or the higher education to fit men for high
command in the army. It is not mainly a question of _military_
education. Early deficiencies in that respect may soon be overcome
by the constant practice afforded by active service. The indispensable
necessity is for _education in general_, and especially in those
things which army officers are not habitually required to know,
but which are of vital importance to those who must, in great
emergencies, by intrusted with great responsibilities and with
discretionary authority. That very emergency of 1894 gave examples
of officers, not educated at West Point nor at any other military
school, distinguished for gallant and efficient military service
in the field, who proved to be perfectly familiar with the principles
of constitutional and military law which ought to govern the action
of troops under circumstances like those of 1894; while others,
distinguished as commanders in the field, seemed strangely ignorant
of both constitutional and military laws. It is also worthy of
remark that such necessary legal education did not appear to be
universal among the West Point graduates at that time. Some men
who are not graduates of West Point are much better qualified for
high command than some who are.

OFFICERS NOT EDUCATED AT WEST POINT

Much has been said about a supposed prejudice in the army against
officers who have not enjoyed the advantages of education at the
military academy. I aver, emphatically that I have never seen any
evidence of any such feeling, and I do not believe it has ever
existed to any appreciable extent. On the contrary, the general
feeling has been that of just and generous consideration for officers
who were at first laboring under that disadvantage. Some of the
most popular men in the army have been among those appointed from
civil life or from the volunteers. General Alfred H. Terry was a
fair example of this. He was a ripe scholar, a thorough lawyer,
a very laborious student of the art and science of war,--more so
than most West Point graduates,--and so modest that he hesitated
to accept the appointment of brigadier-general in the regular army,
although it had been given for so distinguished a service as the
capture of Fort Fisher, on the ground that older officers who had
devoted their whole lives to the military service were better
entitled to it.

The general feeling in the army has no special refere