regiments have been incorporated in the regular army, and have
rendered exceptionally effective service on the plains and elsewhere
for a whole generation, there are to-day no Negro officers in the
service. A number of young men have been appointed as cadets at West
Point, but the life has not been by any means an easy one. The only
caste or class with caste distinctions that exists in the republic is
found in the army; army officers are, par excellence, the aristocrats;
nowhere is class feeling so much cultivated as among them; nowhere
is it so difficult to break down the established lines. Singularly
enough, though entrance to West Point is made very broad, and a large
number of those who go there to be educated at the expense of the
Government have no social position to begin with, and no claims to
special merit, and yet, after having been educated at the public
expense, and appointed to life positions, they seem to cherish the
feeling that they are a select few, entitled to special consideration,
and that they are called upon to guard their class against any
insidious invasions. Of course there are honorable exceptions. There
are many who have been educated at West Point who are broad in their
sympathies, democratic in their ideas, and responsive to every appeal
of philanthropy and humanity; but the spirit of West Point has been
opposed to the admission of Negroes into the ranks of commissioned
officers, and the opposition to the commissioning of black men
emanating from the army will go very far toward the defeat of any
project of that kind."

"To make the question of the admission of Negroes into the higher
ranks of commissioned officers more difficult is the fact that the
organization of Negro troops under the call of the President for
volunteers to carry on the war with Spain, has been left chiefly to
the Governors of states. Very naturally the strong public sentiment