"Benjamin F. Butler, Jr., who graduated at West Point last summer in the same cla.s.s with the colored cadet from Georgia, Flipper, has been a.s.signed for duty to the Ninth Cavalry, the same regiment to which Flipper is attached. The enlisted men in this regiment are all negroes. Ben, senior, doubtless engineered the a.s.signment in order to make himself solid with the colored voters of the South. Ben, like old Joe Bagstock, is devilish sly."

It is in error as to my a.s.signment. Lieutenant Butler (whose name, by the way, is not Benjamin F., Jr.) was a.s.signed to the Ninth Cavalry. Here is the truth about my a.s.signment, given in the Sing Sing (N. Y.) Republican:

"Cadet Flipper has been appointed to the Tenth U. S.

Cavalry (colored), now in Texas. Secretary of State Bigelow's son has also been a.s.signed to the same regiment. We wonder if the non-intercourse between the two at West Point will be continued in the army.

Both have the same rank and are ent.i.tled to the same privileges. Possibly a campaign among the Indians, or a brush with the 'Greasers' on the Rio Grande, will equalize the complexion of the two."

The National Monitor, of Brooklyn (N. Y.), has this much to say. It may be worth some study by the cadets now at the Academy.

"Lieutenant Flipper, colored, a recent graduate from West Point, is a modest gentleman, and no grumbler.

He says that privately he was treated by fellow-cadets with proper consideration, but reluctantly admits that he was publicly slighted. He can afford to be untroubled and magnanimous. How is it with his fellows? Will not shame ere long mantle their cheeks at the recollection of this lack of moral courage on their part? A quality far more to be desired than any amount of physical heroism they may ever exhibit."

Here is something extra good from the Hudson River Chronicle, of Sing Sing. To all who want to know the truth about me physically, I refer them to this article. I refer particularly to the editor of a certain New Orleans paper, who described me as a "little bow-legged grif of the most darkly coppery hue."

"For a few days past Lieutenant Henry O. Flipper, the colored cadet who graduated from West Point Academy last week, has been the guest of Professor John W. Hoffman, of this place. Lieutenant Flipper is a native of Atlanta, Georgia, whence General Sherman commenced that glorious march to the sea which proved what a hollow sh.e.l.l the Southern Confederacy really was. The lieutenant evidently has a large strain of white blood in his veins, and could probably, if so disposed, trace descent from the F.

F's. He stands six feet, is well proportioned, has a keen, quick eye, a gentlemanly address, and a soldierly bearing. He goes from here to his home in Georgia, on a leave of absence which extends to the first of November, when he will join the Tenth Cavalry, to which he has been a.s.signed as Second Lieutenant. This a.s.signment shows that Lieutenant Flipper stood above the average of the graduating cla.s.s, as the cavalry is the next to the highest grade in the service--only the Engineer Corps taking precedence of the cavalry arm.

"For four long years Cadet Flipper has led an isolated life at the Point--without one social companion, being absolutely ostracized by his white cla.s.smates. As much as any mortal, he can say:

"'In the crowd They would not deem me one of such; I stood Among them, but not of them; in a shroud Of thoughts which were not their thoughts.'

"There must have been much of inherent manhood in a boy that could stand that long ordeal, and so bear himself at the close that, when his name was p.r.o.nounced among the graduates, the fair women and brave men who had gathered to witness the going out into the world of the nation's wards, with one accord greeted the lone student with a round of applause that welcomed none others of the cla.s.s, and that could call from Speaker Blaine the strong a.s.surance that if he ever needed a friend he might trustingly call on him.

"'The path of glory leads but to the grave,' but we venture the prediction that Lieutenant Flipper will tread that path as fearlessly and as promptly as any of his comrades of the 'Cla.s.s of '77.'"

Here is an editorial article from the New York Tribune.

It needs no comment, nor do the two following, which were clipped from the Christian Union.

LIEUTENANT FLIPPER.

"Among the West Point graduates this year is young Flipper, a lad of color and of African descent. It is stated that he acquitted himself very respectably in his examination by the Board of Visitors, that he will pa.s.s creditably, and that he will go into the cavalry, which is rather an aristocratic branch, we believe, of the service. Mr. Flipper must have had rather a hard time of it during his undergraduate career, if, as we find it stated, most if not all his white fellow-students have declined to a.s.sociate with him. He has behaved so well under these anomalous circ.u.mstances, that he has won the respect of those who, so far as the discipline of the school would permit, ignored his existence. 'We have no feeling against him,' said one of the students, 'but still we could not a.s.sociate with him. It may be prejudice, but still we couldn't do it.' Impossibilities should be required of no one, and if the white West Pointers could not treat Mr. Flipper as if he were one of themselves, why of course that is an end of the matter.

So long as they kept within the rules of the service, and were guilty of no conduct 'unbecoming an officer and a gentleman,' it was not for their commanders to interfere. But when they tell us that they couldn't possibly a.s.sociate with Mr. Flipper, who is allowed to have 'shown pluck and gentlemanly qualities,' we may at least inquire whether they have tried to do so.

Conquering prejudices implies a fight with prejudices --have these young gentlemen had any such fight? Have they too 'shown pluck and gentlemanly qualities?'

"We are not disposed to speak harshly of these fastidious young fellows, who will not be long out of the school before they will be rather sorry that they didn't treat Mr. Flipper a little more cordially. But a much more important matter is that he has, in spite of his color, made a good record every way, has kept up with his cla.s.s, has not been dropped or dismissed, but emerges a full-blown Second Lieutenant of Cavalry. He has thus achieved a victory not only for himself but for his race. He has made matters easier for future colored cadets; and twenty years hence, if not sooner, the young white gentlemen of West Point will read of the fastidiousness of their predecessors with incredulous wonder. Time and patience will settle every thing."

CADET FLIPPER.

"The most striking ill.u.s.tration of cla.s.s prejudice this year has been afforded, not by Mississippi or Louisiana, but by West Point. In 1873 Cadet Flipper entered the Military Academy. G.o.d had given him a black skin, a warm heart, an active brain, and a patriotic ambition. He was guilty of no other crime than that of being a negro, and bent on obtaining a good education. He represented a race which had done as good fighting for the flag as any done by the fair- skinned Anglo-Saxon or Celt. Congress had recognized his right and the right of his race to education.

"But his cla.s.smates decided that it should be denied him. If they had possessed the brutal courage of the murderers of Chisholm they would have shot him, or whipped him, or hung him; but they were not brave enough for that, and they invented instead a punishment worse than the State has inflicted upon its most brutal criminals. They condemned him to four years of solitude and silence. For four years not a cla.s.smate spoke to Cadet Flipper; for three years he did not hear his own voice, except in the recitation-room, on leave of absence, or in chance conversation with a stray visitor.

Then another negro entered West Point, and he had one companion. The prison walls of a Sing Sing cell are more sympathetic than human prejudice. And in all that cla.s.s of '77 there were not to be found a dozen men brave enough to break through this wall of silence and give the imprisoned victim his liberty. At least two thirds of the cla.s.s are Republican appointees; and not one champion of equal rights. In all that cla.s.s but one hero--and he a negro. Seventy-five braves against one! And the one was victorious. He fought out the four years' campaign, conquered and graduated. Honor to the African; shame to the Anglo-Saxon."

CADET FLIPPER AGAIN.

"We have received several letters on the subject of Cadet Flipper, to whose treatment at West Point we recently called the attention of our readers. One of them is from a former instructor, who bears a high testimony to Lieutenant Flipper's character. He writes:

"'I want to thank you for your editorial in the Christian Union about Cadet Flipper. He was one of our boys; was with us in school from the beginning of his education till Freshman year in college, when he received his appointment to West Point. He was always obedient, faithful, modest, and in every way manly. We were sorry to have him leave us; but now rejoice in his victory, and take pride in him.

"'During all these years, in his correspondence with his friends, he has not, so far as I can learn, uttered a single complaint about his treatment.'

"A second is from a Canadian reader, who objects to our condemnation of the Anglo-Saxon race, and insists that we should have reserved it for the Yankees. In Canada, he a.s.sures us, the color line is unknown, and that negroes and Anglo-Saxons mingle in the same school and in the same sports without prejudice. Strange to say the white men are not colored by the intercourse.

"The third letter comes indirectly from Lieutenant Flipper himself. In it the writer gives us the benefit of information derived from the lieutenant. We quote (the italics are ours):

"'Mr. Flipper is highly respected here, and has been received by his former teachers and friends with pleasure and pride. His deportment and character have won respect and confidence for himself and his race.

As to his treatment at West Point, he a.s.sures me that the "papers" are far astray. There was no ostracism on the part of his fellow-cadets, except in the matter of personal public a.s.sociation. He was invariably spoken to and treated courteously and respectfully both as a cadet and officer.'

"We are glad to be a.s.sured that it was not as bad as we had been informed by what we considered as good authority; and we are still more glad to know that Lieutenant Flipper, instead of making much of his social martyrdom, has the good sense to make as light of it as he conscientiously can. But if it is true that there were cadets who did not sympathize with the action of the cla.s.s, and were brave enough to speak to their colored comrade in private, it was a pity that they were not able to screw their courage up to a little higher point, and put the mark of a public condemnation on so petty and cruel a persecution."

The people at large seem to be laboring under a delusion about West Point, at least the West Point that I knew. I know nothing of what West Point was, or of what was done there before I entered the Academy. I have heard a great deal and read a great deal, and I am compelled to admit I have doubts about much of it. At the hands of the officers of the inst.i.tution my treatment didn't differ from that of the other cadets at all, and at the hands of the cadets themselves it differed solely "in the matter of personal public a.s.sociation." I was never persecuted, or abused, or called by approbrious epithets in my hearing after my first year. I am told it has been done, but in my presence there has never been any thing but proper respect shown me. I have mentioned a number of things done to me by cadets, and I have known the same things to be done to white cadets. For instance, I was reported for speaking to a sergeant about the discharge of his duty. (See Chapter X., latter part, on that subject.) The same thing occurred to several members of the cla.s.s of '74. They were ordered into the rear rank by a sergeant of the second cla.s.s, when they were first- cla.s.smen. They were white. The result was they were all, three in number, I think, put in arrest.

Some New England paper contributes the following articles to this discussion, parts of which I quote:

THE BIGOT AND THE Sn.o.b

"The Hilton-Seligman controversy is one of those incidents which ill.u.s.trate some of the features of our social life. The facts can briefly be stated.

A Jewish gentleman, of wealth and position, applies for rooms at the Grand Union Hotel, Saratoga, and is flatly refused admission because he is a Jew. The public indignation is so great that the manager of the hotel is obliged to defend the act, and puts in the plea that a man has the right to manage his property as he pleases.

"But before our anger cools, let us remember the case of the colored cadet at West Point. During his course he met with constant rebuffs. He was systematically cut by his fellow-schoolmates. Instead of extending to him a generous sympathy in his n.o.ble ambition, they met him with sneers. All the feelings which should guide a chivalric soldier and lead him to honor real heroism, were quenched by the intense prejudice against color. Mean and despicable as is the spirit which prompted the-manager of the Grand Union Hotel to refuse to entertain the rich Jewish banker, that which influenced the young men at West Point is still more deserving scorn and contempt. It was meaner and more contemptible than cowardice."

PREJUDICE AGAINST COLOR.

Within the last thirty years there has been a great change in public sentiment relating to colored persons.

That it has become wholly just and kind cannot be shown; but it is far less unjust and cruel than it used to be.

In most of the old free States, at least, tidy, intelligent, and courteous American citizens of African descent are treated with increasing respect for their rights and feelings. In public conveyances we find them enjoying all the consideration and comforts of other pa.s.sengers. At our public schools they have cordial welcome and fair play. We often see them walking along the street with white schoolmates who have evidently lost sight of the difference in complexions. Colored boys march in the ranks of our school battalions without receiving the slightest insult. Colored men have been United States senators and representatives. Frederick Dougla.s.s is Marshal of the District of Columbia.

"There is one conspicuous place, however, where caste-feeling seems to have survived the inst.i.tution of slavery, and that is West Point. There the old prejudice is as strong, active, and mean as ever.

Of this there has been a recent and striking instance In the case of young Flipper who has just graduated.

It appears that during his whole course this worthy young man was subjected to the most relentless 'snubbing.' All his fellow-students avoided him habitually. In the recitation-room and upon the parade ground, by day and by night, he was made to feel that he belonged to an inferior and despised race, and that no excellence of deportment, diligence in study, or rank in his cla.s.s could ent.i.tle him to the recognition accorded to every white dunce and rowdy. Yet with rare strength of character he persevered, and when, having maintained the standing of No. fifty in a cla.s.s of seventy-six, he received his well-earned diploma, there was a round of tardy applause.

"If West Point is to continue to be a school characterized by aristocracy based upon creed, race, or color, so undemocratic and unrepublican as to be out of harmony with our laws and inst.i.tutions, it will do more harm than good, and, like other nuisances, it should be abated.

If our rulers are sincere in their professions, and faithful to their duties, a better state of things may be brought about. Military arts must be acquired somewhere; but if the present Academy cannot be freed from plantation manners, it may be well to establish a new one without pro-slavery traditions, or, as has been suggested by the Providence Journal, to endow military departments in the good colleges where character and not color is the test of worth and manhood."

(From the New York Sun.)

COLORED CADET FLIPPER.

TWO HUNDRED OF HIS NEW YORK ADMIRERS HONORING HIM WITH A RECEPTION.

"A reception was given last evening by Mr. James W.

Moore, in the rooms of the Lincoln Literary Musical a.s.sociation, 132 West Twenty-seventh Street, to Lieutenant H. O. Flipper, of Georgia, the colored cadet who has just graduated at West Point. Mr. Moore has had charge of the sick room of Commodore Garrison since his illness. The chandeliers were decorated with small flags. On a table on the platform rested a large basket of flowers, bearing the card of Barrett H. Van Auken, a grandson of Commodore Garrison. Among the pictures on the wall were many relating to Lincoln and the emanc.i.p.ation proclamation. Cheerful music was furnished from a harp and violin.

"The guests began to arrive about nine o'clock, the ladies in large numbers, and the room was soon abreeze with a buzz of conversation and the rustle of gayly- colored dresses and bright ribbons.

"The grand entree was at a quarter before ten. Lieutenant Flipper entered the room in full uniform. A heavy yellow horse-hair plume fell down over his cavalry helmet. His coat was new and bright, and glittered with its gold b.u.t.tons and ta.s.selled aigulets. By his side hung a long cavalry sabre in a gilt scabbard. His appearance was the signal for a buzz of admiration. He is very tall and well made. Beside him was Mr. James W. Moore. Behind him, as he walked through the thronged rooms, were the Rev. Dr.

Henry Highland Garnett, and Mrs. Garnett; the Rev. E. W.

S. Peck of the Thirty-fifth Street Methodist Church; Mr.

Charles Remond Dougla.s.s, son of Fred Dougla.s.s, and United States Consul in San Domingo; the Rev. J. S. Atwell, of St. Philip's Episcopal Church; the Rev. John Peterson; Professor Charles L. Reason, of the Forty-first Street Grammar School; John J. Zuilille; Richard Robinson, and others.