Washington and Lee University - Calyx Yearbook (Lexington, VA)

Page 24 text:

One understands, in reading the lives of its founders, why Washington and l i s ' rjWf Lee has come to its present greatness. The stalwart minds and courageous l = 1 )— ' instincts of these pre-Revolutionary educators, Robert Alexander, John Brown j =: and William Graham, gave a vigor to the embryo University such as few institutions have received. And the school ' s first Alumni early took a part in the upbuilding of their nation, reflecting credit and honor upon the little Log College, where they received their education. John Breckenridge, of the period 1749-82, became the author of the Kentucky Resolutions; General Andrew Moore became a United States Senator; Archibald Alexander, noted as a preacher, author and scholar; Meriwether Lewis, explorer of the Rocky i m

Page 23 text:

THEN AND NOW. BEING A RETROSPECT AND A SURVEY WITH A PROPHECY AT THE END, WHEREIN SOME IDEALS ARE RECALLED, SOME FACTS GIVEN AND SOME HOPES EXPRESSED. IT has been well said that the strength of any institution is measured by the loyalty of its Alumni. That institution is shorn of all power and influence which has not in its history, its associations or its traditions the inherent capacity to attract and hold the interest of its Alumni. Washington and Lee has always been peculiarly blessed in the loyalty and devotion of her six thousand sons. For there are few institutions so rich in traditions, fewer still so fortunate in their associations, and none the pages of whose histories are written so clearly. Born of the habitual esteem of learning among the Scotch-Irish settlers of the Valley, nurtured in the classic tastes of a history-making epoch, it has inherited the genial lore of that energetic people. For a hundred and fifty years or more the story of Washington and of Lee has been in the making — a story that today is as replete with that vital human element, which alone can lend a profound interest to any historical account, as it was in its incipiency. There is inspiration, deep and significant, to be derived from the struggles of the University ' s founders; there is pathos written in every line of their self- sacrificing endeavor; there is humor, bubbling and irrepressant, to be found in the records of the University ' s progress. For connected with the young college were men of heroic mould, whose descendants for five and six genera- tions since have perpetuated, in loyal devotion to the same Alma Mater, the ideals and ambitions of their worthy predecessors. If there be such a thing as inherited love, the loyalty of a century accorded Washington and Lee Uni- versity by the Grahams, the Houstons, the Lyles, the Matthews, the Alex- anders, the Barclays, the Christians, and a host of others, is a wonderful example of such a phenomenon.

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Mountains with George Rogers Clark; Alexander Stuart, distinguished as lawyer and jurist, and many others who shone in private life, as soldiers, at the bar, in the senate, in the pulpit, as public leaders, and in the courts of Europe have left for future generations a rare inheritance of energy, vitality W and independence of thought and action. The first classical school west of the Blue Ridge was founded in I 749 in the heart of the Scotch-Irish settlements. That school was the origin of the noble institution which has come to be known as Washington and Lee Uni- versity, whose massive buildings cast their shadow across the continent and whose influence is as broad as the continent is wide. Receiving its first dowry £ii y :t