In a letter to Colonel Hamilton, Ex-President Washington said: “The establishment of an Institution of this kind, upon a respectable and extensive Basis, has ever been considered by me as an object of primary importance to this Country; and while I was in the Chair of Government, I omitted no proper opportunity of recommending it, in my public speeches and other ways, to the attention of the Legislature.... I sincerely hope that the subject will meet with due attention, and that the reasons for its establishment which you have so clearly pointed out in your letter to the Secretary, will prevail upon the Legislature to place it upon a permanent and respectable footing.”
New buildings were put up at West Point and on July 20, 1801, the Secretary of War ordered all cadets of the corps of artillerists to proceed there, and on September 1st of that year the school was reopened with four army officers and one civilian as instructors.
An act of Congress approved March 16, 1802, authorized the President to organize a corps of engineers to consist of five officers and ten cadets, at West Point, to constitute a military academy, which he did and with the quota present the United States Military Academy was formally opened on the Fourth of July of that year.
But Congress did not appropriate any money for the Academy until March 3, 1803, and then in the Army Bill it gave only $2,000.00 for both the Academy and for War Department books and apparatus. The Army Bill of 1804 contained $1,000.00 for the Academy, and that of 1805 gave it $500.00. Then Congress ignored this institution until the war with England, when in the Army Bill of 1812 it gave the Academy $25,000.00 and authorized the erection of a library and other buildings, and the reorganization of the academic staff.
An Act of Congress in 1808 authorized 40 cadets from the artillery, 16 from the dragoons, 20 from the riflemen, and 100 from the infantry, but as no provision was made for them at West Point only a few of these were appointed. In 1810 the Military Academy was deprived of nearly all means of instruction and both officers and cadets experienced difficulty in getting their pay. During most of the year 1811, although war was then imminent, academic instruction was practically abandoned and in March, 1812, it was abandoned when the last instructor was ordered to duty elsewhere. Up to this time 88 cadets had graduated and they had been admitted to the academy without mental or physical examinations, at all ages, from twelve to thirty-four and at any time of the year.