DATE: Wednesday, July 2, 1997               TAG: 9707020004

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B13  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Opinion 

SOURCE: Glenn Allen Scott 

                                            LENGTH:   92 lines

WASHINGTON'S GIFT TO A SMALL LEXINGTON SCHOOL KEEPS ON GIVINGW&L MARKS ITS 250TH ANNIVERSARY IN 1999. THAT IT SURVIVES TO A RIPE AGE IS DUE IN NO SMALL MEASURE TO WASHINGTON'S GENEROSITY.

Among the first things that Washington and Lee University students learn is that George Washington underwrites a portion of the cost of their education. That fact - imparted to me as an undergraduate in the 1950s - still enchants me.

Among the last writings of Virginia journalist and historian Parke Shepherd Rouse Jr. is a brief account of Washington's 1796 gift (valued at $20,000) to Liberty Hall Academy in Rockbridge County. Rouse died in March at age 81.

Grateful for Washington's largess, the overseers of the little Presbyterian institution, whose primary mission was to train clergy, changed the school's name to Washington College.

Less than a century later, following the death of Robert E. Lee, Washington College became Washington and Lee University. The South's favorite son, General Lee had become Washington College's president after Appomattox.

W&L marks its 250th anniversary in 1999. That it survives to a ripe age is due in no small measure to Washington's generosity.

The men whom W&L honors in its name are still seen, rightly, as larger-than-life heroes.

Washington retains title as the Father of His Country - no one else comes close.

Through sheer force of personality and character, Washington held together a rag-tag, catch-as-catch-can Revolutionary Army that, with timely assistance from the French fleet, defeated Lord Cornwallis' forces at Yorktown. So popular was he during his presidency, Washington could have served more than two terms.

He didn't want that. Indeed, the prospect offended his republican convictions.

Besides, nearing the close of his presidency, Washington was eager to depart public life. As Rouse writes in George Washington: Patron of Learning and Father of Philanthropy at Washington and Lee University'':

``. . . Washington at 64 was tired and dispirited. He could hardly wait to shed his duties in the temporary capital at Philadelphia and go back to his family at Mount Vernon. He was troubled by European intrigues and Jeffersonian critics, and by opponents of the treaty with Great Britain which John Jay had proposed.

``Personal matters weighed on his mind, too. Martha needed his firmness to deal with her children. Mount Vernon had grown seedy in his absence. And his financial affairs required attention as he approached the Bible's allotted three score and ten years. . .

``Public adulation added to his problems. He was in demand for everything, receiving unending visits, honors, letters, and gifts. Pressing him also was the question of how he could turn away, without offense, valuable gifts, which he had declined as a matter of policy.''

The Virginia General Assembly voted in 1785 to give Washington 100 shares of James River Company stock, in appreciation for his championing of westward commerce and a canal link between the mountains and Richmond, and 50 shares of another canal-building enterprise, the Potomac Company.

A decade later, Washington accepted the legislature's gifts, on the condition that he could use them for worthwhile public purposes. In his mind, he had earmarked the windfall for education. As Washington saw it, the infant United States would not thrive without educated men.

Washington made no secret of his intention. He discussed it. He invited advice. Thomas Jefferson proposed that Washington use the gifts to import faculty from the University of Geneva in Switzerland. The suggestion fell flat.

Washington wanted to give the James River Company stock to a college near the headwaters of the James. Supplicants for the stock quickly appeared. In addition to Liberty Hall Academy, those seeking Washington's favor included Hampden-Sydney College in Prince Edward County, New London Academy in Campbell County and the towns of Staunton, Fincastle, Lynchburg and Charlottesville.

The finalists were Staunton and Liberty Hall Academy. That the latter was Presbyterian didn't count against it. As Rouse reports, Washington had sent his stepgrandson, George Washington Parke Custis, to Presbyterian College of New Jersey, later Princeton University.

Liberty Hall Academy's plea for the stock praised ``Washington, who it said `always overlooks private interest to embrace the public good.'''

Writes Rouse, ``The letter recited the school's founding, `under the form of a Grammar School,' that became Liberty Hall Academy in 1776. Like other early institutions, the school had first taught teen-aged boys Latin and Greek grammar - qualifying as a `Grammar School' - and then expanded to include what would today approximate two years of college.''

The United States is comparatively young country. A former aide to the head of the University of North Carolina recalled a few years ago that as a small child in the 1920s he asked an elderly man if he had known George Washington. The man replied, ``No. But I knew a man who did.''

Of course, I didn't know George Washington either. But, through W&L, he touched me. MEMO: Mr. Scott is associate editor of the editorial page of The

Virginian-Pilot.

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