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of peace presented no duties but that of the garrison, and no glory to the profession of arms, it was natural and proper for active and ambitious young men to seek honor and usefulness in other pursuits. Nor did the government discourage this, for it foresaw what has hap pened, that these young men, so highly educated in science, would diffuse this knowledge throughout the country; elevate the standard of education, and be ready when their country needed their ser vices. This has happened. A better knowledge of the exact sciences has been carried into the colleges; the railroads and canals have been built by engineers ready furnished by the government; and now when half a million of men have been suddenly called to war, they have been largely officered by the graduates of West Point. Here we may briefly allude to the most grave fact which has been urged against the Military Academy. The best officers. of the rebel army were educated there. Why is this? Is there a want of sound morals? or, is loyalty no virtue there? Neither. A part, and a part only* of the graduates born and grown up in the south, have gone with their friends, families, and connections, into the rebel service. This was on account of social ties, and had no more to do with West Point, than had other rebels from Harvard, or Yale, with those institutions. The noticeable fact is that they were educated at the government expense, and therefore under peculiar obligations to the country. But we find a parallel in the numerous officers of the state, as well as of the army and navy, who had been honored and rewarded at the public expense, but who thought it no shame to betray their country, and conspire against its life. We in vain attempt to account for such crimes, except upon the principle of common depravity, of which history has furnished similar examples in all ages of the world.

We have come to the end of the work we proposed. The rise, progress, and fruits of the Military Academy, we have briefly, and, we trust, justly delineated. Certainly, we have no end to serve, no prejudice to gratify. We knew the Academy in its early and immature period. We have seen it grow up to usefulness and honor. We see its graduates taking their places among those who have well served their country, and well deserved its laurels. In this we are glad. But our memory is filled with other images. We see West Point, in the now lengthening shadows of time. We seem to see those with whom we studied freshly present, as they

*We should not forget that a large number of West Point graduates from the south, (Maryland, Virginia. Carolina, and Tennessee,) have remained loyal, in spite of all the influ.. ences of social and political ties.

walk the green plain, or sit before the class, or strive to teach our dull and inattentive minds. They were men worth remembering, and when, in after times, we became their friends, rather than their pupils, still more pleasant memories gathered around them. We seem to see the venerable ELLICOTT, like Goldsmith's schoolmaster, alike full of learning, and of kindly humor; the placid and intellectual expression of MANSFIELD, whose abstracted looks seemed to be searching the higher philosophy; the courtly and dignified THAYER, whose graceful manners and attractive conversation can not be forgotten by any who knew him; and the amiable CourtNAY, who though of later date, will long be remembered. He left the world in doubt, whether he was the better scholar or the better man.*

Of these, and of those like them, do we think, when we think of West Point. Nor of those alone; the place itself, where nature delights in the sublime and beautiful, rises before us. No imagination is necessary to clothe it with the hues of poetry; no books to recall the lost passages of history; no labored eulogy to bring up the memories of the dead. You can no more forget them, than you can the Pilgrims, when standing by the rock of Plymouth. Yon gray and moss-covered ruin was once the fortress of the Revolution. Yon scarcely perceptible pile of stones marks the spot where its soldiers were hutted in the winter. Yon slightly raised turf, beneath the dark shades of the cedar, was his grave, and soon, perhaps even now, that slight memorial will be gone forever. Yon little valley under the shadows of the mountain, recalls the illustrious name of Washington. Yon blue mountain-top tells of the beacon fires he lit. All around are memories; all around are sacred spots. If the Greek remembers Marathon; if the Jew lingers at Jerusalem, or the Christian pilgrim grows warm at Bethlehem, so should the American remember West Point; linger round the ruins of Fort Put, and gaze with delight on the blue summit of Beacon Hill.

* Mr. Courtnay was afterwards Professor of Philosophy and Mechanics in the University of Virginia, There he died, lamented by all who knew him.

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APPLICATIONS for admission into the United States Military Academy at West Point, should be made by letter to the Secretary of War. By provision of law, each Congressional and Territorial district, and the District of Columbia, is entitled to have one cadet at the Military Academy, and no more. The district appointments are made on the nomination of the member of Congress representing the district at the date of the appointment. The law requires that the individual selected shall be an actual resident of the Congressional district of the State or Territory, or District of Columbia, from which the appointment purports Also, appointments "at large," not to exceed ten, are annually made. Application can be made, at any time, by the candidate himself, his parent, guardian, or any of his friends, and the name placed on the register. No preference will be given to applications on account of priority; nor will any application be entered in the register when the candidate is under or above the prescribed age; the precise age must be given; no relaxation of the regulation in this respect will be made; nor will any application be considered in cases where and other qualifications of the candidates are not stated. The fixed abode of the candidate, and number of the Congressional district which he considers his permanent residence, must be set forth in the application. The pay of a cadet is $30 per month, to commence from his admission into the Military Academy, and is considered ample, with proper economy, for his support.

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The appointments will be made annually in the month of February or March, on the applications made within the preceding year. The claims of all the candidates on the register will be considered and acted upon. No certain information can be given as to the probable success of the candidate, before the arrival of the period for making the selections. Persons, therefore, making applications, must not expect to receive information on this point.

As a general rule, no person will be appointed who has had a brother educa

ted at the institution.

QUALIFICATIONS.

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Candidates must be over sixteen and under twenty-one years of age, at the time of entrance into the Military Academy; must be at least five feet in height, and free from any deformity, disease, or infirmity, which would render them untit for the military service, and from any disorder of an infectious or immoral character. They must be able to read and write well, and perform with facility and accuracy the various operations of the four ground rules of arithmetic, of reduction, of simple and compound proportion, and of vulgar and decimal fractions. It must be understood that a full compliance with the above conditions will be insisted on that is to say-the candidate must write in a fair and legible hand, and without any material mistakes in spelling, such sentences as shall be dictated by the examiners; and he must answer promptly, and without errors,

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all their questions in the above-mentioned rules of arithmetic: failing in any of these particulars, he will be rejected.

It must also be understood, that every candidate will, soon after his arrival at West Point, be subjected to a rigid examination by an experienced medical board; and should there be found to exist in him any of the following causes of disqualification, to such a degree as will immediately, or in all probability may at no very distant period, impair his efficiency, he will be rejected:

1. Feeble constitution and muscular tenuity; unsound health from whatever cause; indications of former disease; glandular swellings, or other symptoms of scrofula.

2. Chronic cutaneous affections, especially of the scalp, or any disorder of an infectious character.

3. Severe injuries of the bones of the head; convulsions.

4. Impaired vision from whatever cause; inflammatory affections of the eyelids; immobility or irregularity of the iris; fistula lachrymalis, &c., &c.

5. Deafness; copious discharge from the ears.

6. Loss of many teeth, or teeth generally unsound.

7. Impediment of speech.

8. Want of due capacity of the chest, and any other indication of a liability to a pulmonic disease.

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9. Impaired or inadequate efficiency of one or both of the superior extremi

ties on account of fractures, especially of the clavicle, contraction of a joint, extenuation, deformity, &c., &c.

10. An unnatural excurvature or incurvature of the spine.

11. Hernia.

12. A varicose state of the veins, of the scrotum and spermatic cord, (when large,) sarcocele, hydrocele, hemorrhoids, fistulas.

13. Impaired or inadequate efficiency of one or both of the inferior extremities on account of varicose veins, fractures, malformation, (flat feet, &c.,) lameness, contraction, unequal length, bunions, over-lying or supernumerary toes, &c., &c.

14. Ulcers, or unsound cicatrices of ulcers likely to break out afresh.

III. ALDEN PARTRIDGE.

ALDEN PARTRIDGE, Captain in the United States Corps of Engineers, Professor and Superintendent of the Military Academy at West Point, and the Founder of a class of institutions in which the military element is recognized and provided for as an essential part of the training of the American citizen, was born at Norwich in Vermont, on the 12th of January, 1785. His father was a farmer, in independent circumstances, served in the war of the Revolution, and took part in the capture of Burgoyne and his army at Saratoga. He brought up his son in the New England fashion, at such district school as the times and the country afforded in the winter, and at all sorts of work about the house and on the farm at other seasons,, until he was sixteen years of age, when, being of studious turn, and fond of reading, he was allowed to fit for college, and entered Dartmouth in August, 1802. We have no knowledge of his studies in college, but it is presumed that his predilections were for the mathematics, and from the lateness with which he commenced his Latin and his subsequent declarations, his aversion was for the languages. Before completing his collegiate course he received the appointment of cadet* in the regiment of artillerists in the United States service, with orders to repair to West Point, and report himself to the commanding officer of the Military Academy at that place.

The Military Academy at the time Cadet Partridge arrived at West Point was very inadequately equipped with the men and material aids of instruction, although the two teachers appointed

*A Cadet in the military organization of the Army denoted a junior officer between the grade of lieutenant and sergeant, and was introduced from the French service. An Act of Congress, passed May 7th, 1794, provided for a Corps of Artillerists and Engineers, to consist of four battalions, to each of which eight cadets were to be attached, and authorized the Secretary of War to procure at the public expense the necessary books, instruments and apparatus for the use and benefit of said corps. In 1798, an additional regiment of Artillerists and Engineers was raised, increasing the number of Cadets to fifty-six. In 1798, the President was authorized to appoint four teachers of the Arts and Sciences necessary to Artillerists and Engineers. No appointment was made till 1801, and in 1802, the Military Academy was established at West Point, where the corps of Engineers was directed to repair with fifty Cadets, and the Senior Officer of the Corps was constituted Superintendent. Col. Williams was then Senior Officer of Engineers, and became, ex-officio, Superintendent, and continued such until 1812.

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