Lexington gazette. [volume] (Lexington, Va.) 1871-1962, 1906-12-26
Gen. X. E. Lees Influence as
College President

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To the world at large the fam
OF General Robert e. Lee rest
upon his reputation as a grea
general. To o more limited mum
Der who knew him personally, O.
have learned to know him through
those biographies which have re
vealed HE private life, his persona
character as a Christian gentleman
has outwoighed even his skill as 9
military leader. BY comparatively
few has the greatness of General
Lee as an educator been recognized
and yet this was the field to which
he consecratsd the best energies OF
his maturest years.
When the Civil War closed,
General Lee was offered many posi-
lions of honor and emolument. In
some of these positions his ability
would have meant great success to
himself and those associated with
him. Though other positions it
was delicately sought to give him
Well deserved rest and peace for
his last years, where be would be
free from all cares regarding an
income. To all these he turned
deaf ear, but when the call came
from little struggling college in
the Valley of Virginia, a college
rich An historic associations but
poer in equipment and endowment;
college which had never looked
to State for aid, and which, found
ed and largely patronized by the
sturdy Scotch-Irisb, had been free
from UNCONVENTIONAL prescription
and control; when this call came,
the great leader felt that there was
no higher call to duty, and no
greater privilege for him, than to
spend the remainder of bis life in
endeavoring to influence young
men in mental and in moral and in |
spiritual development. So he be
came president of Washington Col
Iege and hither focked the youth
Of the South. For four long years
hey had been largely deprived of
opportunities for higher education,
md even then few colleges and
in the South were in q
position to open their doors, closed
,y the ruthless hand Of war.
During the five years that Gen.
'ral Lee was spared to preside over
he institution and impress his in
luence upon those committed to
lis charge, over fine hundred stu
Tents were enrolled. His estimate
# the Importance of that influence
n just one direction can be judged
rom the passage of his letter of
written in August,
S65. in which be writes 81
hink it is the duty of every clti
en-, in the present condition Of the
ountry, to do all in his power to aid
n the restoration Of peace and
armony. 1t is particularly in.
umbent on those charged with the
Instruction of the young to set
hem an example of submission to 8
uthority." Such sentim ents, i'm
ressed by such man on nearly a
thousand picked young men, gath. |
red from all parts of the South, 1
ould not fail to have counted for
luch toward "the restoration of D
eace and harmony" which he 80 [
arnestlv sought.
While on the nineteenth of the a
omIng January the one hundredth /
anniversary of the birth of Robert /
(. Lee will be celebrated in many 8
Iaces, it is peculiarly fitting that
ieie should gather on this day in t'
lie halls of their alma mater, the
lrvivors of those men who were 4
nder General Lee as students, to 1
in in celebrating the memory of v
lie man who had given the best of
s life to make them ali that true B
en- should be. More than five Ic
lndred of these old students are a.
ill living, and it is expected that
large proportion of them will re- G
i'm to Lexington as the guests of II
'ashington AID Lee University.
1t Is interesting that the orator v
the occasion, the man who liz
mes to honor the memory of the
an against whom he fought now g
ore than generation ago, should 81
Charles Francis Adams. The 81
milY of the one is as closely
entitled with Massachusetts, as H
at of the other with Virginia; st
e ancestors of both were premi- d.
mt among the ''makers of our
untry;" each was ready in 81 be
offer his life ON behalf of his liz
II view of patriotism.
The coming occasion, as Massa H
usetts and Virginia, the dead ad
ader and the living statesman
q brought together, in peace and T
It in war, is evidence, if evidence
IRE at all needed, that we are to-
y indeed one united country. s,
ne Labor Problem in the South r
On Car;Auc 0oa N'