Washington College

“ The assembly cheerfully acceded to his proposition. As the encouragement of education was a subject in which he felt deeply interested, he made over the shares of the James River Company to an institution in Rockbridge county, called Liberty Hall Academy, and those of the Potomac Company he bequeathed in perpetuity for the endowment of a university in the District of Columbia, under the auspices of the general government. Liberty Hall afterward became the flourishing Washington College, but the national university has never been established. ”

“ His visit to Philadelphia secured a generous benefaction from Washington, and at the same time his influence and that of others, so that Congress appropriated $15,000 yearly to "instruct the Iroquois in agriculture and the useful arts."
Washington had now matured his idea of a national university. He was ready to lay it before the country, and to be the first contributor to its endowment. Virginia was taking new interest in its schools and the influence of William and Mary College was widening: there was a demand for more thoroughly equipped academies. ”

“ In knowledge, she could assert no superiority, since the government made no claims, and prided itself on ignorance. The service of Harvard College was distinctly honorable; perhaps the most honorable in America; and if Harvard College thought Henry Adams worth employing at four dollars a day, why should Washington decline his services when he asked nothing? Why should he be dragged from a career he liked in a place he loved, into a career he detested, in a place and climate he shunned? Was it enough to satisfy him, that all America should call Washington barren and dangerous? ”

“ By this act the school was ‘To be regarded and taken as a part and branch of Washington College.’ This Act was amended at the session of 1837-38, and at the session of 1838-39 was repealed as assuming an illegal control over Washington College, and thus interfering with its incorporate rights. The final Act organizing the school was passed March, 1839, giving to it an independent organization, but providing for such arrangements with Washington College as might be agreed upon by the two institutions. ”

“ The only connection which is expected to exist between Washington College and the Virginia Military Institute is that the students of the latter will be permitted to attend, upon payment of fees, the classes of the Professor of Natural Science in College. This privilege will be reciprocated upon the same terms by the Institute. The Mathematical Professor could not, however, expect any considerable addition to his salary from this source, as the College, of course, supplies its own instruction in Mathematics. Possibly he might receive some students of Civil Engineering. ”

“ Now, firmly believing as I do, that there are skill, invention, power, industry, and real mechanical genius among the colored people, which will bear favorable testimony for them, and which only need the means to develop them, I am decidedly in favor of the establishment of such a college as I have mentioned. The benefits of such an institution will not be confined to the Northern states nor to the free colored people. They would extend over the whole Union. The slave, not less than the freeman, would be benefited by such an institution. ”

“ The ability of William and Mary College to accommodate and educate every student in Virginia who goes to college would, under such conditions as Washington College holds, deprive every other College in Virginia of its charter ”

“ The highest powers of both professors and students were called forth, under the fullest responsibility. The standards of scholarship were rapidly advanced; and soon the graduates of Washington College were the acknowledged equals of those from the best institutions elsewhere, and were eagerly sought after for the highest positions as teachers in the best schools. The results...were due directly and immediately, more than to all other causes, to the personal ability and influence of General Lee as president of the college. ”

“ The peculiar system of government and discipline was urged as a reason why it could not be regarded as a rival by the existing institutions, only so far as this peculiar system was preferable to those now adopted; and so far from Washington College having cause of complaint, the records of the institution would show that the number of students in Washington College had doubled, during the period of the connection with the Institute, the average number of any former period ”

“ The influence of the institution is already felt in the Washington College, which, at its reopening, a few days ago, received an accession of twenty students already, and probably ai have not yet arrived. There is a general feeling all over the State, and even abroad, favorable to our infant school.
The Board has fixed the 11th day of November for the opening of the Institute, when we expect, all, collectively and individually, the pleasure of meeting you. ”

“ This session of Washington College opened with very favourable prospects. The number of students was larger than ever before, every southern, and some northern States being represented. The new chairs of instruction which had been instituted were now in good working order, their professors were comfortably established, and the entire machinery of the institution was running well and smoothly. The president commenced to see some of the results of his untiring energy and steady work. ”

“ Resolved, that the Military Institute deriving its students as much from the most remote portions of the State as from its immediate vicinity, as a State institution there is not, and can not be, any conflict of interest between it and Washington College, resulting from their proximity to each other. That we rejoice to see the harmony that prevails between the professors, students, and cadets of the two institutions, in the success of which we feel a deep interest, and the prosperous condition of which reflects credit on the County and State. ”

“ By act of congress approved July 2, 1862, 30,000 acres of land for each senator and representative to which the states were respectively entitled was granted for agricultural colleges. Under the provisions of this act the legislature of 1864-5 passed an act establishing Washington College at or near Vancouver, and vested its government in a board of trustees, of which the governor was ex officio a member. ”

“ What a contrast to our college under-graduates of to-day, who at twenty-two years of age are still getting their bodily vigor through sports and not through real work, and who seldom seem to realize that, just as soon as they have acquired the use of the intellectual tools and stock with which a livelihood is to be earned in business or in the professions, the training of active life is immeasurably better than the training of the schools! Yet Washington never showed at any age the least spark of genius ”

“ Strange after the lapse of nearly a century, the other evening the friends of this feeble and stunted college, including the President of the United Stales, high officials, learned professors, foreign ministers, and gentlemen of the press, assembled in Wormley’s comfortable dining-room, and over an “epicurean banquet” discussed what Jefferson and Washington did in their letters—a National University for the National Capital. The desire of Washington although not yet fulfilled, must in time become a reality. ”

“ Largest University in the Pacific Northwest, the University of Washington is situated in northern Seattle on 582 acres lying between 15th Avenue Northeast and Lake Washington, and East 45th Street and Lake Union. Wide rolling lawns, formal beds of flowers and shrubs, and a variety of native trees afford an unusually beautiful setting for the 66 college buildings. The blue waters on the rim of the campus have given activities there an amphibious character—along the shore are a canoe house, crew quarters, oceanographic laboratories, and a showboat theater. ”

“ No youthful aspirant thirsting for an education ever completed a more toilsome, and even painful, journey in order to reach the college he desired to enter than Booker Washington, when he actually got over the five hundred miles between Malden and Hampton. ”

“ The Washington College of Law (1896) is an evening school especially for women. A School of Art is maintained in the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
The Carnegie Institution of Washington, founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1902 and endowed by him with $22,000,000 ($10,000,000 in 1902; $12,000,000 later) , is designed “to encourage in the broadest and most liberal manner, investigation, research and discovery, and the application of knowledge to the improvement of mankind ”

“ Three-fourths of a century have passed since Washington, Jefferson and Adams consulted together concerning the National University of the future. Alas! it is still of the future. The dream of its fulfillment was dearer to the father of his country, probably, than to any other mortal. The explicit provision made for it in his will proves this. That bequest went finally, I believe, to a college in Virginia. Columbia College, feeble, small and old, is the nearest approach to the National University of which the National Capital can boast to-day. ”

“ The black people had done much for themselves. About one-tenth of the men had acquired some portion of land, and they had made a certain advance. Mr Washington was a pupil of the late General Armstrong, who devoted many years of his life to the establishment and maintenance of the leading school at Hampton, Virginia. Mr Washington had qualified himself to follow in Armstrong's path. He also had founded a school, or training college, at Tuskegee, Alabama, where the pupils were not only given a primary education, but were afforded the means of earning a livelihood. ”

“ We even find a well-known Doctor of Divinity venturing the opinion, in an influential weekly journal, that the education of one white student is worth more to the negroes than the education of ten blacks. All tends to clear the air, however; and what is done at Howard and Atlanta Universities and elsewhere, in the way of providing education for coloured youths, shows that advances are being made, and that better times are coming.
We left Booker Washington still looking forward with confidence to being admitted as a student at Hampton College and Industrial Institute. ”

“ To see over a thousand strong men, representing all that is best in State, Church, business, and education, with the glow and enthusiasm of college loyalty and college pride,—which has, I think, a peculiar Harvard flavour,—is a sight that does not easily fade from memory. ”

“ In 1785 he proposed to Edmund Randolph and Thomas Jefferson, that the revenue of the stock in those companies be used for the establishment of two schools, one upon each river, for the education of poor children, particularly those whose parents had fallen in the struggle for liberty. The idea was a noble one, yet Washington's call to the large service of the College of William and Mary as its Chancellor, and to the country as its President, prevented him from carrying it out. ”

“ The administra- tion building, a chateau-type four-story structure, with mansard roofs and a domed central tower over an arched entrance, is the oldest on the campus. Other buildings are rectangular brick structures with pseudo-classic porticos, the pediments supported by fluted columns. Formerly known as the Washington State Normal School, the college is one of the three institutions in the State specializing in training teachers for elementary and junior high schools. It is supported by legislative appropriation, and no tuition is charged; students pay only their living expenses. ”

“ An Act for the establishment of a College at the town of Washington, in the County of Washington, in the State of Pennsylvania.
Whereas the happiness and prosperity of every community, under the direction and government of Divine Providence depends much on the right education of the youth, who must succeed the aged in the important offices of Society ”

“ William and Mary was the oldest college in the country, except Harvard. It numbered among its children many famous statesmen, including Jefferson, Marshall, Peyton Randolph, and Monroe. Washington was its Chancellor for twelve years. Its graduates loved it ardently. I came to the conclusion that it would tend very much to restore the old affectionate feeling between the States to rebuild this College without inquiring too strictly into the merits of the case, as tested by any strict principle of law. ”

“ In 1857 the title of Washington University was assumed, and the first college degrees were granted in 1862. A Law School was organized in 1867, the School of Engineering and Architecture in 1870, the School of Fine Arts in 1879, and the School of Botany in 1885. The Saint Louis Medical College, founded in 1842, became a department of the university in 1891, the Missouri Dental College in 1892, and the Missouri Medical College in 1899. The university now consists of these departments, with the addition of Smith Academy, a preparatory school for boys ”

“ Booker Washington had the gift of being able to impart some of his own energy and enthusiasm to his subordinates, and even to the students, who generally came round to see in what direction their best interests lay. A wholesome discipline was maintained throughout the institution, and thus, while being qualified to become instructors of their fellows of the coloured race, the students learned to love and to respect their leader. ”