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

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magic of the name he had felt would be a handicap to the school, had been greatly increased. The material progress at Washington College during General Lee ' s five years serves to explain in some way what the institution had and has; it cannot explain what the institution was and is. The true essence of Washington and Lee is not found in its physical plant or in its endowment or even in its many textbooks and lecture notes. It is not found in anything that can be held in the hand or photographed. And yet, this essence, just as much as any tangible thing, is a legacy from Robert E. Lee. The Old South of the romantic novel is a myth, and only lived, if at all, in wistful thought. But, like any myth, it had its elements of truth. There were not happy slaves singing in the firelight in front of every cabin, and there were not splendid Georgian mansions on every plantation, nor gracious ladies in every front parlor, nor dashing gentlemen on ev ery flagstone terrace. But just as there were some happy slaves and some splendid mansions, there were some Southern Gentlemen. Robert E. Lee was one. He knew the meaning of honor and loyalty, and what it was to be a gentleman who was both gentle and a man; and he taught what he kneV , by his example. His life, more than his work, has been J mherited, and is the real essence of Washington and Lee. Besides a curriculum and a group of buildings, he left an S example and an attitude. The example has become a tradition, the attitude an atmosphere, and both are at the very heart of Washington and Lee. Nothing long prevails that does not have a deep, intrinsic worth. A standard that long survives its initiator must have some value within and of itself. Customs certainly change, and today ' s fad is tomorrow ' s faux pas, but customs are always and ever the reflections of deeper values, and are never permitted to stray too far. If they do, then the values that underlie them are altered in the process. Man expresses his values and deep convictions by exempli- fying in his life the principles in which he belie ' es. When he stops acting on his beliefs, even if it is just a LEE ACCEPTING LEADERSHIP OF CONFEDERATE FORCES 1861 lELD SURRENDERING TO GRANT, 1865

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LEE CHAPEL I

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PRESIDENT OF WASHINGTON COLLEGE 1865-70 RECUMBENT STATUE small act such as greeting a stranger or being meticu- lous about the truth, then something more than a tradition is dead. That is why we cherish our customs, our speaking tradition, our honor system, and our code of integrity; not because they are sacrosanct in them- selves, but because they stand for a basic ideal, and because through them we can in some small way come nearer that ideal. Robert E. Lee did not invent truth- fulness, courtesy, or honor, but he practiced them. He left behind for Washington and Lee students a blueprint, as it were, of a good life. There are only a few hasty pencil sketches of it m existence; by and large it ' s passed down by word of mouth. This legacy, which was passed to us at a crucial point in our lives, is infinitely more significant to each of us as human beings than anything we managed to pick up in the classes. We came to college impressionable: we had some home- grown values, but we hadn ' t tested them or even thought about them very much. Most of them came into hard times by the end of our freshmen year. That is normal, and it happens to everyone who attends college, no matter where. It is not this tearing down that has significance, but the rebuilding. Like Washington College in 1865, each of us had to be rebuilt, and Gen- eral Lee performed the task for us, just as he did for Washington College. At the end of our four years we have a set of values again, a set of values which is for the most part a product of Washington and Lee, and of General Lee. In the future, when people ask us to describe Washington and Lee, we can tell them the same thing the catalogues do, but they can always read about that. We ought to tell them something they don ' t know and can ' t look up. Something to pinpoint Washington and Lee. Here is what I ' d tell them: What Washington and Lee owns uniquely is not really definable (as nothing truly unique can be). Perhaps the closest I can come is to say that it resides in an atmosphere, not as the catalogues say, of the Old South, but of the South-That-Should-Have-Been ... the South of Robert E. Lee. WASHINGTON COLLEGE BECOMES WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY 1871