Saturday, August 11, 2018

From The Louisiana Democrat, November, 1859

Over fifty applicants for cadetships have been received and warrants issued for them. This, with other appointments, will insure an opening number of about seventy-five, and we feel confident that ere this session shall have closed the buildings will be filled. There were some misgivings, early in the fall, that the State Seminary would not be ready to commence operation on the first of January, but it is now settled, and everything is prepared that the institution will open on the day mentioned.

[The faculty] have been selected from over eighty applicants marked for distinguished merit and ability, and, as far as we are competent to judge from a short personal acquaintance, we honestly assure all parents, guardians, or others who may have charge of the education of youth, that if their sons or wards are placed in the State Seminary, if they are capable, they will be returned to them thorough scholars.

We would also, in this connection, disabuse the public, or at least a portion of it, of the idea that a school organized upon a military basis must needs make only soldiers. It is a false notion that because a youth is compelled to be methodical, to learn to obey, and at the same time, keep his self-respect, that all this is to be done at the sacrifice of time which should be devoted to study. A military school differs from other colleges, in a single, but very material particular, only: the time which is generally given up to the student to be used in any manner his natural proclivities may suggest is, in the State Seminary, economized in the shape of military duty, and though it may at first work a little harsh, yet after a time, with a proper thinking youth, it becomes a pleasure, and as it does not in any measure interfere with his scholastic duties, we do not see why any objection could or should be made against it-certainly it does not detract from the merits of any gentleman to be considered to have a savoir faire in the matter of handling arms.

The late events1 which have, in some degree, agitated the public mind certainly indicate the necessity of each slave-holding state encouraging and supporting at least one military school within its own limits. We know that others of the Southern States have made it a matter of such consideration that these institutions are looked upon as a chief feature in their defensive material. Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, the Carolinas, Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, and of late Missouri have all appropriated certain sums for the establishment of like institutions and in Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee these schools have for a period of years been working with complete success.

If we admit the facts, and certainly we can consistently do so, where they are self-evident, that such establishments are necessary and that the terms of scholar and soldier are not incompatible, then the success of our State Seminary is no problem. . .

The plan upon which the State Seminary is to be worked is so methodical that it will be found to be the cheapest school in the country. We don't mean cheapest in an immediate dollar and cent signification, but cheapest because of the paramount advantages it offers. A youth's time is so regulated that dissolute and expensive habits cannot be contracted. Expensive dress, dogs, horses, billiards, etc., will certainly be myths with a cadet at the State Seminary, and parents will find that in the end they will have saved a considerable item in this particular. In most colleges, the modern languages, drawing, book-keeping, etc., are charged as extras . . . which when paid for as such at the termination of a four years' course, will be found to amount to quite one-third of the regular tuition. . . The particular location of the school, three miles from this place, is a matter of some moment. The cadets cannot be subjected to the malarious influences of the low lands of the river, as the buildings are situated on an elevated stretch of table land, surrounded by a healthy growth of pine forest, together with the best of water. There cannot be any possible chance of an epidemic reaching any of its inmates; though we may be visited, as any part of the state is more or less liable, by an epidemic disease, still we confidently believe that with anything like consistent precaution the State Seminary will always escape. . .
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1 The John Brown raid into Virginia. — Ed.

SOURCES: The article is abstracted in Walter L. Fleming’s, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 66-8

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