Mr. NESMITH. Ihe Senfrom Iowa, I apprehend, is under a mistake in saying that this rs a new question. I have often heard of it before. It is a question that has been agi Stated in the Army for many years, and I think has been embraced in several reports of the Boards of Visitors to the Academy. As to this proposition making a se ramble iu the Army or increasing the area of that se ramble, I do not think there is any evil of that sort to be apprehended from it. If evils are to result from that se ramble, we have them now in the Engineer corps, and I do not think it will be enlarged by enlarging the area from which this selection may be made. I do not think any evil is going to result from a se ramble among Army otheers to get a place where they do not properly aply for it, but where the SecyWar an or the direction of the President, makes the selection from the officers that he considers the most competent. Now, sir, in relation to this matterof gradu ating at the head of the class, I do not believe because a man happens to graduate at the head of his class atest Point that be has any superior capacity or qualification for training up young men as soldiers than the man who may happen to have graduated lower down. I know some very distinguished officers in the Army who have graduated at WestPoint very near the foot of the class, and I know some very great fools who graduated near the head of the class. I think, on an average. you will find about as much capacity along half way down the list of those who graduated in that institution as you will in those who graduated at the head. lhose who graduated at the head are those who manifest superior capacity in mathematics and those questions that have no direct relatiorr to soldiership or the capacity as soldiers, but a mere inclination derived from books and a capacity of demonstrating mathe matical problems. I do not. think that sort of qualification is entirely nce essa to train a man up and make him a good soldier. Under your old rule, Grant, Sherman, heridan, Hancock, and 50 other officers who I might name, would be excludeda and I apprehend I any of those officers would be just as compe tent to take charge of this institution and train up men for soldiers as any officer who cah be selected from the Engineer corps. I believe they are better qualified for the position. They are men of nrore practical common sense, and they are likely to instill and inculcate such ideas into the young men who are there. I am opposed to this exclusiveness and to keeping the superintendency of this institution in any single corps of the Army. I believe this practice should be abolished. I believe the interests, of the Army, the interests of the institution itself, and the interests of the country demand it; and I hope the amendment will be adopted.