ariable rule of courtesy enjoined by military
law among military men. With no little difficulty I restrained my
indignation so far as to write a calm and respectful letter to the
Secretary of War, inclosing a copy of my correspondence with General
Sherman respecting my command at West Point, and pointing out the
regulation which he or the adjutant-general had ignored, and
requesting him to submit the whole matter to the President. It is
due to the Honorable Secretary, and is a pleasure to me, to say
that he did not wait the slow course of the mail, but telegraphed
me at once that it was all a mistake, and that he made all the
amend that a gentleman could make under the circumstances. He as
well as I had been made the victim of the ignorance and discourtesy
of a staff officer, in a matter about which the Secretary of War
could of necessity know nothing unless the staff officer informed
him. But I was determined to guard against any such outrage in
the future, and hence insisted that West Point be erected into a
military department. By this means I would become entitled to the
effective intervention and protection of the general of the army.
This is the origin of that anomaly which must have puzzled many
military men, namely, the "Department of West Point."

But I discovered in time that even this safeguard was by no means
sufficient. I had some apprehension on this subject at the start,
and telegraphed General Sherman about it; but his answer of May 25
was accepted as sufficiently reassuring. Indeed it could hardly
have been imagined that a President of the United States would
disregard an honorable obligation incurred by his predecessor; but
before I got through with that matter I was enlightened on that
point.

CASE OF THE COLORED CADET WHITTAKER

In the spring of 1880 there arose great public excitement over the
case of the one colored cadet then at West Point. This cadet,
whose name was Whittaker, had twice been found deficient in studies,
and recommended by the academic board for dismissal; but had been
saved therefrom by me, in my perhaps too strong desire to give the
young colored man all possible chance of ultimate success, however
unwise his appointment to the military academy might have been.
As was stated by me at the time, in my report of the case to the
War Department, that second and unusual indulgence was based upon
the fact that he was the only represent