recognized, as was that of the United Netherlands in a separate treaty signed by Spain at Münster.
Apart from these territorial changes, a universal and unconditional amnesty to all those who had been deprived of their possessions was declared, and it was decreed that all secular lands should be restored to those who had held them in 1618. Some exceptions were made in the case of the hereditary dominions of the emperor.
Even more important than the territorial redistribution was the ecclesiastical settlement. By the confirmation of the treaty of Passau of 1552 and the religious peace of Augsburg of 1555, and the extension of their provisions to the Reformed (Calvinist) Church, toleration was secured for the three great religious communities of the empire. Within these limits the governments were bound to allow at least private worship, liberty of conscience and the right of emigration, but these measures of toleration were not extended to the hereditary lands of the house of Habsburg. The Protestant minority in the imperial diet was not to be coerced by the majority, but religious questions were to be decided by amicable agreement. Protestant administrators of church lands obtained seats in the diet. Religious parity was established in the imperial chamber (Reichskammergericht), and in the imperial deputations and commissions.
The difficult question of the ownership of spiritual lands was decided by a compromise. The edict of restitution of 1629 was annulled. In Württemberg, Baden and the Palatinate these lands were restored to the persons who had held them in 1618 or their successors, but for the rest of the empire possession was determined by the fact of occupation on the 1st of January 1624 (annus decretorius or normal year). By the provision that a prince should forfeit his lands if he changed his religion an obstacle was placed in the way of a further spread of the Reformation. The declaration that all protests or vetoes by whomsoever pronounced should be null and void dealt a blow at the intervention of the Roman curia in German affairs.
The constitutional changes made by the treaty had far-reaching effects. The territorial sovereignty of the states of the empire was recognized. They were empowered to contract treaties with one another and with foreign powers, provided that the emperor and the empire suffered no prejudice. By this and other changes the princes of the empire became absolute sovereigns in their own dominions. The emperor and the diet were left with a mere shadow of their former power. The emperor could not pronounce the ban of the empire without the consent of the diet. The diet, in which the 61 imperial cities gained the right of voting on all imperial business, and thus were put on an equality with the princes, retained its legislative and fiscal powers in name, but practically lost them by the requirement of unanimity among the three colleges, which, moreover, were not to give their several decisions by majorities of their members, but by agreement between them.
Not only was the central authority replaced almost entirely by the sovereignty of about 300 princes, but the power of the empire was materially weakened in other ways. It lost about 40,000 sq. m. of territory, and obtained a frontier against France which was incapable of defence. Sweden and France as guarantors of the peace acquired the right of interference in the affairs of the empire, and the former gained a voice in its councils. For many years Germany thus became the principal theatre of European diplomacy and war. But if the treaty of Westphalia pronounced the dissolution of the old order in the empire, it facilitated the growth of new powers in its component parts, especially Austria, Bavaria and Brandenburg.
The treaty was recognized as a fundamental law of the German constitution, and formed the basis of all subsequent treaties until the dissolution of the empire.
See the text in Dumont, Corps universal diplomatique (The Hague, 1726-1731), vi. 429 ff.; J. G. von Meiern, Acta pacis Westphalicae publica (6 vols., Hanover and Göttingen, 1734-1736), Instrumenta pacis Caesareo-Suecicae et Caesareo-Gallicae (Göttingen, 1738); “A. A.” [Bishop Adam Adami], Arcana pacis Westphalicae (Frankfort, 1698), edited by J. G. von Meiern (Leipzig, 1737); K. T. Heigel, “Das Westfälische Friedenswerk von 1643-1648” in the Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Politik (1888); F. Philippi and others, Der Westfälische Frieden, ein Gedenkbuch (Münster, 1898); Journal du Congrès de Munster par F. Ogier, aumônier du comte d'Avaux, edited by A. Boppe (Paris, 1893); Cambridge Modern History, iv. p. 395 ff. and bibliography, p. 866 ff.; J. Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire, ch. xix.
WEST POINT, a village and military post, in Orange county, New York, U.S.A., on the west bank of the Hudson river, 50 m. above New York City. It is served by the West Shore railway, and is connected by ferry with the New York Central railway at Garrison. The United States Military Academy occupies a plateau 180 ft. above the river, reached by a roadway cut into the cliff and commanding a view up and down the river for many miles. Between 1902 and 1908 Congress appropriated about $7,500,000 for the reconstruction of the academy, but most of the old buildings of historic interest have been incorporated. The Headquarters Building and Grant Hall (the mess hall) contain portraits of famous American soldiers. The military library is one of the finest in existence (80,000 volumes in 1910), and its building contains interesting memorials, by Saint Gaudens, to J. McNeill Whistler and Edgar Allan Poe, both former cadets in the academy. Cullum Memorial Hall (1899) was the gift of Major-General George Washington Cullum (1809-1892), superintendent of the academy in 1864-1866. Opposite it is a monument (1845) to Major F. L. Dade's command of 110 men who were ambushed and killed by the Seminole Indians in Florida in December 1835. In the S.E. corner of the parade ground (60 acres) is a granite statue to Colonel Sylvanus Thayer (1785-1872), who was superintendent of the academy from 1817 to 1833. In the N.W. angle is the bronze statue (1868) of Major-General John Sedgwick, U.S. Volunteers, who was killed by a sharpshooter, on the 9th of May 1864, while making a personal reconnaissance at Spottsylvania. Between Trophy Point and the hotel is the Battle Monument (1874, 78 ft. high, surmounted by a statue of Victory by MacMonnies) , a memorial to the soldiers of the regular army who died in the Civil War. Above the cliff towards the N. and E. of the plain is Fort Clinton; in its E. front stands a monument erected in 1828 by the Corps of Cadets to Kosciuszko, who planned the original fortifications here in 1778. About 1 m. N. of the academy is “West Point Cemetery” (about 14 acres) on the E. angle of an elevated plain overlooking the river, formerly known as “German Flats,” in which rest the remains of Thayer, Winfield Scott, Robert Anderson and other distinguished soldiers. The Cadet Monument (1817) stands on the E. angle overlooking the river. High above the academy on Mount Independence (490 ft.) still stands old Fort Putnam, commanding a fine view for miles up and down the Hudson. In 1908, as the gift of Mrs. Russell Sage and Miss Anna B. Warner, there was added to the military reservation Constitution Island (about 280 acres), lying directly opposite West Point, with the remains of two forts built during the War of Independence.
West Point, “the Gibraltar of the Hudson,” was first occupied as a military post in January 1778, when a chain of redoubts was erected at various strategic points along the Hudson. At West Point were built a half-dozen earthwork fortifications, of which Fort Putnam on Mt. Independence, Fort Clinton on the extremity of the point (not to be confused with the Fort Clinton captured by the British in 1777 farther down the river) and Battery Knox, just above the river landing, were the largest. These were the fortifications that Benedict Arnold, their commander, in 1780 agreed to deliver into British hands. After the discovery of his treason, Washington made his headquarters for some time at West Point before removing to Newburgh. Later Washington recommended West Point as a site for a military school. Such an establishment had been suggested by Henry Knox in May 1776; and in October of that year the Continental Congress passed a resolution appointing a committee to draw plans for “a military academy of the army.” A Corps of Invalids was established in June 1777, was organized in Philadelphia in July 1777, and was transferred to West Point in 1781; this corps was “to serve as a military school for young gentlemen previously to their being appointed to marching
