ficer will
report you for laxity of discipline in case it continues, and place you
under arrest."

The Brigadier, when he heard of this conversation, intimated that should
the Inspecting Officer attempt it, he would leave the Brigade limits
under guard; and it was not attempted.

Nonsense such as this is not only contemptible but criminal, when
contrasted with the kind fellowship of Washington for his men,--his
solicitude for their sufferings at Valley Forge,--Putnam sharing his
scanty meals with privates of his command,--Napoleon learning the wants
of his veterans from their own lips, and tapping a Grenadier familiarly
upon the shoulder to ask the favor of a pinch from his snuff-box. Those
worthies may rest assured that marquees pitched at Regulation distance,
and access through non-commissioned officers, will not, if natural
dignity be wanting, create respect. How greatly would the efficiency of
the army have been increased, had the true gentility that characterized
the noble soul of Colonel Simmons, who fell at Gaines' Mills, and that
will always command reverence, been more general among his brother
officers of the Regular Army.

These evil results should not, however, lead to a wholesome condemnation
of West Point. The advantages of the Institution have been abused, or
rather neglected, by the great masses of the Loyal States. In our moral
matter-of-fact business communities it has been too generally the case,
that cadets have been the appointees of political favoritism, regardless
of merit; and that the wild and often worthless son of influential and
wealthy parents, who had grown beyond home restraint, and who gave
little indication of a life of honor or usefulness, would be turned into
the public inclosure at West Point to square his morals and his toes at
the same time at public expense, and the act rejoiced at as a good
family riddance. Thus in the Loyal States, the profession of arms had
fallen greatly into disrepute previously to the outbreak of the
Rebellion, and instead of being known as a respectable vocation, was
considered as none at all. Had military training to some extent been
connected with the common school education of the land, we would have
gained in health, and would have been provided with an able array of
officers for our noble army of Volunteers. Among other preparations for
their infamous revolt, the Rebels did not fail to give this especial
prominence. The Northern States have been grea