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THE SCOTCH-IRISH UNIVERSITY
OF THE SOUTH: WASHINGTON AND LEE.
BY REV. HENRY ALEXANDER WHITE, PH.D., PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, WASHINGTON AND
LEE UNIVERSITY.
In 1749, that year of
high-tide in the old colonial life, when Boston Harbor was busily
unfurling her commercial sails; when the cavalier on Chesapeake Bay swore
allegiance to the king of England and read the prayer-book in the same
breath—in that year was laid the foundation-stone of Washington and Lee
University. Beneath the shadows of the Blue Ridge, in the Valley of
Virginia, Scotch-Irish brawn apeared a rude cabin of oaken logs, and with
fervent prayer did set apart this temple of the wilderness as the school
for the training of Scotch-Irish prophets. Over the little "mathematical
and classical school" was called the name Augusta Academy. Her founder and
ruling spirit was from the North of Ireland, and bore that typical Scotch
name, Alexander. Robert Alexander was one of three brothers, and his
fraternal line through one more generation ripened into that glory of our
race, Dr. Archibald Alexander. Through twenty-seven years of gathering
storm in affairs governmental, this rude seat of the muses waxed in
strength. She changed her location from foot-hill to mid-valley knoll.
Robert Alexander, a learned man among his brethren, "a fine classical
scholar," gave the master's ferule into other hands. In 1762, Rev. John
Brown, pastor of the neighboring church, who bore the seal of Newcastle
Presbytery, became the guardian of the academy. His wisdom gave counsel
until 1776, birth-year of American nationality.
Then it was that on a day
in May seven Scotch-Irish presbyters gathered in the log-church on Timber
Ridge. These seven men all were filled with the fire of revolution. They
laid their hands upon the log-school in fatherly blessing; over her they
called a new baptismal name—Liberty Hall Academy. With this name began a
new career, under the guidance of Hanover Presbytery. Other Scotch-Irish
trustees, twenty-four in number, did they appoint. Of the seven
presbyters, four were descendants of captives at Bothwell Bridge. Of the
rest, presbyters and trustees, in their veins flowed blood that had, in
days ancestral, left martyr stains upon the heather of Clydesdale, or had
been parched by famine and fever in Londonderry. As rector they chose
William Graham, the Scotch-Irish scholar, the patriot, the man of God.
Unto a spot amid the oak grove was brought the academy. God's
"meeting-house," wherein these presbyters met, cast perhaps its morning
shadow across the threshold of the school. The shrine of public devotion
and the shrine of learning were placed on the same hill-top as twin
memorials that the Scotch-Irish race was there. Fit stronghold of the
principles of freedom was this log-college standing near the church and
beneath the shadows of the mountains ever-during. Fitting name was Liberty
Hall for the earliest Scotch-Irish academy in Virginia, given a new
foundation by these seven iron-nerved lovers of liberty. The literary
plant of twenty-seven thus became the palladium of the principles of our
race—her they swore to cherish and protect, and in her prosperity did they
read the future of their people.
Let us turn now to the
record of those eighteenth-century days and draw thence the story of—
I. Liberty Hall Academy,
the Literary Nursling of the Revolution. This child of Hanover Presbytery
looked southward down the sloping valley and saw the James burst through
the ridge on her way to Chesapeake Bay; northward did she look from her
mid-vale summit and watch the Shenandoah winding on toward the Potomac.
This basin embosomed in the Appalachians was a land unknown a century
before—"haunted by monsters," said old John Lederer. In 1716, a gap in the
Blue Ridge echoed with the voices of Governor Spotswood's gay troop of
explorers, the "Knights of the Golden Horseshoe," from tide-water
Virginia. They passed into the valley and gave to the Shenandoah the name
" Euphrates." These royalists, who drank to the health of the king on the
mountain summit, after naming the highest peak in his honor, "Mount
George," left the "Euphrates" to the aboriginal Nimrods. Not yet a score
of years had passed after this expedition when there ventured up the
stream crowds of exiles from the North of Ireland. In 1732, the
Scotch-Irish reached Augusta County in the Valley of Virginia.
What tongue can tell the
sadness that hung like a pall over those multitudes who spread their sails
westward from Belfast and Londonderry in the opening years of the 18th
century! Wrongs that could not be righted were no longer to be endured.
What a horizon of oppression overspread their vision as they turned with
farewell gaze toward their native land. There upon the soil of Erin
towered, like a demon of tyranny, the Test act of Parliament, whose frown
had hurried their departure. There on the sky they saw written statutes of
oppression ; in letters of blood was inscribed there, too, the story of
their race. As they continued to gaze, the spirits of their fathers were
outlined on the sky, pointing to Bothwell Bridge, where they made a stand,
in 1679, against the Stuart tyranny, waving their hands toward the walls
of' Derry, where, in 1689, they held Ireland against the second James;
then pointing to the Scotch-Irish support of the House of Hanover, where
"the Pretender" stirred the enthusiasm of Romanist Scotland. What return
for this service did they see made by the Hanover dynasty? Not
advancement—only persecution because of religious opinion. Yea, these
exiles, with their latest glance, looked back over a century's struggle
for liberty. They could see the struggle ended with William of Orange on
the throne by act of Parliament. Then, lo! the Constitution for which they
and their fathers had fought, turned to crush its chief supporters with
the Test act. It was the chiseled figure stooping to crush the Michael
Angelo who would not worship it. Betrayed with a kiss, the Scotch-Irish
turned them away from a past so full of disappointment. The picture of
oppression died away upon their sight as the shores of Ireland fell below
the horizon.
The memory of that
oppression lingered still as a smoldering fire in their hearts. The pride
and courage of the race, first stirred into action by the voice of Knox,
could not repine nor die. New inspiration was caught from those remembered
scenes of tyranny. The period of transit upon the high seas was for the
Scotch-Irishman the period of a new birth—not the birth of new principles,
but of a fixed determination. It was the passage from despair to new-born
hope. Those hours of political regeneration saw the chains of oppression
upon which the exile had gazed, now painted as flaming swords of
deliverance upon the new horizon that rose to meet him; they saw the creed
of his fathers so inwrought into the very texture of the wanderer's soul,
that, like the figure of Minerva in the shield of Achilles, it would be
impossible to eliminate the principles without destroying the man. When
the Scotch-Irish set foot upon the new shore, first and foremost was the
resolution to seek a stronghold wherein they might enshrine this new-born
hope as a heritage unto all their generations forever. Where could such a
spot be found? Amid the Alleghanies, whose peaks hold priestly communion
with heaven itself, and tolerate as dwellers beneath their shadows none
but freemen.
The Joshua who led these
exiles into the valley of the Shenandoah was John Lewis—that man with
heart and frame of Scotch-Irish oak. In 1732 this priest and warrior of
his people started away from the Potomac to go up against the Canaanites
of the forest. Thus into its mountain seed-bed was brought the germ of
American liberty. A rifle, a Bible, a heart throbbing for freedom—these
were the instruments of war. By the camp-fire of the wilderness did they
kneel to adore their fathers' God. Beneath the stars they laid them down
to repose, to dream of altars and firesides, where the shadow of tyranny
could never fall. So spun its length this weary, wilderness-march. Where
the pure water gushed from beneath the rock in West Augusta, there was the
homestead planted. The rustle of corn-leaves 'ere long became the voice of
the freeman's joy and hope. Here was Freedom's training-school. Within
sight of the firesides was erected the "meeting-house" for divine worship.
In 1748 the Scotch-Irish
saw their first church completed. Of solid limestone was it constructed,
each stone a memorial of toil and prayer—and it still stands as a noble
monument of Scotch-Irish faith and courage. Even the women and children
bore a part in up-rearing this first sanctuary, called "The Stone Meeting
House of Augusta." As this church rose to completion, already was the
woodman's ax ringing through the forest as a prophecy of the log-college.
The next year, 1749, saw the school of Robert Alexander open its doors.
That memorable year of 1749
saw another "shadow of coming events." At the foot of this same Blue
Ridge, some four score miles down the valley nearer the Potomac, a young
surveyor, was adjusting the needle of his compass, and in leisure moments
reading the "Spectator" and "History of England." It was the youthful
Washington at "Greenway Court," the manor of Lord Fairfax. A twelve-month
before, Washington crossed into the valley to mark off the estate of the
noble lord. A night he spent in the rude cabin of Joist Hite, first
patentee of land in the valley of Virginia. Nine years as surveyor
lingered Washington in this frontier academy—for it was the
training-school of his life. There it was that he passed through the
curriculum of danger and hardship. There between the same college walls,
the ridges of the Alleghanies, came that later training that sent him
forth the first soldier in the colonies. Strange coincidence! Washington
beginning his life training almost within hearing of the woodman's ax
uprearing Augusta Academy—taking his first lessons in history and and
belles-lettres but a few miles away from the log college to which his name
and patronage should give permanence!
Not on parchment nor on
paper has been written the story of that academy's early years. As her
record she points to the lives of the men who founded her. This primitive
institution embodied the principles of the Scotch-Irish race. In her were
enshrined the hopes and fixed resolves born of oppression—destined now to
grow and spread until they upheaved the governments of centuries. She grew
up in the lap of revolution. Yea, her growth may be paralleled with that
of a plant whose life sap is freedom; the progress of that plant in the
valley is the measure whereby we may mark the growth of the sentiment of
independence. When the plant has lived two years beyond the first
quarter-century, the bells are ringing joyously over a declaration. From
what beginning grew that instrument of human rights? We shall see.
Amid the scenes of frontier
life, the little log college started upon her work. On the western horizon
gleamed the lurid Indian wars. Up from the Ohio and Mississippi came the
rattle of musketry. The swords of France and England were flashing forward
in the struggle for the great valleys of the new world. The territory
between the Alleghanies, the lakes, and the Mississippi was passing under
British control as a future prize for the colonies. From this battle-field
came savage foes to Alleghany summit, and thence did they glare down upon
the valley settlers. Yells of vengeance rang through the mountain passes
and mingled with the echoes from every hill-topi. The whole environment of
the log temple of learning was one of intense action. The rhythm of
Virgil's verse pulsated with new life when read to the regular strokes of
the ax as it felled the forest trees. The campaigns of Livy and Thucydides
were rendered more vivid when a band of rifles gleamed past the academy
door to drive back Indian invaders.
The Phillippics of
Demosthenes were fit vehicles of expression for men who grew up in those
hours of ripening revolution. Members of the future colonial assembly,
leaders of colonial battles, speakers who shall fire the patriot heart
when the hour strikes, now sat as youth on the rude benches, looking up
from the page of the classic to bid farewell to fathers and brothers who
were marching away with Col. Andrew Lewis to join Gen. Braddock; or,
again, to join Col. Grant in his expedition against Fort Duquesne, where
Lewis was captured. Over all these earlier years there hovered the lurid
glare of Indian atrocities. Still the school continued. Through the
furnace of fire she came, tempered and strengthened for the future.
In 1771, Hanover Presbytery
began to outstretch fatherly arms to patronize this academy of the
frontier. In that year the Presbytery left record thus: "Presbytery, being
very sensible of the great expediency of erecting a seminary of learning
somewhere within the bounds of this Presbytery, do recommend it to all the
members to take this matter under consideration and report their thoughts
at our next especially respecting the best method of accomplishing it."
April, 1772, there was
spread this minute: "The consideration of the minute concerning a seminary
amongst ourselves is deferred until our next sederunt."
October, 1773, . . . "the
Presbyterry agrees to fix the public seminary for the liberal education of
youth, in Staunton, Augusta."
October, 1774, "The
Presbytery resume the consideration of a school for the liberal education
of youth. . . . We do therefore agree to establish and patronize a public
school which shall be confined to the county of Augusta. At present it
shall be managed by Mr. William Graham, a gentleman properly recommended
to this Presbytery, and under the inspection of Rev. John Brown." The
change of place was made "because there is [was] no person to take the
management of it in the place first agreed upon [Staunton], and it is very
uncertain whether there ever will be."
Thus the academy of Robert
Alexander, presided over by Rev. John Brown, became the child of Hanover
Presbytery. In 1775 this body appointed committees to raise an endowment
fund. From the dwellers about the headwaters of the James and the
Shenandoah the sum of one hundred and twenty-eight pounds was reported the
following year.
May 6, 1776, the seven
presbyteries met at Timber Ridge and made enactment thus: ''The presbytery
find that as the Augusta Academy is circumstanced, it is highly necessary
now to fix on the place for its situation and the person by whom it shall
be conducted, and as this congregation of Timber Ridge appears to us to be
a convenient place, and as they have obtained a minister whom we judge
qualified, and Capt. Alexander Stuart and Mr. Samuel Huston each offering
to give forty acres of land for the purpose convenient to the place of
public worship, and the neighbors offering to build a hewed log-house,
twenty-eight by twenty-four feet, one story and a half high, besides their
subscriptions, . . . we agree that the Augusta Academy shall be placed on
Timber Ridge upon those lands, and we choose Mr. William Graham rector and
Mr. John Montgomery his assistant."' Twenty-four trustees were then
appointed in behalf of the presbytery, the presbytery reserving to
themselves " the right of visitation forever, as often as they shall judge
it necessary."
One week later, May 13,
1776, the trustees, at their first meeting, left this record: "Pursuant to
an order of the presbytery of Hanover, relative to the Academy of Liberty
Hall, as it is hereafter to be called, instead of the Augusta Academy, . .
. the following members of the trustees met."
So does this old record
speak regarding the act of adoption, whereby the presbytery, younger by
six years than the school, assumed control of the latter. That May-day of
1776 was a day whereon were proclaimed the principles of the Scotch-Irish
race, viz.: The twin pillars upholding the state are the school and the
church, and these all, pillars and superstructure, must find their
resting-place in the hearts of freemen.
In this record, too, we
meet Rev. William Graham, the Scotch-Irish organizer of the school. After
two years' tutorship at Augusta Academy, he stands before us as first
rector of Liberty Hall. He bore the scholastic seal of Nassau Hall along
with the class of 1773. The place of his nativity was Paxton township,
near Harrisburg, Pa., and his ancestral line ran back to the fierce
moss-trooper of the low lands, who first broke through the wall of
Agricola, the ruins of which are still called Graham's Dyke. Of the
ability and personal worth of Rector Graham, let one testify who lacked
not ability himself. Dr. Archibald Alexander delivered an address before
the Alumni Association of Washington College at the commencement of 1843.
He came, as he said, reckoning upon it as the last visit to his native
heath. The sons of his alma mater and the friends of his youth, with all
their generations, were gathered to hear him. His biography tells us that
the afternoon heat of the crowded building, and the effort of the
occasion, were too much for an old man like Dr. Alexander. "He faltered in
the midst of his address, grew pale, stopped, and sank back into his
scat." The effort was repeated, but again he faltered, and had to be
carried to the open air. At once his friends urged that the audience be
dismissed and the address printed. He declared his intention of finishing
the speech. He refused even to allow the rest of it to be read by a
friend. "What was the secret of his pertinacity?" asks his biographer. "He
had an office to perform, he had a tribute to pay on that last occasion;
and there, under the shadows of the old church, surrounded by the
descendants of his paternal family, and of his contemporaries, amidst the
tombs of his own generation, and within a few yards of the graves of his
own parents, he sat and read his tribute to Mr. Graham, the audience
clustering around him, and hanging with fixed and tearful attention on his
closing words." The incident itself is a testimonial to Rector Graham's
personal character. To inspire such lasting love and veneration in that
leader of men, Dr. Alexander, is the crowning seal of Mr. Graham's
individual greatness.
Let the words of the
Princeton theologian give testimony to the Rector's qualifications as a
teacher. Dr. Alexander was the sole survivor of the officers and students
connected with Liberty Hall at the time of his entrance, and thus did he
speak of his beloved teacher and friend : " He possessed a mind formed for
profound and accurate investigation. He had studied the Latin and Greek
classics with great care, and relished the beauties of those exquisite
compositions. . . The science, however, which engaged his attention more
than all others, except theology, was the philosophy of the mind. In this
he took great delight, and to this devoted much time and attention. Though
acquainted with the best treatises which had been published, his
investigations were not carried on so much by books, as by a patient and
repeated analysis of the various processes of thought as they arose in his
own mind; and by reducing the phenomena thus observed to a regular system.
The speaker is of opinion that the system of mental philosophy which he
thus formed was in clearness and fullness, superior to any thing which has
been given to the public, in the numerous works which have recently been
published on this subject. And it is greatly to be regretted that his
lectures were never fully committed to writing and published for the
benefit of the world." Such was the tribute of the sage of Princeton
seminary to the sage of Liberty Hall, as his master in philosophy.
But now hear the
corner-stone of Princeton seminary ascribe honor to his father in
theology. Glance down the life-story of Dr. Alexander, fifty-three years
prior to this alumni address, and you find him, at the very crisis of his
carer, standing before the rector. He has chosen his life-work, the office
of the sacred ministry, and he now feels the necessity, he says, of
"commencing the study of theology with more method." "I expected," so runs
the diary, "to be put to reading many ponderous volumes in Latin, and
endeavored to brace my nerves for the effort. Accordingly I went to Mr.
Graham with a request that he would direct my studies. He smiled and said,
'If you mean ever to be a theologian, you must come at it not by reading,
but by thinking.' "Through the dim light of a century we now look back to
that year 1790, and beneath the shadows of Liberty Hall Academy, we see
laid the cornerstone'of Scotch-Irish theological training. Said Dr.
Alexander in the alumni address: "After the great revival which commenced
in this valley, in the year 1789, Mr. Graham had a theological class of
seven or eight members under his tuition, which was kept up for several
years. It was his custom to devote one day in the week to hearing the
written discourses of these candidates, and to a free discussion of
theological points. In these exercises he appeared to take a great
delight, and the students were always gratified and commonly convinced by
his lucid statements and cogent reasonings. As most of those who enjoyed
the benefit of his instructions, in this incipient theological seminary,
are not now in the world, it may not be improper to say that some of them
rose to eminence in the church, and as professors or presidents of
literary institutions." Liberty Hall, termed by Dr. Alexander, "this
incipient theological seminary," was made officially such by the synod of
Virginia in 1791. It was proposed that the synod "should institute and
encourage some plan calculated to educate persons designed for the gospel
ministry." . . . "Taking this measure, therefore, into serious
consideration, the synod recommend that there be two general institutions
for learning conducted under the patronage of this body—the one to be
established in Rockbridge county, in this state, under the care of the
Rev. William Graham, as the President; the other in Washington county,
Penna., under the care of the Rev- John McMillan." September, 1793, "a
petition was presented [to synod] from the Trustees of the Academy of
Liberty Hall, stating that they had agreed to the conditions on which the
synod proposed last year to patronize said academy." As professor of
theology under the synod and as rector of the academy under the trustees,
Mr. Graham presided over Liberty Hall, until his resignation in 1791.
In these records and
biographical notes do we trace back to Liberty Hall and to her Rector,
William Graham, those principles of mental philosophy and of theology
which, during the forty years from 1812 to 1851, were taught by the first
professor of Princeton Seminary—a system which embodies in theological
form the very life of our race, and in this day and generation, under the
name of Princeton Theology, forms the chief glory of Scotch-Irish
Presbyterianism.
When we turn to get a view
of those early classic walls where Graham first taught, only one passing
glimpse is given us. In the Southern Literary Messenger, Dr. Campbell
leaves us recollections of a visit to Augusta Academy sometime during the
two years 1774-76, when Graham was tutor and not yet Rector. The picture
might well be thought a classic scene, drawn from ancient Athens. The log
building in the oak-tree grove—the elevated plateau affording an exquisite
prospect—the assemblage of vigorous youth at the hour of recreation
engaged in feats of strength and speed. Then came the sound of the horn,
calling some to study and some to recite the Greek verb Tupto. About the
preceptor in a semicircle they gathered, and like a self-regulating
machine began to repeat the flowing syllables. Grave and reserved was the
master's face, though a smile of approval would light up his features
"when small boys by superior scholarship raised themselves above those who
were full-grown." When the studies and recitations of the day were ended,
a short devotional exercise dismissed all homeward.
So fades from sight the
log-building unto which Hanover Presbytery anew gave "local habitation and
a name." Twenty-eight by twenty-four stood the new academy, one story and
a-half in height. For one hundred and sixty pounds, ten shillings, the
Rector had provided an air pump, electric machine, sextant and microscope,
telescope, a set of maps and a pair of twelve-inch globes. Added thereto
was the library of one hundred and eighty volumes. Among the books could
be found the sermons of Atterbury and Smith, the works of Hervey, the
Spectator, Burnet on the Thirty-nine Articles, Pike's Cases of Conscience,
Edwards on the Affections, Clark's Homer, Ćsop's Fables, and Seneca's
Morals. From a college thus equipped came men whose names are widely known
to fame. From that nursling of Revolution, before the war had closed,
there went forth four college Presidents, Samuel Doak, Moses Hoge, James
Priestly, and James Carrick; United States Senators and Congressmen, among
them the Breckinridges and Browns, of Kentucky, and Andrew Moore, of
Virginia; distinguished lawyers and judges, Blackburn, Campbell, and
McClung; college professors and ministers of the Gospel.
But the crowning glory of
the Academy's early history is her leadership of Revolutionary sentiment.
January 20, 1775, months before the "Mecklenburg Declaration of
Independence," the freeholders of the county of Fincastle, through their
committee of fifteen, Col. William Christian being chairman thereof,
presented an address to the Continental Congress, from which I quote these
sentiments: "We are ready and willing to contribute all in our power for
the support of His Majesty's Government, if applied to constitutionally,
and when the grants are made to our representatives, but can not think of
submitting our liberty or property to the power of a venal British
Parliament, or to the will of a corrupt British ministry. We by no means
desire to shake off our duty or allegiance to our lawful sovereign, but on
the contrary, shall ever glory in being the loyal subjects of a Protestant
prince, descended from such illustrious progenitors, so long as we can
enjoy the free exercise of our religion as Protestants, and our liberties
and properties as British subjects.
"But, if no pacific
measures shall be proposed or adopted by Great Britain, and our enemies
will attempt to dragoon us out of those inestimable privileges which we
are entitled to as subjects, and to reduce us to slavery, we declare that
we are deliberately and resolutely determined never to surrender them to
any power upon earth but at the expense of our lives." With this
Declaration of Independence Liberty Hall was intimately associated. The
sentiment of these free-holders was a sentiment of which she was the
center. The Academy sat just without the border of the county of
Fincastle, and the chairman of the committee, Col. William Christian, and
one-third of the whole number of its members, were afterward chosen
trustees of Liberty Hall.
In the crisis of the
succeeding year the freeholders of Augusta, in the immediate vicinity of
Liberty Hall, were the first to speak. May 6, 1776, the seven presbyters
at Timber Ridge adopted the academy; that same day assembled in
Williamsburg the Virginia convention. The action of those two bodies was
that day linked together by two men, Thomas Lewis and Samuel McDowell.
They were chosen trustees of Liberty Hall, and, at the same time, took
their seats as members of the convention. May 10, four days later, these
two trustees presented to the convention a memorial, thus referred to in
the journal: "A representation from the committee of the county of Augusta
was presented to the convention and read, setting forth the present
unhappy situation of the country, and from the ministerial measures of
wrongs now pursuing, representing the necessity of making the confederacy
of the united colonies the most perfect, independent and lasting, and of
framing an equal, free and liberal government, that may bear the test of
all future ages." Through the trustees of Liberty Hall did this avowal of
the necessity of independence find expression—the first ever recorded in
the proceedings of a parliamentary body of the colonists. May 15, 1776,
the convention unanimously resolved to instruct the Virginia delegates to
the Continental Congress, to "declare the united colonies free and inde-pendent
states," an action so gloriously consummated in the motion of Richard
Henry Lee, June 7, and the resulting declaration, July 4, 1776.
Further than this did
Liberty Hall lead the sentiment of freedom. The memorial presented to the
convention by McDowell and Lewis only expressed sentiments already
baptized in "the first blood of the revolution." The drama of Indian war
was closed at Point Pleasant, October, 1774 ; the rifles that drove back
the band under the red chief, Cornstalk, and thus quelled the rising
confederacy of Indian tribes, had often roused the echoes round Augusta
academy. Many of the soldiers in that battle had, most probably, been
pupils under Robert Alexander, and the seven chief officers were, two
years later, named trustees of Liberty Hall, viz.: General Andrew Lewis,
commander-in-chief, whom Washington recommended as leader of the
continental armies, Colonel Fleming, Captain McKee, Captain Moffatt and
Lieutenant Andrew Moore, with Colonel Christian and Colonel Preston,
leaders of the reserves.
Later in the War, when the
cloud of disaster hung low, a son of Liberty Hall buckled on the sword of
his Highland grandfather and struck the blow that changed the course of
British triumph and brought us the final victory. General William
Campbell, the hero of King's Mountain, had sat at the feet of William
Graham in the log academy. These events show the principles of our race in
action, and Liberty Hall as a leader in the conflict. Her spirit moved the
pens that first boldly declared the principle of individual freedom—her
spirit nerved the right arms that vindicated it in battle. This principle
of " liberty or death," carried into action, was exemplified in 1781, by
Rector Graham himself. Where do we find the philosopher and theologian on
a certain Sunday in June of that year? Leaving the pulpit and the Bible
and taking up the sword—gathering a company of militia and marching, as
their captain, to Rockfish Gap, in the Blue Ridge, to keep back the
threatened invasion of Tarleton. A glorious picture with which to close
the first chapter in the story of Liberty Hall—her rector standing on the
misty mountain-top, a leader in the line of battle, holding prayers with
his men at nightfall, sternly waiting to keep back the invader from his
native soil, or baptize that rampart with his blood.
II. Liberty Hall Academy
the earliest monument to the Separation of Church and State.
It was laid upon the log
academy of Timber Ridge, as her mission, to vindicate the principles
handed down as a common heritage, from father to son, of the Scotch-Irish
race, viz., a free state and a free conscience. Every oak log in the
little building was a protest against bondage. Her voice was earliest in
urging the policy of civil liberty—but thus far was only half the fight
for freedom. A free state was as naught to a Scotch-Irishman if it left
his conscience in bonds. Therefore, a sequel most fitting to the memorial
of May, 1776, was the Virginia League and Covenant of 1785.
At Bethel Church, almost
within view of the earliest site of Augusta Academy, August 10, 1785, met
the Second League and Covenant of the Scotch-Irish race. It came together
as a general convention of the Presbyterians of Virginia, at the call of
Hanover Presbytery. The question for consideration was a bill then pending
before the state Assembly providing for the support of religion by public
taxation. Partiality to sect or people there was none in its
specifications. In this convention gathered the men who had founded
Liberty Hall—the Presbytery of Hanover with all its clans. Hither to
Bethel they flocked to erect a memorial, even a pillar of protest against
civil intervention in affairs of church. The carving of the pillar was the
work of the rector of Liberty Hall.
The covenanters at Gray
Friars' Church, Edinburgh, in 1638, leagued themselves to resist the new
prayer-book of Archbishop Laud.
The covenanters at Bethel
Church, in 1785, joined their voices not against the form of worship
prescribed by the State, but against any intervention of what kind soever
in affairs spiritual by the civil authority. The covenanters of Edinburgh
were rebels—the covenanters of Bethel were revolutionists. By the covenant
of Edinburgh, when ratified by the Parliaments of England and Scotland and
by the Assembly of Divines at Westminster in 1643, Presbyterianism was to
be established in the kingdoms of England, Ireland, and Scotland, and
"popery, prelacy, superstition, heresy, and schism were to be extirpated."
For the "divine right" of bishops there was substituted the "divine right"
of presbyters. From national episcopacy a change was made to national
Presbyterianism. Still was it the Church of England, by whatever form
administered. The establishment of the Long Parliament claimed the right
of dictating a creed to British subjects. When they offered terms of peace
to Charles I, this condition was prominent— the establishment of
Presbyterianism. Never a word said they of toleration or liberty of
conscience. For their loyalty to the king in 1649 the Presbyterians
received an ill return—the second Charles publicly burned the League and
Covenant in 1661. Under Charles and the second James the covenanters
passed under the rod. At the end of this period of cross-bearing they saw
the divine right of kings made void by the presence of William and Mary on
the throne. As to liberty of conscience in England and Ireland, the jus
divinum of bishops was muzzled by the Act of Toleration—in Scotland the
Presbyterian Church was rendered a creature of the state, a modified
"right divine" of the presbyter. Thus the first League and Covenant
resulted, in 1706, in one state and two established churches—parliamentary
government instead of a tyrant king—the hierarchy of an established church
split in twain. Such was the work of Scotland's League and Covenant. Only
half-finished was the mission of the Scotch-Irish race. Wait until the
second League and Covenant! Wait until the words of Graham sound the note
of complete liberty of conscience. Already was the liberty of state made
sure. Then the pen of the rector wrote: "The end of civil government is
security to the temporal liberty and property of mankind, and to protect
them in the free exercise of religion. . . . Religion is altogether
personal, and the right of exercising it inalienable; and it is not, can
not, and ought not to be resigned to the will of the society at large, and
much less to the legislature which derives its authority wholly from the
consent of the people. ... Its divine author did not think it necessary to
render it [religion] dependent on earthly governments. And experience has
shown that this dependence, where it has been effected, has been an injury
rather than an aid." The thrilling scenes of the signing of the League at
Edinburgh were enacted again among the hills of Virginia. Ten thousand
names were affixed to the document drawn at Bethel. At the bar of the
assembly the memorial was ably seconded by Rev. John Blair Smith,
President of Hampden Sidney. The bill for the support of religious
taxation was lost, and in December of the same year there was passed "An
Act for establishing Religious Freedom."
Thus was finished by the
Second League and Covenant the work of the Scotch-Irish race for freedom
of conscience. The pen of Liberty Hall's first rector cut asunder the
previous alliance of church and state, and was largely instrumental in
obtaining the first legal statute declaring that a man's conscience is his
own.
A glance backward over the
field will show further connection of Liberty Hall with this victory. The
bill for religious freedom, drawn up by Jefferson and passed by the
parliamentary influence and skill of Madison, was framed from sentiments
already expressed in bold terms by the founders of the log-colleges in
Augusta and Prince Edward.
When the Scotch-Irish
entered Virginia, the English Act of Toleration had already found its way
into the colonial statutes. But it was administered with a stern hand. A
house of worship for the use of dissenters could not be erected without a
license issued by the Council of State and registered in the county court.
Their ministers had to abjure "The Pretender," the pope, and
transubstantiation — and even after such vows, were not allowed to
celebrate the rite of marriage.
In the year 1748, two young
men stood before the bar of the council to hear a decision expressing a
still more strict interpretation of Toleration. Samuel Davies and John
Rodgers prayed a license for Rodgers, in addition to that a year before
granted to Davies. The permission was refused; only one minister in one
province was the policy actuating such a decision. In the same year, Isaac
Winston and Samuel Morris, by decision of suits begun years before, were
each fined twenty shillings and costs of prosecution for holding religious
services without license. While such treatment was meted out to the
Tide-water dissenters, those on the frontier were suffered to build and to
preach without restraint—their churches being the best bulwarks to keep
back Indian raids. The stone meeting-house of Augusta was completed within
the same twelve-month that Davies began to preach alone in Hanover. The
energy of Rev. John Craig had upreared that solid sanctuary after a
pastoral work of eight years. In 1740, he had entered the valley, "the
first pastor of the American Synod in the Colony of Virginia." Then came
Rev. John Brown, 1753, to shepherd the flock at New Providence and to
exercise supervision over Augusta Academy.
One ecclesiastical
organization was at last forged from the multiplied labors of these
pioneers. Across the Blue Ridge it stretched, a linked band of
Scotch-Irishmen. At one end of the presbyterial rampart was the academy of
Robert Alexander, intrenched amid the mountains, the arsenal whence were
to be drawn the weapons of spiritual warfare. The authority of the Synod
of New York was laid upon this section in 1755, and the Presbytery of
Hanover was formed. It followed the tenets of its parent organization, and
belonged to the "New Side," sympathizing with the "revival" views of
Whitefield. Six ministers and churches formed the new presbyterial
company— among them Rev. John Brown. Mr. Craig leaned to the " Old Side,"
and joined the presbytery only in 1758, after the junction of the synods
of New York and of Philadelphia. By this consolidated synod Hanover was
sanctioned as a regularly formed presbytery. Thus united in their very
foundations were Augusta Academy and Hanover Presbytery. Six years of age
was the one when her founders and patrons were sealed by the synod as
constituent members of the other. Nearly twenty years later they began to
merge into organic connection. At the session of the presbytery in
October, 1774, Augusta Academy was selected as the school to be
"established and patronized." Before the same meeting came up the question
of religious privileges, for the presbytery " agreed to meet on the second
Wednesday of November next ... to remonstrate against a bill" devised for
the restriction of religious rights. At this adjourned meeting was drawn
up the first memorial of the presbytery in behalf of their rights of
public worship. The paper prayed the granting of their right to worship
when and where it pleased them. When William Graham was licensed to preach
the Gospel, this first memorial was the subject of discussion in the
presbytery. The key-note of the petition was expressed in the prayer "for
that freedom in speaking and writing upon religious subjects which is
allowed by law to every member of the British empire in civil affairs"—a
sentiment which in 1776 was, upon motion of Patrick Henry, embodied in the
Virginia Bill of Rights. From the presbytery came up a second memorial, in
October, 1776, which was considered in committee of the whole House. The
result was, in Jefferson's words, "After desperate contests in that
committee almost daily from October 11 to December 5, we prevailed so far
only as to repeal the laws which rendered criminal the maintenance of any
religious opinions, . . . and further to exempt dissenters from
contributions to the support of the established church." Both these
memorials were probably written by Caleb Wallace, one of the seven
presbyters at Timber Ridge, May, 1776, and perhaps this second memorial
was drawn at that meeting.
While Jefferson was
preparing the bill for religious freedom, in 1777, there came the third
memorial protesting against a general assessment for the support of the
churches; this protest came from the presbytery, again in session at
Timber Ridge, under the very shadow of Liberty Hall.
Jefferson's bill was
proposed to the Assembly in 1779. For six years the contest over it
continued. Presbytery's voice was heard in the fourth memorial, April,
1780. May, 1784, there came a fifth, and the sixth followed soon, October,
1784, the latter protesting against the incorporation of the Episcopal
Church, long agitated and finally made an enactment that year. The passage
of this incorporating act, and the proposed assessment, called the
Virginia Presbyterians into the League and Covenant at Bethel. The
accumulated sentiment of a long struggle gave vigor to Graham's pen as he
indited the Covenant Memorial—the seventh in order, and the last. But
behind them these memorialists had left a lasting monument of their
sincerity—a pledge more powerful than any protest. Liberty Hall Academy,
three years before, in 1782, had been established on a non-sectarian
foundation. At the request of her rector, the young institution was given
over to an incorporated board of trustees—the first institution of
learning chartered under the constitution of Virginia.
The earliest monument of a
great achievement of the Scotch-Irish race stands the university that has
succeeded Liberty Hall. A monument marking a period of growth in the
sentiment of that race; where the Scotch-Irish left behind not merely the
" divine right" of bishops, but the "divine right" of presbyters, and were
henceforth filled with a charity that surpasses the strength of
sectarianism.
III. Liberty Hall Academy,
the Literary Legatee of the Revolution. The second volume in the life
story of the university of the Scotch-Irish in Virginia began with the
closing years of the eighteenth century. Then it was that the seal of
permanence was affixed to the school of the colonial pioneers by the
leader of the colonial armies. From his chair as first president of the
republic, in 1796, Washington turned to endow the academy of Alexander and
of Graham.
As her testimonial to
Washington's character and public services, Virginia had donated him,
through the General Assembly of 1785, one hundred shares of stock in the
James River Company and fifty shares in the Potomac Company. This gift was
accepted on condition that the product arising there from should be
applied to "the education and support of the children of the poor in this
country, particularly the children of those men of this description who
have fallen in the defense of the rights and liberties of it."
To him the rector and board
of trustees now turned. Graham placed before him the academy, with a brief
sketch of its upbuilding. "By voluntary contributions and some sacrifices
of private property," said Graham, "plain but neat buildings, sufficiently
capacious to accomodate between forty and fifty students," had been
erected. The main building was of stone, and is yet standing, though in
ruins. Two thousand pounds was the estimate placed upon the buildings and
equipments. Each of the two thousand pounds of the original endowment
spoke of sacrifice and self-denial. Each stone in the building was the
memorial of a Scotch-Irish prayer. Yea, the entire institution, as it now
stood topping the summit of the hill near the town of Lexington, was a
living embodiment of the principles of our race. The appeal of this people
was not in vain. This stone college was in the center of that region which
was Washington's own training-school. Here was West Augusta, whither the
colonial chief declared that he would retreat, if necessary, and make a
last stand for liberty. Here were the men and the children of the men
whose rifles had spoken at Fort Duquesne in such a manner as to save the
army of Braddock; at Point Pleasant under Andrew Lewis, to save the
colonies from Indian atrocity; at Saratoga under Morgan, and at King's
Mountain under Campbell, to save the Revolution ; from these men the hero
of Trenton and of Yorktown withheld not the helping hand. The one hundred
shares in the James River Company were transferred "to the use of Liberty
Hall Academy, in Rockbridge County."
To the address of gratitude
from the Board of Trustees, Washington made reply thus:
"Mt. Vernon, 17th June, 1798.
"Gentlemen: To promote
literature in this rising empire, and to encourage the arts, have ever
been amongst the warmest wishes of my heart, and if the donation which the
generosity of the legislature of the commonwealth of Virginia has enabled
me to bestow upon Liberty Hall, now by your politeness called Washington
Academy, is likely to prove a means to accomplish these ends, it will
contribute to the gratification of my desires.
''Sentiments like those
which have flowed from your pen excite my gratitude, whilst I offer my
best vows for the prosperity of the academy, and for the honor and
happiness of those under whose auspices it is conducted. "Geo. Washington.
"Trustees of Washington
Academy."
The double seal of
permanency, the name and endowment of Washington, was given the academy at
the time the states were entering upon their period of "political
probation." In 1813 the new structure, of wider proportions and increased
facilities, was called, "The College of Washington, in Virginia." Her
foundations were the labors and endowments of "the first theologian of his
generation in Virginia," and of the warrior and statesman who had made the
colonies the final stronghold of freedom.
Mingled with the patronage
of Washington came other Revolutionary endowment. The surviving officers
of that struggle had banded themselves together to preserve inviolate
those affections and memories of which Washington was the center—to
preserve the rights and liberties for which they had contended, and to
"extend relief to such officers and their families as might stand in need
of it." This organization took the name of "The Society of the
Cincinnati," In 1802 the Virginia branch of this society decided to
disband, and dispose of their funds in the following terms—a resolution
adopted December 13, 1802:
"2. That the object of
appropriation of the funds of the society be the seminary of learning in
the county of Rockbridge, denominated Washington Academy (to which the
shares of the James River Company, heretofore vested in our late
illustrious leader and hero, General Washington, have by him been
appropriated), subject to such charges of a charitable nature as have been
or may be adopted by this society."
Then came the
Scotch-Irishman, John Robinson, a trustee of the college, and a soldier
under Washington, bearing another offering to the shrine made sacred by
the gift of his venerated leader. By his last will and testament,
Robinson's entire estate passed to Washington College in 1826.
The amount of these
Revolutionary legacies was large for those days of scanty fortunes.
Washington's bequest reached the sum of $50,000—that of the Cincinnati
Society added $25,000, and this endowment was swelled by $46,500 from the
estate of Robinson.
From this foundation the
work of Washington College spread abroad. Into the West, South and
Southwest went her sons to share in the work of carving new commonwealths
for the Federal union. Into breathing, lucid images of state were shaped
the territories along the banks of the Cumberland, the Tennessee, the
Ohio, and the Mississippi. No second part in this upbuilding of
nationality was borne by the graduates of Washington College. In the
original colonies along the Atlantic sea-board her alumni were leaders of
public sentiment, and sat in the seats of government.
At last approached the year
of her first centenary, 1849. Then seemed to be fulfilled unto this school
of prophets ecclesiastical and political a promise like to that of which
the patriarch Jacob spake, when he called his sons about him for the last
time: "The Lord said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and
multiply thee, and [ will make of thee a company of peoples." Her
president, in that hour of prosperity, was a minister of the gospel—Rev.
George Jun-kin, D.D. Twelve sons, each the patriarch of a tribe of
disciples, saw Washington College when she looked over her family record
of ten decades, with a prophetic glance forward to see the career of some
yet to receive her seal. Around the circle of states they were scattered—
Samuel Doak, President of Washington College, Tennessee; Samuel Carrick,
President of Blount College; Moses Hoge, President Hampden Sydney College,
Virginia; James Priestley, President Cumberland University, Tennessee;
James Moore, President Transylvania University; George A. Baxter,
President of his alma muter, 1799-1829; William C. Preston, President
South Carolina College; Henry Ruffner, President of his alma mater,
1835-1848; James H. Piper, President East Tennessee University; Drury
Lacy, President Davidson College; Socrates Maupin, chairman of the
faculty, University of Virginia; and as the twelfth son—the Joseph to whom
was given the portion above his brethren—we name Archibald Alexander,
President of Hampden Sydney College, and first professor of Princeton
Seminary. All these are the twelve tribes of Washington College. Another
son, in time still later, she saw Superintendent of the Virginia Military
Institute—General Scott Shipp.
In the line of greater
prophets, professors in theological seminaries, she saw her sons stand
honored ; among them Dr. William S. Plumer of Alleghany and Columbia
seminaries; Dr. John H. Rice of Union seminary, once chosen president of
Princeton college; Drs. Graham and Wilson of Union, James K. Burch,
professor theology Center college, Kentucky, and Dr. Robert Watts, whom
she sent forth that summer of 1849 as a Scotch-Irish century plant, to
teach theology in the Assembly college, Belfast, Ireland. Of the minor
prophets, college professors and principals of classical and high schools,
a great host rose up to call her blessed. In the first rank of these were
two Scotch-Irish members of the present faculty of the University of
Virginia, Milton W. Humphreys, professor of Greek, and James H. Gilmore,
professor equity and constitutional law. North and south, west as well as
east, went these heralds of learning, many of them distinguished educators
in the "rising empire." In advance of these, and more numerous still, was
a great band of shepherds, ministers of the gospel, whose words of power
and works of love laid the foundations whereon the Southern church of
to-day is builded. To mold the morals and to strengthen the faith of a
whole land, was the mission largely shared in by the "sons of the
prophets" trained in the college of Washington.
Political prophets by the
score went forth from her walls. For eight governors the gratitude of
commonwealths was accorded the institution as she continued her survey;
Kentucky paid homage for Crittenden, Virginia for McDowell, Letcher,
Kemper and McKinney, Mississippi for McNutt.
Twelve United States
senators the college had furnished to the councils of the nation;
Breckinridge and the Browns of Kentucky, H. S. Foote, Ellis and Adams of
Mississippi, William C. Preston of South Carolina, already named as
college president, Parker and Moore of Virginia, Morton of Florida, McKee
of Alabama, and Strange of North Carolina. Of members of Congress, more
than a score were her sons, representing the states of Kentucky, Georgia,
Florida, Virginia and Mississippi. Of judges she counted two score and
more, in the front thereof, Robert Trimble and Todd of the United States
Supreme court, and Burks, Allen, Coalter and Anderson of the Court of
Appeals of Virginia, John Trimble of Court of Appeals of Kentucky,
McDowell and McKee, United States district judge, and Stuart of Circuit
Court of Missouri. The voice of her state legislators had been heard in
nearly every commonwealth in the South and Southwest. The professions of
law and medicine were crowded with practitioners trained in her halls. The
commerce and business interests of the same great region were, in no small
measure, directed by her alumni. A veritable center of life, with half a
continent for a family homestead, and states and territories as dwelling
places for her sons, had the college of Washington become at the close of
her first century.
A shrine of liberty, too,
she was for her children of every territory and every creed. Within her
walls the cavalier of Tidewater bent over his studies side by side with
the Scotch-Irishman. The churchman sat on the same seat with the
covenanter. The blessing of George Washington had unified the sentiments
of those who came within reach of the college's influence. They were
Americans all, and the halls of this seat of the muses looked down with
equal favor on all sections and on all sects. She saw no political nor
religious divisions—her pupils were to her, each and all, the sons of the
men who had fought for American nationality. For a century she had stood
as the exponent of the creed of the Scotch-Irish race, viz.: Death to
tyrants—freedom under a constitution, and forth from a thousand answering
hills and valleys had come the youths, even of other races, to be trained
in that creed. Men of brawn and of brain she had discipled to vindicate
that principle with the sword, to uphold it with pen and voice until it
became the chain linking together a whole land. Washington College stood
as the liberty-tree of an entire people, with her roots spread abroad in
their sympathies and her branches adding refinement to their lives. A
splendid ripening from the Revolutionary planting—a wide founding to
insure the future steady growth. A hundred years of academy and college
were only forerunners of success as university.
IV. The University of
Washington and Lee.
June 21, 1865, the board of
trustees gathered about the college of Washington. The storm of war had
left her a wreck. Only four professors and about forty students lingered
within her desolate walls. The state was bankrupt, and in consequence
there was no product from the college endowment, vested entirely in
Virginia securities. Her apparatus was destroyed and her library scattered
to the winds. Her sons, where were they? A hundred battle-fields gave
answer. Scores of them had baptized the cause of their fathers in their
life-blood. The "Liberty Hall Volunteers," composed of the class of 1861,
under Prof. J. J. White as captain, were in the center of that brigade of
Scotch-Irish who stood "like a stone wall" at the battle of first
Manassas, thus giving to Gen. Jackson his well-known title. The officers
of the "Stonewall Brigade," during its entire career, were, nearly all of
them, sons of Washington College. The private members of the brigade were
likewise largely of her family. A heritage of "glory and undying fame" was
all that remained to this college of more than a century's growth.
Funds had vanished, but the
principles whereon the institution was founded were still uncompromised.
Scotch-Irish courage was yet undaunted—upon it now rested the task of
bringing life out of death. The trustees were equal to the emergency. At
this June meeting of the board, three Scotch-Irish members were added, and
an adjournment was made until August. Among these college directors there
was found a determination and devotion like that displayed by her original
founders. Lineal descendants of the patrons and founders of Liberty Hall
were of the number. Revolutionary heroes had grandsons there to represent
them. Rev. William Brown, D.D., was the son of a pupil of Graham at
Liberty Hall. Bolivar Christian and David E. Moore bore names represented
at the battle of Point Pleasant. Judge William McLaughlin, whose wise care
as rector of the board has been greatly instrumental in placing the
present university on a firm financial basis, traced his ancestral line
back through Point Pleasant and Yorktown to Londonderry. William T. Poague,
William M. Tate, John McD. Alexander, Hugh Barclay, Samuel McD. Reid, and
William A. Glasgow were likewise men of Scotch-Irish mould, and
descendants of Revolutionary heroes. Judge John W. Brockenbrough, founder
of the law school of the university, and a descendant of Carter Braxton,
who signed the Declaration of Independence, Judge F. T, Anderson, who
sprang from a hero of the Revolution and of the war of 1812, Thomas J.
Kirkpatrick, James D. Davidson, Rev. Horatio Thompson, D.D., and Alfred
Leyburn, M.D., completed the list of the rebuilders of the old college.
It was unanimously agreed
to that the institution should be opened in the autumn of that year. These
trustees pledged their individual credit in negotiating a loan. Even in
this hour of disaster, plans wide-reaching were matured. From her ashes
soon sprang this plant of Revolution to spread abroad more widely still
her branches over an entire people. The cloud lifted—the silver lining
thereof waxed clearer and brighter; into a golden mantle of kind
generosity erelong was it transformed. From every section, North as well
as South, poured in testimonials of sympathy.
This very day (May 29), in
the city of Richmond, Va., the heart of a whole people bows in affection
before the bronze figure of the man called by the board of trustees in
August, 1865, to the presidency of Washington College. Robert E. Lee, a
churchman, was placed at the head of a Scotch-Irish
institution—Scotch-Irish now in the highest and best sense, viz.,
nationally, representative and non-sectarian. ''It is the duty of every
citizen, in the present condition of the country, to do all in his power
to aid in the restoration of peace and harmony," was the sentiment
expressed by the new president as he took his place in the seat made
national by the gift of Washington.
Robert E. Lee was a
soldier. He modestly distrusted his own fitness for the position of
college president, but he yielded to the urgent solicitations of the
board. "I have a self-imposed task," said he, "which I must accomplish. I
have led the young men of the south in battle; I have seen many of them
fall under my standard. I shall devote my life now to training young men
to do their duty in life." His ability as an organizer soon brought the
college into a wider usefulness than ever before. The course of
instruction was enlarged; in-creased patronage came from every section,
and when the beloved president passed away the college was ready to be
incorporated as a university. In 1870 the seal of state gave to Washington
College the corporate title, The Washington and Lee University. Since that
time she has been presided over by George Washington Custis Lee.
In the upbuilding of the
institution into a new name and a new career, a generous aid has been
extended by the people of the North. From Philadelphia has come the
munificent gift of Dr. Vincent L. Bradford, viz., his law library, his
splendid collection of paintings, and one-half of his large estate, for
the endowment of a chair of "Civil Law and Equity Jurisprudence," and also
the "Bradford Chair of Constitutional and International Law." From
gentlemen of Philadelphia, also, have come the generous donations whereon
are now founded the "Thomas A. Scott Professorship of Applied
Mathematics," endowed by Col. Thomas A. Scott; the "Howard Houston
Fellowship," endowed by Mr. H. H. Houston; likewise, a large number of
rare, Costly, and most valuable books, belonging to the late Thomas B.
Wilson, "whose name is conspicuously associated with the 'Academy of
Natural Sciences and the Entomological Society of Philadelphia,'" have
been contributed by his brother, Mr. Rathmell Wilson.
From New York have been
sent the donations of Mr. and Mrs. Warren Newcomb, of Col. J. H. Mapleson,
and of Mr. F. O. French, and that of Mr. Lewis Brooks, of Rochester, New
York. From these have been established "The Lewis Brooks Museum of Natural
History," the "Mapleson Scholarship," the "F. O. French Scholarship,'' and
'Newcomb Hall,' a commodious library building and art gallery. The
university is also indebted to Mr. W. W. Corcoran, of Washington City, and
to Mrs. Evelina H. Birely, of Baltimore, for large benefactions, whereon
are established "The Luther Seevers Birely Scholarship," and the "Corcoran
Professorship of Greek.'' From Hon. George Peabody, of London, has come
the handsome endowment of a quarter of a million of dollars, recognized in
the " Pea-body Professorship of Latin." The "Bayley Professorship of
General and Applied Chemistry" is due to the gift of Robert H. Bayley, of
New Orleans, La. Recent gifts are those of Mrs. Donovan, of Baltimore, and
Mrs. Ross, of Virginia.
Scotch-Irish generosity has
not been slow in adding strength to this Scotch-Irish university. Cyrus H.
McCormick was born and bred almost beneath the shadow of Washington
College. In early life he became a member of New Providence, the church
that grew up side by side with Augusta Academy. In his later years, from
the noble work of uprearing a theological seminary in the North-west, Mr.
McCormick turned with generous hand to help the great institution of
learning that had grown up almost within sight of his boyhood's home. "The
McCormick Professorship of Natural Philosophy " fittingly commemorates his
genius and his generosity.
Through such open-handed
liberality from every section of our land, the old champion of freedom in
church and in state has become truly a representative institution — not
local, but national. She still inscribes upon her banner no partisan
dogmas, ecclesiastical or political. Upon her altar still burns the fire
that tells of love for country—a country one and undivided. To the
sympathy and support of this, our common land and home, she looks for a
yet wider extension of her influence. |
