Chapter 2:

"Alpha Tau Omega holds before the young men of the country an ideal and something greater than a mere intellectual ideal. Alpha Tau Omega stands for heart as well as head. It has given men a true ideal of life."

It should have gone better, Alpha Tau Omega began with high ideals, strong members, and a progressive constitution. But instead of growing stronger, it gradually grew weaker. Its National Officers, duly elected and vested with the authority in 1870, failed to take control. Chapters grew out of touch with each other. Several ignored their financial obligations to the National Fraternity. They sent no delegates to Congress. Finally, at the 1876 Congress in Raleigh, North Carolina, ATO sank to its lowest point. With 22 chapters charted, only two showed up, Virginia Delta (University of Virginia) and North Carolina Xi (Duke University). The National President himself was not there. Those present knew that they had a choice. They could find men willing to attempt a revival of ATO, with all the personal sacrifice that implied. Or they could simply go home and allow the Fraternity to die. They chose the hard path and found the right man to travel it.

He was not present in Raleigh, but Joseph R. Anderson, an 1870 graduate of VMI, accepted the Congressional appointment to the office of Senior Grand Chief (as the National President was then known). Of distinguished Virginia Lineage, a brilliant scholar, fluent writer, devout churchman and admirable executive, Anderson was an affable, companionable, hospitable "Southern gentleman of the old school." He was a warm and exciting personality, with a sense of mission, great inner strength and outward polish, and a deep and abiding love of Alpha Tau Omega.

A brief survey of the Fraternity showed him its deplorable condition, but he devoted himself, his time, his money, and his energy to its revival. In one year he wrote hundreds of letters, recovered lost archives, updated records, and met with dozens of alumni throughout the South. Then in 1877, he presented his findings to the Fifth Congress in Richmond, Virginia.

Alpha and Beta, the Lexington chapters, were both prospering although cut off from the General Fraternity. But aside from Virginia Delta and North Carolina Xi, every other chapter was dead. In the face of this, Anderson stood before Congress and made his recommendations: New chapters must go only to strong, growing colleges, preferably in the North and West; a Fraternity would never again be strangers to one another; the Constitution must be revised, printed and distributed; and the Laws must be codified.

This was leadership. And the Fraternity responded. The Sixth Congress met in Baltimore, Maryland in 1878; that was where Alpha Tau Omega was "reconstructed." The foundation laid during those three December days remained virtually intact for well over a century. From this Congress came a revised cipher and Ritual; a new Constitution; The ATO Palm; the first Membership Directory; and the first High Council. The High Council was a forerunner to the Fraternity Board of Directors. National and chapter officers were given their present ceremonial titles; and the Alpha Tau Omega was incorporated under the laws of Maryland.