A Lesson from George Washington: the Virtue Perseverance
Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages.
George Washington
Letter to General Philip Schuyler
August 20, 1775
Over the last several years of TGR’s campaign to roll back the woke measures by which the Washington and Lee administration, faculty, and Board of Trustees have been steadily destroying the traditional values of the institution, almost every article sent out by TGR has elicited responses redolent of frustration and bitterness at the seeming lack of progress being made in the campaign. Some declare outright the futility of what TGR has been doing, and urge that such pointed goads as lawsuits be brought against W&L (without explanation of the legal grounds on which such action could be taken). Others declare the situation hopeless, that the school is forever lost to the woke madness; and there are undoubtedly some of this persuasion who don’t think a comment even worth their time or effort to write down.
TGR has now been at work for a long four years, and in any endeavor extending to such a length time, outbursts of impatience are understandable, human nature being what it is, especially in an age of instant gratification. All of us wish an expeditious turn-around at W&L, but a more reasoned assessment of the situation shows that the forces against which we are fighting bring to the contest an obdurate, single-minded commitment to their agenda and are now deeply entrenched throughout all components of the university, instructional and administrative. They will not be dislodged or defeated by any single measure or sudden forcible assault that TGR can bring against them. Most of the majority-woke faculty have tenure and cannot be easily dismissed (or, if dismissed, easily replaced); and the administration, although not similarly protected, are continued in their positions by a Board of Trustees that has itself been swayed into a posture of accommodation with the woke onslaught; rather than one of preserving the timeless values that past generations have treasured most about W&L; particularly the legacies of our namesakes, George Washington and Robert E. Lee, whose personal codes of conduct and exemplary elevation of character once lent a singularly inspiring aura to the campus, that gave to the school a rare efficacy in enduing young lives with fundamental moral rectitude as well as academic accomplishment. Clearly, progress in arresting the pernicious attacks on these traditions has been slow and, to many, seemingly minimal.
Once again, we can look to W&L’s first namesake for guidance. In facing the wealth of Great Britain and the powerful British military in the Revolutionary War, George Washington realized quite early, given his own slim resources of men and material, that the war could not be quickly won by the Americans through any short and easy single stroke, or even any brief series of such strokes; that years of application of the Fabian tactics of husbanding his strength and the prosecution of a long campaign of continuous harassment and wearing-down of the British, punctuated by such sharp attacks as favored his troops while not risking their total defeat, were necessary. Fontanes describes Washington’s generalship as “patient, watchful, provoked into no rashness, frightened into no delay, cautious in his approach, bold and desperate in his onset, calm and collected in retreat. . . .” Washington lost about as many combat engagements as he won, but in the end succeeded, after eight years of war — eight years (most military activity ending in six), a long time, a period in which he was constantly confronted with obstacles to success that encumbered him with an unrelenting train of disappointments, ranging from battlefield setbacks, to debilitating deprivations of men and supplies for his army, to the censures of a discouraged and impatient public, as well as to those of a Continental Congress too weak and administratively disorganized to assist him adequately in the maintenance of a viable fighting force. But he persevered. In the popular mind the most striking example of Washington’s perseverance is probably provided in the account of his handling of the disastrous winter quartering of his 12,000 ill-clad and ill-fed soldiers at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777, where as many as 2,000 of those men died of starvation and disease in the cruelest of circumstances, where there was therefore justifiably profound discontent and discouragement among the troops, and where the Continental Congress meddled in the sordid business but did little to help; yet Washington persevered, and was, in a display of sublime strength of character, the force that held the army together at Valley Forge. But Valley Forge was by no means the only desperate situation in which he found his army on the verge of dissolution — nevertheless, Washington never gave up. David McCullough, in his popular book, “1776,” says of Washington: “Above all, Washington never forgot what was at stake and he never gave up. Again and again, in letters to Congress and his officers, and in his general orders, he called for perseverance — ‘for perseverance in spirit, ‘for patience and perseverance,’ ‘for unrelenting courage and perseverance.’ ”
Like Washington, we at TGR must be patient and persevere. through all the wins and losses that lie ahead of us. We must believe in the rightness of our cause and continually remind ourselves of what is at stake in the battle against W&L’s woke forces. The fundamental pillar underlying Washington’s perseverance and ultimate success was his belief in the rightness of America’s cause, the cause of freedom and liberty over tyranny; and that with God’s help and an unrelenting American effort, that cause would prevail in the end. TGR likewise, as elaborated in its previous email messages, believes that in our war against a woke enslavement of W&L we hold the high moral ground, and that we too will ultimately prevail.
But we may need help. Perhaps another lesson to be derived from Washington was his feeling that America, in its weakness, could probably not ultimately succeed against Britain without foreign help. That help, cultivated assiduously by Washington himself, arrived from France, which furnished America with arms and equipment for much of the war; and, indeed, it was the crucial help of French infantry and the French navy that enabled Washington finally to end the military struggle with the decisive victory over Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781. Similarly, TGR may require outside help to secure final victory, as by a change in the national political climate away from support for leftist Wokeism, and a growing public dissatisfaction with woke-infested colleges and universities, with their divisive Diversity/Equity/Inclusion agendas, slanted curricula, and suffocation of free speech. When, as a result, donations begin to dry up and students demur at attending woke institutions, even such smug woke establishments as that at W&L, sitting, as they are, within a financial fortress of $2 billion in endowment, will begin to totter, and change to occur, albeit slowly.
Obviously, the future is uncertain, as it was in 1776 for George Washington and the cause of American independence. But now, as then, success can be had only by perseverance. We are engaged in a fight that is not for the faint-hearted, the easily discouraged, or the impatient. We must persevere! Appropriate to our situation are the following words of Washington, from a letter addressed to Andrew Lewis, dated October 15, 1778:
. . . ours is a kind of struggle designed I dare say by Providence to try the patience, fortitude and virtue of men; none therefore that are engaged in it, will suffer themselves. I trust, to sink under difficulties, or be discouraged by hardships.
Respectfully,
Kenneth G. Everett
W&L Class of 1964
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On behalf of The Generals Redoubt, a tremendous thank you to our many supporters who made contributions to our Fourth Annual Fund, and who rallied this past week to make certain the Anonymous Challenge Match of $250,000 was met. Over 78 electronic donations were made and checks are still arriving in the mail! We will announce the total amount raised for the Fourth Annual Fund in early July when all of June’s checks have been registered!
John D. Klinedinst, Treasurer
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