ed; that it demands much previous study; and that the
possession of it in its most important and perfect state is always of
great moment to the security of a nation." Congress did make provision
for the carrying out of many of the President's recommendations; it
created a new grade in the army, that of _Cadet_, to which young men
exclusively were admitted, and money was appropriated for their
education in the science of war that they might be prepared for
positions of command. But Congress delayed the potential part of the
plan; it did not collect the regiment of artillerists and engineers at a
single station, nor did it erect buildings for the uses of education.

The idea did not die; in 1802 Congress made the first of those
provisions for a military academy with the plan and scope which
Washington had so persistently urged. West Point was chosen as the place
of its location. That academy has more than once demonstrated the
wisdom of the far-seeing Washington.

West Point is the realization of Washington's plans for a national
school of military instruction. To-day it represents to the country the
important features of that plan for a National University. By his last
will and testament, Washington bequeathed the fifty shares of stock in
the Potomac Company to the establishment of a National University in the
central part of the United States; he made provision that until such a
university should be founded the fund should be self-accumulating by the
use of the dividends in the purchase of more stock, to still further
augment the endowment fund. In the transfers and changes of commercial
life apparent record of that stock has been lost, yet that last will
bequeathed an ideal which in indirect ways is still inspiring our
national educational system.

Let us take our place by the side of a student of our national history
and institutions, as after a walk through the buildings across that
noble plain at West Point he sits down to meditate, on the granite steps
of the "Battle Monument." He is where the history of yesterday abides,
but about him is represented the strength and life of the nation, and
the strong military figures of officers, cadets, and soldiers from every
section of our country. He feels the wisdom of that great desire of
Washington's that the life and thought of the widely separated sections
of the rising empire should become homogeneous and unified by the
meeting of the young men of the land in a central