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

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Willi its need lor a new pioneering. Thus, while we would not rob the faculty of Washington and Lee of a tittle of its just due, it is only fair to say that conditions as well as the teachers were responsible for the record of public service to which we are glad to call attention. But be the reasons as they may: Whether we attribute the records of Wash- ington and Lee ' s graduates to the advan- tage of the small college over the large, to the self-abnegation of a noble faculty, or to the peculiar conditions existing here — and it is most likely that the result is a component of all of these factors with the added element of the choicest young men of a continent to be moulded — the record is ours. It belongs to us of the present day. It is ours lo glory in and to dwell upon. It IS a heritage from the rich and fruitful life of Alma Mater. But it is more. It is a tremendous responsibility. It stands as a call to us to be worthy of the honor bestowed upon us of having been connected with an institution which has accomplished so much in the life of a nation. It is a trust which we must lorever hold sacred. CONGRESSMAN FERGUSSON

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were and are men ol small incomes, simple li.ihits. and well-furmslied rnmds, secure of their posilioiis, honored in ihelr communities, and satisfied with the scholar ' s kingdom. Is there not more, perha])s, in contact with men at peace with them- selves and the world than in membership in a great university where the instructor desires to become an assistant professor, the assistant professor an adjunct professor, the adjunct professor to head a department, .md the [iresident to secure five millions more endowment than did his predecessor Commenting on tliis ie the New ork Evening Post agrees with most of the Republic ' s findings, but adds that the record, being exceptional, must have come from exceptional conditions, and draws the conclusion thai the exceptional conditions were the traditions and setting of the College, stating its deduction as follows: In the first place it would be hard to find another small college with such a tradition and setting. When General Lee, after Appomattox, rode his famous Trav- eller over the mountains to Lexington and became president of Washington College, it was to a town already distinguished .IS the home of Stonewall ' Jackson and the site ol the Virginia Military Institute. Many distinguished soldiers and citizens had lived there or nearby, and the College itself had grown out of a benefaction of George Washington. After the Idol of the Confederacy, there came to Lexington the colonels and captains of his defeated legions, men of un- usual character, fortified by years of war- fare and suffering, who sought to complete their interrupted education. 1 o them succeeded, after General Lee ' s death. outh also ol unusual character, for it required sacrifice, courage, and ambition to obtain a college education in the South in the late sixties and seventies. 1 hey found at Lexington an unusual spnit and inspiring association, as well as teachers to admire and profit by. Hence it is not altogether unnatural that the graduates of this period speedily became leaders in their communities. The really educated men were rare, and these had also acquired the pioneering spirit in the Virginia I lills. and found their way readily to Oregon, to Oklahoma, to New ' ork. to New Orleans, all over the New South. CONGKI-.S MAN l)A I.s

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W. AND L. Law SrHOoi. Nfwcomb 1 Iai.l