Forty-Six Years in the Army | Page 8

day. That report found its way to the War
Department, and was soon followed by an order to the commandant of
cadets to investigate. The facts were found fully to exonerate me from
any participation in or countenance of the deviltry, except that I did not
stop it; and showed that I had faithfully done my duty in teaching the

candidates. After this investigation was over, I was called upon to
answer for my own conduct; and, the names of my guilty classmates
being unknown to the candidates, I was also held responsible for their
conduct. I answered by averring and showing, as I believed, my own
innocence of all that had been done, except my neglect of duty in
tolerating such a proceeding. My conscience was so clear of any
intentional wrong that I had no anxiety about the result. But in due time
came an order from the Secretary of War dismissing me from the
academy without trial. That, I believe, shocked me a little; but the sense
of injustice was too strong in my mind to permit of a doubt that it
would be righted when the truth was known. I proposed to go straight
to Washington and lay the facts before the government. Then I realized
for the first time what it meant to have friends. All my classmates and
many other cadets came forward with letters to their congressmen, and
many of them to senators whom they happened to know, and other
influential men in Washington. So I carried with me a great bundle of
letters setting forth my virtues in terms which might have filled the
breast of George Washington with pride.
There was no public man in Washington whom I had ever seen, and
probably no one who had ever heard of me, except the few in the War
Department who knew of my alleged bad conduct. The Secretary of
War would not even see me until I was at last presented to him by an
officer of the army. Then he offered me his forefinger to shake, but he
could give me no encouragement whatever. This was after I had been in
Washington several weeks. My congressman, Mr. Campbell, who had
succeeded Mr. Turner, and several others received me kindly, read my
letters, and promised to see the Secretary of War, which no doubt they
did, though without any apparent effect. The only result was the
impossible suggestion that if I would give the names of my guilty
classmates I might be let off. I had made an early call upon the "Little
Giant," Senator Douglas, to whom I had no letter, and whom I had
never met; had introduced myself as a "citizen of Illinois" in trouble;
and had told my story. He said he was not on good terms with that
administration, and preferred not to go near the War Department if it
could be avoided, but if it proved necessary to let him know. Hence,
after all else failed, including my personal appeal, which I had waited

so long to make, I told Mr. Douglas all that had occurred, and
suggested that there was nothing left but to "put in the reserve," as the
tacticians call it. He replied: "Come up in the morning, and we will go
to see about it." On our way to the War Department the next morning,
the senator said, "I don't know that I can do anything with this ----
Whig administration"; but he assured me all should be made right in the
next. That seemed to me the kind of man I had looked for in vain up to
that time. I waited in the anteroom only a few minutes, when the great
senator came out with a genial smile on his face, shook me warmly by
the hand, and bade by good-by, saying: "It is all right. You can go back
to West Point. The Secretary has given me his promise." I need not go
into the details of the long and tedious formalities through which the
Secretary's promise was finally fulfilled. It was enough to me that my
powerful friend had secured the promise that, upon proof of the facts as
I had stated them, I should be fully exonerated and restored to the
academy. I returned to West Point, and went through the long forms of
a court of inquiry, a court martial, and the waiting for the final action of
the War Department, all occupying some five or six months, diligently
attending to my military and academic duties, and trying hard to obey
all the regulations (except as to smoking), never for a moment doubting
the final result. That lesson taught me that innocence and justice
sometimes need powerful backing. Implicit trust in Providence does not
seem to justify any