Washington Telegraph

WEST POINT ACADEMY.—The abolition of this institution has been frequently contemplated by our Government, but it still stands, and the longer it is permitted to do so the more popular it will become. If any doubt remained in any intelligent mind as to the skill and efficiency of the officers educated there, it must be entirely removed by their conduct in our recent sanguinary battles. We agree with the N. O. True in the following view, in relation to the institution:

We believe it is a master in military science, that good officers take good soldiers and diet. The course of instruction pursued at West Point is particularly intended to develop martial qualities; such as the rules and discipline; to strengthen the frame by gymnastic exercises, to furnish the mind with every species of knowledge pertaining to the art of war; in fine, to make able and enlightened officers. During the Mexican war, brilliant examples have been shown of the result of a West Point education: not one solitary exception to the excellence of an early training in that fine institution can be found in the history of terrible conflicts at Palo Alto, Resaca and Monterey. We may add, also, as the correlative proposition, that on these sanguinary fields, the best attributes of the private soldier have been found indissolubly, and, as it were, naturally united to the skill and talent of the officer. We hope and trust, then, never again to hear of Congress seriously debating so absurd a project as that of abolishing West Point Academy.