Washington and Lee University

“ It would have been surprising, under such circumstances, if Washington had not been Lee's hero, but he was more than a hero to the boy. From his father's lips he had learned to know him, not merely as a famous personage of history, but as a man and a leader of men. Indeed, his influence and example were those of a living presence in the household of "Light Horse Harry;" and thus to young Lee he early became the ideal of manhood upon which, consciously or unconsciously, he molded his own character and life. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Charles D. Walcott, president of the Washington Academy of Sciences and director of the U. S. Geological Survey, as president of the board of trustees; and Professor Nicholas Murray Butler, of Columbia University, as secretary of the board. Under these auspices there will surely develop at Washington a great institution, which will in fact be a national university. It will not, however, be a rival to existing universities, but will coordinate their work; it will utilize the opportunities for study and research in the government departments, without interfering with their legitimate functions ”

“ I have led the young men of the South in battle. I have seen many of them die on the field; I shall devote my remaining energies to training young men to do their duty in life." [25]
The trustees of Washington College wanted to give him as a home, the house erected for him as president. But he insisted that the building be kept by the college, he said he could not allow himself or his family to be a tax on the college.
Because of poor health, Lee went South during his last winter. While he was gone, the trustees voted to give his family three thousand dollars a year. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ I rejoice that the South gave him birth. I rejoice that the South will hold his ashes. But his fame belongs to the human race. Washington, too, was born in the South and sleeps in the South, but his fame belongs to mankind. We place the name of Lee by that of Washington. They both belong to the world.
“There is one thing more I wish to say before I take my seat. General Lee’s fame ought to rest on its true foundation. He did not draw his sword in the cause of slavery—he did not seek to overthrow the Government of the United States. ”

“ It is not a matter of one million, or ten millions, or even of twenty millions, but of more, to fulfil worthily the wish of Washington, and I think no one would presume to use that almost sacred name except for a university of the very first rank, established by national authority, as he desired. Be it our part in our day and generation to do what we can to extend the boundaries of human knowledge by utilizing existing institutions. ”

“ Old soldiers, citizens, men and women, all came without parade or ceremony. During this time he rode on Traveller daily, taking sometimes long trips—once I recall, going to his brother’s, Mr. Carter Lee’s, about twenty miles, and at another time to Bremo, about thirty miles. During the month of August he was visited by Judge Brockenborough, of Lexington, who, as Rector of the Board of Trustees of Washington College, tendered him, on behalf of the Board, the presidency of the 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. ”

“ Believing that the Republic would stand secure only upon a foundation of education, courage and conscience, he left money for a great American University. In this, he wanted the young people to be trained in the principles of true Americanism. He wanted the intelligence of the country to guide its politics. It is unfortunate that, to the present day, the university has not been founded, although there is now every likelihood that such a National University will be established in Washington and vast sums contributed to the fund Washington had left for this purpose. ”

“ Its next is to that general research which may be carried on at Washington by resident and visiting students and scholars: which in American history, political and social science, public administration, jurisprudence and international law is likely to make Washington its center, and which, under the auspices of the Washington Memorial Institution—that new project for post graduate study involving the use of the scientific collections and scientific experts at Washington—is likely to be organized in various branches of the natural and physical sciences as well. ”

“ Washington loved his country with a whole heart. He was a patriot to the core. His first, last and only ambition was to do what he could to promote the high ends to which the Republic was dedicated. Politics, as defined by Aristotle, is the "science of government." Washington was not a learned man, and probably knew very little of Aristotle, but his head was clear and his heart was pure, and he, too, felt that politics was the science of government, and that the result of the government should be the "greatest good to the greatest number" of his fellow citizens. ”

“ Washington came into national prominence by a remarkable speech at the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta, and after that he interested educators and thinking people generally in the working out of his ideas of practical education. He was the author of several books along lines of industrial education and character-building, and in his later years only one or two other men in America could rival his power to attract and hold great audiences. Harvard University conferred on him the degree of Master of Arts in 1896, and Dartmouth that of Doctor of Laws in 1901. ”

“ 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 ”

“ In the census year 1900, out of a total of 158,245 children of school age, 100,731, or about 63 per cent., were in attendance. Of the population over ten years of age, 3.1 per cent. were classed as illiterate. The school statistics for 1902 gave the number of children of school age as 167,902, and the number in actual attendance as 136,645, or 81 per cent., which is a notable increase over the 1900 figures. The principal institutions of learning in the State are the University of Washington (see Washington, University of) , at Seattle ”

“ And though the nations of the world will never be brought under a single government, the desirability of removing national prejudices is as great now as was a century ago the elimination of state jealousies. The logical conclusion therefore would be that the 'spirit of Washington' moved forward a hundred years, would call for an international or world university. ”

“ The educational element, the high-toned culture which always marks the mental and moral atmosphere surrounding a university is to-day the marked lack of what is termed “society in Washington.” 66The United States Government is doing much for science. There is a greater number of persons actively devoted to scientific pursuits in the National Capital than in any other city of the Union. Washington is already the seat of more purely intellectual activity than any other American city. The scientific library of the Smithsonian Institute is one of the best in the world. ”

“ Lee had two objectives which he hoped personally to achieve: (1) the lessening of the hatred which then existed between the North and the South so that all Americans might work together in unity for peace and progress, and (2) the education of youth in such a manner as to make them capable of living as successful citizens of the United States. With his deep idealism, Lee was also a practical man. When he recognized the interest of many young men in writing, editing and publishing newspapers, he included a course in journalism at Washington College. ”

“ When a national university is established at Washington, it would be well for its faculty to consist in part of men from other institutions who should spend one year in five or seven at the central university.
It is difficult to find the right man; and it is particularly unfortunate when the wrong man has been selected. Academic rights and academic freedom are troublesome problems. It seems that an opportunistic policy must be followed rather than definite rules. A university can not be conducted as a factory; and even a factory does not entirely ignore the human element. ”

“ In conferring the honorary degree of Master of Arts upon the Principal of Tuskegee Institute, Harvard University has honoured itself as well as the object of this distinction. The work which Professor Booker T. Washington has accomplished for the education, good citizenship, and popular enlightenment in his chosen field of labour in the South entitles him to rank with our national benefactors. ”

“ The entire Carnegie bequest would be exhausted before Harvard or Columbia could be reached, and the University of Pennsylvania would be barely passed. It is thus apparent that even when supplemented by the opportunities for study which Washington affords, the advantages in a material way would not exceed existing institutions by an amount sufficient to overcome sentimental or other reasons that attract students elsewhere. ”

“ How could he have manifested in his life less patriotism, justice, and courage with such exemplars of these virtues ever before him?
His mother, as is well known, was a descendant from the wife of Gen. Washington by her prior marriage with John Parke Custis. Sprung from such a lineage; trained in a school where the amenities of life as well as "the humanities" were taught in their highest excellence, he practiced from his earliest childhood a scrupulous regard for the rights and feelings of others, and an indulgence to all faults except his own. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Butler's analogy; political economy; chemistry; natural philosophy. By comparing even the latest and most advanced of these courses of study, one will see that the best high schools of the present day are nearly the equivalent of the institutions from which Washington could have drawn his ideals, and that a university that now begins where the best colleges of his time left off, would surely be the equal of all that he could have hoped to see in his national university. Such institutions we now have in every state and in almost every city. ”

“ 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. ”