depend for its perfection on the character of the students, and above all, on their honesty and veracity. These are, and must be unimpeachable. The word of a cadet is never questioned by the authorities, and, as a consequence a cadet of any experience at the Academy has never been known to tell a falsehood, or to try to deceive. No action is ever taken by the authorities which reflects in any way upon the honor of a cadet unless it is well assured that his honor is involved, when by the action of a court martial or the more summary procedure by the Secretary of War, the guilty one's connection with the Academy is severed.

As to the duties of the Academy, if they are severe, so are the benefits to the successful cadet great. From the time he enters as a cadet to the day of his graduation, all the necessary expenses of the cadet are borne by the Government. And when he has completed his course and received his diploma. unlike the college graduate, his career in a profession has already begun. He is at once commissioned as an officer, and the subsequent steps of promotion in an honorable calling depend not on the chances accruing from hard work, but on good conduct, and a fair attention to duty. If a graduate should choose, for any reason, to pursue another than the profession of arms, the Government offers no impediment to his wishes; but his resignation from the army in time of is peace accepted without question, and he is set free to adopt any profession, for success in all of which his education has undoubtedly amply qualified him. The hours of confinement and at study appear long, but the enforced exercise at the riding hall, or at drill, or in the gymnasium, keep the cadet in a perfect state of robust health, and build up the constitution, which, but for the regular hours and excellent and systematic course, might give way. A case of broken constitution resulting from the duties at West Point is unknown, while dozens of cases of impaired health built up to a vigorous state by the methods at the Academy are matters of record. The same course of instruction is given to all students. Nothing is elec tive. The graduates are commissioned in the army, according

to their class standing. Those who graduate near the head of the class may choose any corps or arm of the service, commencing with the engineer corps.

As the vacancies in the

army are filled, those who graduate lower down in a class have a less extensive field for choice, until at the foot the graduate is compelled, perhaps, to take his choice in a regiment in the line.

CHAPTER XXI.

BIOGRAPHIES OF NOTED ANTI-SLAVERY MEN.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right."

A HISTORY of the Colored Race in America would hardly

be complete without a sketch of the life of this great champion of human rights, and friend of the Colored Race, Abraham Lincoln, the author of that memorable document, the Emancipation Proclamation; and there is and always will be an inseparable tie binding the heart of this people to his name and memory. No man did more for the colored people, or loved them better than did he.

Our times have been marked from all other times, as the scene of an immense conflict which has not only shaken to its foundations our own country, but has been felt like the throes of an earthquake through all the nations of the earth.

Our own days have witnessed the closing of the great battle, but the preparations for that battle have been the slow work of years.

The "Men of Our Time" are the men, who indirectly, by their moral influence helped to bring on this great final crisis, and also those who, when it was brought on, and the battle was set in array, guided it wisely, and helped to bring it to its triumphant close.

Foremost on the roll of "Men of Our Time,” it is but right and fitting that we place the honored and venerated name of the man who was called by God's Providence to be the leader of the Nation in our late great struggle, and to seal with his blood the proclamation of universal liberty in this country.

The revolution through which the American Nation has been passing, was not a mere local convulsion. It was a war