
whirlwind, and their visitor was blown back into common air,
these words sounding after him upon the wind:
"Cursed be the coward, that ever he was born,
Who did not draw the sword before he blew the horn."
Young gentlemen, the Board of Visitors can have no better
wish for our common country than that your future will
fulfill the promise of the present.
Address By Major-General W. S. Hancock.
To me has been assigned the pleasant duty of welcoming into
the service as commissioned officers, the Graduates of the
Military Academy of today.
Although much time has elapsed since my graduation here, and
by contact with the rugged cares of life some of the sharp
edges of recollection may have become. dulled, yet I have
not lived long enough to have forgotten the joy of that
bright period. You only experience it today as I have felt
it before you.
I have had some experience of life since, and it might be
worth something to you were I to relate it. But youth is
self confident and impatient, and you may at present doubt
the wisdom of listening to sermons which you can learn at a
later day.
You each feel that you have the world in a sling, and that
it would be wearisome to listen to the croakings of the
past, and especially from those into whose shoes you soon
expect to step. That is the rule of life. The child growing
into manhood, believes that its judgment is better than the
knowledge of its parents; and yet if that experience was
duly considered, and its unselfish purposes believed in,
many shoals would be avoided, otherwise certain to be met
with in the journey of life, by the inexperienced but
confident navigator.
You should not forget that there were as bright intellects,
and men who possessed equal elements of greatness in past
generations as in this, and that deeds have been performed
in earlier times which, at best, the men of the present day
can only hope to rival. Why then should we not profit by the
experiences of the past; and as our lives are shot at best,
instead of following the ruts of our predecessors, start on
the road of life where they left off, and not continue to
repeat their failures? I cannot say why, unless it proceeds
from the natural buoyancy of youth, self confidence in its
ability to overcome all obstacles, and to carve out futures
more dazzling than any successes of the past. In this there
is a problem for you to solve. Yet I may do well by
acknowledging to you, today, that after an active military
life of no mean duration, soldiers of my length of service
feel convinced that they might have learned wisdom by
listening to the experience of those who preceded them. Had
they been prepared to assume that experience as a fact at
starting, and made departures from it, instead of
disregarding it, in the idea that there was nothing worthy
of note to be learned from a study of the past, it would be
safe to assume that they would have made greater advances in
their day.
Were I to give you my views in extenso, applicable to the
occasion, I could only repeat what has been well and
vigorously said here by distinguished persons in the past,
in your hearing, on occasions of the graduation of older
classes than your own.
You are impatient, doubtless, as I was in your time, and if
you have done as my class did before you, you have already
thrown your books away, and only await the moment of the
conclusion of these ceremonies to don the garb of the
officer or the civilian. The shell of the cadet is too
contracted to contain your impatient spirits. Nevertheless,
if you will listen but for a few minutes to the relation of
an old soldier, I will repeat of the lessons of experience a
few of those most worthy of your consideration.
-
There is but one comrade of my class remaining in active service today, and I think I might as truly have said the same ten years ago.
-
In the next thirty years, those of you who live will see that your numbers have become sensibly reduced, if not in similar proportion.
-
Some will have studied, have kept up with the times, been ready for service at the hour of their country s call, been prepared to accomplish the purposes for which their education was given to them.
-
Some will have sought the active life of the frontiers, and been also ready to perform their part in the hour of danger.
-
A few will have seized the passing honors.
-
It may have depended much upon opportunity among those who were well equipped for the occasion, who gained the greatest distinction; but it cannot for a moment be doubted that the roll of honor in the future of this class will never again stand as it stands today.
-
It will be a struggle of life to determine who among you will keep their standing in the contest for future honors and distinctions.
-
You who have been the better students here, and possessed the greater natural qualities, have a start in the race; but industry, study, perseverance, and other qualities will continue to be important factors in the future, as they have been in the past.
-
Through continuous mental, moral, and physical development, with progress in the direction of your profession and devotion to duty, lies the road to military glory; and it may readily come to pass that "the race will not be to the swift, nor the battle to the strong," as you regard your classmates today.
-
It must be admitted, however, that great leaders are born.
A rare combination of natural qualities causes men to
develop greatness. Education and training make them greater;
nevertheless, men with fewer natural qualities often
succeed, with education and training, when those more richly
endowed fail to reach the higher places, and you have
doubtless witnessed that in your experience here.
A man in a great place in modern times is not respectable
without education. That man must be a God to command modern
armies successfully without it; yet war is a great school;
men learn quickly by experience, and in long wars there will
be found men of natural abilities who will appear at the
front. It will be found, however, in the long run, that the
man who has prepared himself to make the best use of his
natural talents will win in the race, if he has the
opportunity, while others of equal or greater natural parts
may fail from lack of that mental and moral training
necessary to win the respect of those they command.
Towards the close of our civil war, men came to the front
rank who entered the service as privates. They were men of
strong natural qualities. How far the best of them would
have proceeded had the war continued, cannot be told; but it
may be safely assumed that if they possessed the moral
qualities and the education necessary to command the respect
of the armies with which they were associated, they would
have won the highest honors; and yet our war lasted but four
years.
Some of them had the moral qualities, some the education;
and I have known of those men who thus came forward, some
who would certainly have reached the highest places in a
long race, had they had the training given to you.
War gives numerous opportunities for distinction, and
especially to those who in peace have demonstrated that they
would be available in war; and soldiers can win distinction
in both peace and war if they will but seize their
opportunities.
"There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the
flood, leads on to victory."
Great responsibilities in time of danger are not given to
the ignorant, the slothful, or to those who have impaired
their powers of mind or body by the indulgences of life. In
times of danger favorites are discarded. When work is to be
done, deeds to be performed, men of action have their
opportunities and fail not to seize them. It is the interest
of commanders that such men should be selected for service,
when success or failure may follow, according to the wisdom
of the selection, as the instrument may be sharp or dull,
good or bad.
I would say to you, lead active, temperate, studious lives,
develop your physical qualities as well as mental. Regard
the education acquired here as but rudimentary; pursue your
studies in the line of your profession and as well in such
other branches of science or language as may best accord
with your inclinations. It will make you greater in your
profession and cause you to be independent of it. The latter
is but prudent in these practical days.
Study to lead honorable, useful, and respected lives. Even
if no opportunity presents for martial glory you will not
fail to find your reward.
Avoid the rocks of dissipation, of gambling, of debt; lead
those manly lives which will always find you in health in
mind and body, free from entanglements of whatever kind, and
you may be assured you will find your opportunities for
great services, when otherwise you would have been
overlooked or passed by. Such men are known and appreciated
in every army and out of it.
Knowledge derived from books may bring great distinction
outside of the field of war, as an expert in the lessons of
the military profession and in others, but the lessons of
hard service are salutary and necessary to give the soldier
a practical understanding of the world and its ways as he
will encounter them in war. I would advise you to go when
young to the plains to the wilderness seek active service
there, put off the days of indulgence and of ease. Those
should follow years.
Take with you to the frontier your dog, your rod and gun;
the pursuit of a life in the open air with such adjuncts
will go far to give you health and the vigor to meet the
demands to be made upon you in trying campaigns, and to
enable you to establish the physical condition necessary to
maintain a life of vigor such as a soldier requires. You
will by these means, too, avoid many of the temptations
incident to an idle life all calculated to win you from your
usefulness in the future, and by no means leave your books
behind you.
When I graduated, General Scott, thinking possibly to do me
a service, asked me to what regiment I desired to be
assigned; I replied, to the regiment stationed at the most
western post in the United States. I was sent to the Indian
Territory of today. We had not then acquired California or
New Mexico, and our western boundary north of Texas was the
one hundredth degree of longitude.
I know that that early frontier service and the
opportunities for healthy and vigorous outdoor exercise were
of great advantage to me in many ways, and would have been
more so had I followed the advice in reference to study that
I have given to you.
There are many "extreme western" posts today. It is
difficult to say which is the most western in the sense of
that day, when the Indian frontiers did not as now, lie in
the circumference of an inner circle; but the Yellowstone
will serve your purpose well. And if any of you wish to seek
that service your taste will not be difficult to gratify,
for the hardest lessons will be certain to be avoided by
many. There will be those who in the days of youth will seek
the softer places. They may have their appropriate duties
there and do their parts well, but it may be considered a
safe maxim that the indulgence of the present will have to
be paid for in the future A man may not acquire greatness by
pursuing religiously the course I have indicated as the
best, but it will be safe to assume that when the roll of
honor of your class is called after a length of service
equal to mine, but few, if any of your number, will have
done their part well in public estimation save of those who
shall have pretty closely followed these safe rules of life.
Gentlemen, I bid you welcome.
Address By Hon. G. W. McCrary,
Secretary Of War.
Gentlemen Of The Graduating Class: Although not a part of
the programme arranged for these exercises, I cannot refuse
to say a word by way of greeting, and I would make it as
hearty and earnest as possible to you, gentlemen, one and
all, upon this occasion, so interesting to you as well is to
the entire army, and to the people of the whole country.
There are others here who will speak to you as soldiers, to
whom you will listen, and from whom you will receive all
counsel and admonition as coming from men who have
distinguished themselves in the command of the greatest
armies the world has ever seen, and by the achievement of
some of the grandest victories recorded upon the pages of
history.
I would speak to you as a citizen; and as such, I desire to
assure you that you are today the centre of a general
interest pervading every part of our entire country. It is
not the army alone that is interested in the graduating
class of 1877. West Point Military Academy, more than any
other institution in the land far more is a national
institution one in which we have a national pride.
It is contrary to the policy of this country to keep in time
of peace a large standing army We have adopted what I think
is a wiser and better policy that of educating a large
number of young men in the science of arms, so that they may
be ready when the time of danger comes. You will go forth
from this occasion with your commissions as Second
Lieutenants in the army; but I see, and I know that the
country sees, that if war should come, and large armies
should be organized and marshaled, we have here seventy-six
young gentlemen, any one of whom can command not only a
company, but a brigade; and I think I may say a division, or
an army corps.
The experience of the past teaches that I do not exaggerate
when I say this. At all events, such is the theory upon
which our government proceeds, and it is expected that every
man who is educated in this institution, whether he remains
in the ranks of the army or not, wherever he may be found
and called upon, shall come and draw his sword in defense of
his country and her flag.
It is a happy coincidence that one hundred years ago today,
on the 14th of June, 1777, the Continental Congress passed
the act which fixed our national emblem as the stars and
stripes. It is a happy coincidence that you graduate upon
the anniversary of the passage of that act the centennial
birthday of the stars and stripes. I do not know that it
will add any thing to your love of the flag and of your
country. I doubt whether any thing would add to that; but I
refer to this coincidence with great pleasure.
Gentlemen of the Graduating Class: I am not qualified to
instruct you in your duties as soldiers, but these is one
thing I may say to you, because it ought to be said to every
graduating class, and to all young men about to enter upon
the active duties of life, and that is, that the profession
does not ennoble the man, but the man ennobles the
profession Behind the soldier is the man.
Character, young men, is every thing; without it, your
education is nothing; without it, your country will be
disappointed in you. Go forth into life, then, firmly
resolved to be true, not only to the flag of your country,
not only to the institutions of the land, not only to the
Union which our fathers established, and which the blood of
our countrymen has cemented, but to be true to yourselves
and the principles of honor, of rectitude, of temperance, of
virtue, which have always characterized the great and
successful soldier, and must always characterize such a
soldier in the future.
Address By Major-General John M.
Schofield,
Superintendent U. S. Military Academy.
Gentlemen Of The Graduating Class: The agreeable duty now
devolves upon me of delivering to you the diplomas which the
Academic Board have awarded you as Graduates of the Military
Academy.
These diplomas you have fairly won by your ability, your
industry, and your obedience to discipline. You receive
them, not as favors from any body, but as the just and
lawful reward of honest and persistent effort.
You have merited, and are about to receive, the highest
honors attainable by young men in our country. You have won
these honors by hard work and patient endurance, and you are
thus prepared to prize them highly. Unless thus fairly won,
honors, like riches, are of little value.
As you learn, with advancing years, to more fully appreciate
the value in life of the habits you have acquired of self
reliance, long sustained effort, obedience to discipline,
and respect for lawful authority, a value greater even than
that of the scientific knowledge you have gained, you will
more and more highly prize the just reward which you are
today found worthy to receive.
You are now prepared to enter upon an honorable career in
the great arena of the world. The West Point Diploma has
ever been a passport to public respect, and to the
confidence of government. But such respect and confidence
imply corresponding responsibilities. The honor of West
Point and that of the army are now in your keeping; and your
country is entitled to the best services, intellectual,
moral, and physical, which it may be in your power to
render.
That you may render such services, do not fail to pursue
your scientific studies, that you may know the laws of
nature, and make her forces subservient to the public
welfare. Study carefully the history, institutions, and laws
of your country, that you may be able to see and to defend
what is lawful and right in every emergency. Study not only
the details of your profession, but the highest principles
of the art of war, You may one day be called to the highest
responsibility. And, above all, be governed in all things by
those great moral principles which have been the guide of
great and good men in all ages and in all countries. Without
such guide the greatest genius can do only evil to mankind.
One of your number, under temptation which has sometimes
proved too great for even much older soldiers, committed A
breach of discipline for which he was suspended. The
Honorable Secretary of War has been kindly pleased to remit
the penalty, so that your classmate may take his place among
you according to his academic rank.
You have to regret the absence of one of your number, who
has been prevented by extreme illness from pursuing the
studies of the last year. But I am glad to say that Mr.
Barnett has so far recovered that he will be able to return
to the Academy, and take his place in the next class.
Another member of the class has been called away by the
death of his father, but he had passed his examination, and
will graduate with you. His diploma will be sent to him.
With the single exception, then, above mentioned, I have the
satisfaction of informing you that you graduate with the
ranks of your class unbroken.
We take leave of you, gentlemen, not only with hope, but
with full confidence that you will acquit yourselves well in
the honorable career now before you. We give you our
parental blessing, with fervent wishes for your prosperity,
happiness, and honor.
Loud applause greeted the close of the general s speech, and
the graduates were then called up one by one and Their
diplomas delivered to them. The first to step forward was
Mr. William M. Black, of Lancaster, Penn., whose career at
the Academy has been remarkable. He has stood at the head of
his class for the whole four years, actually distancing all
competitors. He is a young man of signal ability, won his
appointment in a competitive examination, and has borne
himself with singular modesty and good sense. During the
past year he has occupied the position of Adjutant of the
Corps of Cadets the highest post which can be held. General
Sherman shook hands with the father of the young cadet a
grand looking old gentleman, and very proud of his son, as
he has a right to be and warmly congratulated him on the
brilliant career which was before the young man. The next on
the list was Mr. Walter F. Fisk. When Mr. Flipper, the
colored cadet, stepped forward, and received the reward of
four years of as hard work and unflinching courage and
perseverance as any young man could be called upon to go
through, the crowd of spectators gave him a round of hearty
applause. He deserves it. Any one who knows how quietly and
bravely this young man the first of his despised race to
graduate at West Point has borne the difficulties of his
position; how for four years he has had to stand apart from
his classmates as one with them but not of them; and to all
the severe work of academic official life has had added the
yet more severe mental strain which bearing up against a
cruel social ostracism puts on any man; and knowing that he
has done this without getting soured, or losing courage for
a day any one, I say, who knows all this would be inclined
to say that the young man deserved to be well taken care of
by the government he is bound to serve. Everybody here who
has watched his course speaks in terms of admiration of the
unflinching courage he has shown. No cadet will go away with
heartier wishes for his future welfare.
When the last of the diplomas had been given, the line
reformed, the band struck up a lively tune, the cadets
marched to the front of the barracks, and there Cadet Black,
the Adjutant, read the orders of the day, they being the
standing of the students in their various classes, the list
of new officers, etc. This occupied some time, and at its
conclusion Colonel Neil, Commandant of Cadets, spoke a few
kind words to the First Class, wished them all success in
life, and then formally dismissed them.
At the close of the addresses the Superintendent of the
Academy delivered the diplomas to the following cadets,
members of the Graduating Class. The names are
alphabetically arranged:
Graduating Class of 1877
Henry Ossian Flipper, The Colored Cadet
at West Point, 1878