ring the Revolution Washington recommended the excellent location of
West Point as the proper one for a military school of instruction. An
act establishing the United States Military Academy at that place was
passed March 16, 1802. It provided that fifty students or cadets should
be given instruction under the senior engineer or officer, assisted by
the corps of engineers of the army. As the institution grew,
professorships of mathematics, engineering, philosophy, etc., were
added, and the academy was made a military body subject to the rules and
articles of war. A superintendent was designated in 1815, and the
present system of appointing cadets was instituted in 1843. The rigid
course, steadily elevated, probably prevents fully one-half of those
entering from graduating, and, a comparison of the West Point Military
Academy with similar institutions establishes the fact that it is the
finest of the kind in the world.

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1796.

The presidential election of 1796 was a close one, the result being:
John Adams, Federalist, 71; Thomas Jefferson, Republican, 68; Thomas
Pinckney, of South Carolina, Federalist, 59; Aaron Burr, of New York,
Republican, 30; Samuel Adams, of Massachusetts, Republican, 15; Oliver
Ellsworth, of Connecticut, Independent, 11; George Clinton, of New York,
Republican, 7; John Jay, of New York, Federalist, 5; James Iredell, of
North Carolina, Federalist, 3; George Washington, of Virginia, John
Henry, of Maryland, and S. Johnson, of North Carolina, all Federalists,
2 votes each; Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, of South Carolina,
Federalist, 1 vote. Since it required 70 votes to elect, it will be seen
that John Adams was barely successful, with Jefferson close to him.

John Adams, the second President, was born at Braintree, Massachusetts,
October 19, 1735. He graduated at Harvard, at the age of twenty, and was
admitted to the bar three years later. He was one of the most active and
influential members of the First and Second Continental Congresses. It
was he who by his eloquent logic persuaded Congress to adopt the
Declaration of Independence. Jefferson, his strenuous political
opponent, declared that Adams was the pillar of its support and its
ablest advocate and defender. It was Adams who suggested the appointment
of General Washington as commander-in-chief of the Continental army.
During the progress of the war, he criticised the management of
Washington, but, long before the de