USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Historical sketches : a collection of papers prepared for the Historical Society of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 1921-1925, Volume VII > Part 4
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Called to the Presidency, he occupied for several weeks in each of two years a house long known by the name of the family that have owned it for a century, the Morris house in Germantown, and the Morris house in Philadelphia.
A bust of Washington was, in May, 1921, unveiled in St. Paul's Cathedral, London. But even that is hardly such a tribute to Washington as that paid by Sir Archibald Alison, English historian, who said:
"Modern history has not so spotless a character to commemorate. It is the highest glory of England to have given birth, even amid trans- atlantic wilds, to such a man; and if she cannot number him among those who have extended her provinces, or augmented her dominions, she may at least feel a legitimate pride in the victories which he achieved, and the great qualities he exhibited in the contest with herself."
The Revolutionary War lasted twice as long as our Civil War, and for six and a half years the result was in constant doubt. Yet from immediately after Bunker Hill till the last English soldier left New York, Washington was Comman- der-in-Chief, and we changed our commanders of the Army of the Potomac about every six months. In the Civil War the material odds were enormously on our side : in the Revo- lution they were so preponderatingly against us that no man can explain the result except that it was the act of God. Washington had to create his armies; to administer his staff department; to keep Congress up to its work; to direct the governors of the states; to adjust controversies of rank
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among officers who were inconceivable touchy about their prerogatives, and compose the innumerable difficulties be- tween the American and foreign officers ; and he had to sup- press mutiny, not only among the enlisted men, but even among the officers. Appearing before a meeting of the men- acing officers at Newburgh, he found he could not read the address he had written for the occasion-one of the noblest pieces of literature-and as he put his spectacles on, he said: "Gentlemen, I have not only grown gray in your ser- vice, but I am growing blind." Then the last flicker of in- subordination expired.
The Lord God of Armies never had such another lieu- tenant to execute his commands.
No man could have taken his place. Lafayette, Steuben, Charles Lee (who was not loyal to him), Dr. Duché, who urged him to abandon the American cause as hopeless-all recognized that Washington was not the leader of the Revolution, but he was the Revolution itself. He was the only man who could have maintained the contest. And so Lowell addresses the state which bred him:
"Mother of states and undiminished men,
Thou gavest us a country, giving him."
Some Unsolved Enigmas in the Life of Washington*
By GEORGE NOX MCCAIN
Robert G. Ingersoll once said, "George Washington to me is not a man, he is a steel engraving."
The words were not spoken in a spirit of flippancy, but rather as expressing that almost universal feeling that Washington has been placed upon a pedestal so high that it is impossible for those who, in succeeding generations, have come after him, to estimate his life or character, by the standards familiar to men of today, or by any compari- son that could be appreciated by the ordinary run of latter- day Americans. 1666474
Had Washington lived 3000 years ago, in the Golden Age of Greece, his name would have been enrolled among the Gods of Olympus; his personal characteristics recorded as the evidences of deity, and his deeds magnified into miracles.
As it is, in the one hundred and twenty-two years that have elapsed since his death, he has become so completely enshrined in the hearts of a patriotic people, that it is be- coming more difficult, as the years go by, to compel an appreciation of the fact that he is, after all, a man, albeit of superior mind and mould; of action and high aspirations, and above all possessed of the passions and human attri- butes which are the heritage of every being created in the likeness of his Maker.
Nothwithstanding the brilliancy of the historical light in which he has been enveloped for a century and a quarter, there are still certain phases in his life which are hidden in the haze of doubt and uncertainty. And these doubts and
*Read before the Society, February 22, 1921.
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uncertainties do not lessen with the lapse of time, because it would seem that all available sources of information and fact concerning their causes have already been exhausted.
One of the most conspicuous of these has to do with Washington's religious character and beliefs. The subject has been one of endless controversy.
Upon one side, there is determined and conscientious effort to demonstrate by assumption and by every available shred of historical incident, that George Washington was not only a consistent Christian, a church member, and a communicant, but that in every event in the progress of his life he emphasized his dependence upon Almighty God, his absolute faith in the cardinal doctrines of Christianity, and his firm adherence to the tenets of Evangelical faith.
It has been the universally accepted belief of Evangeli- cal Christianity that Washington exemplified in his life those attributes of a Christian gentleman, coupled with the profession of his faith as a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
On the other hand, there have been those who have contended that Washington, like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, while acknowledging the transcendent beauties of the Christian religion, and while nominally a member of the Episcopal church, was liberal in his private religious views to an extent that frequently gave rise to doubts of his full acceptance of the denominational tenets that marked the austere churchman of his day.
Not that he was an agnostic, or in any sense tinged with unbelief, or the frank liberalism, or open infidelity, of the France of his day; but rather that he chose to follow the dictates of his own conscience, and place his own private interpretation upon what were regarded as essential in matters of faith.
This latter view, I think, is due to the fact that he was to a certain extent indifferent to the strict observance of particular religious forms, like many of the leading Amer- icans of Colonial days.
There is evidence to bear out this statement, but whether it extended to the claim that he was unsound as to
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many orthodox doctrines, is a matter of very serious doubt. There can be no adequate grounds for saying that he was a Christian, broadly speaking.
His catholicity of spirit and action were displayed on numerous occasions.
Washington was a member of one of the leading fam- ilies of Virginia, and the affiliations of his family and of his friends were with the Protestant Episcopal Church, of which he was a faithful attendant.
Yet Bishop White, who knew him well, says that he never knew him to partake of the communion, and he be- lieved that he was not a communicant.
An interesting incident is related concerning the Rev. Dr. James Abercrombie, who was a minister in Phila- delphia when Washington resided there as President. The President and his wife attended Dr. Abercrombie's church.
In an interview with Rev. E. B. Neil, Dr. Abercrombie, before his death, said that Washington always left on com- munion Sundays after the sermon, leaving Mrs. Washington to partake of the sacrament alone.
On one occasion, Dr. Abercrombie spoke from the pulpit of the objectionable example of noted and older men re- tiring from the church before the serving of the Lord's Sup- per, and after that Washington never attended church on communion Sundays.
The story of Washington's prayer in the snow at Valley Forge is said to have originated with M. L. Weems, the romancer who gave publicity to the hatchet and cherry-tree yarn. Weems was notoriously unreliable. The basis for dis- belief in the apochryphal story of the prayer at Valley Forge is aside from the author's unveracity-that Washing- ton's headquarters were in a comfortable stone farm house, as we of today, who have visited Valley Forge, can testify, and that there would be no necessity for the Commander-in- Chief to go out into a snowy field under a lowering winter sky, to invoke a divine blessing, when he could have prayed in the privacy of his chamber, in comfort and without fear of interruption.
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Vivid imaginations like those of Weems and, in our own day, patriotic Christian men like the late Dr. T. De Witt Talmadge, with perfervid tongue and chromatic descrip- tive, have inspired deductions that were in no remote man- ner justified by fact. Thus, Dr. Talmadge, in one of his famous sermons, depicted Washington as viewing the height of Virginia mountains and all the Appalachian ranges as full of horses and chariots of fire. Of course it was purely pulpit imagery. Continuing, he said :
"Washington looked up and he saw them, and with these super- natural reinforcements he gave courage to his men and they went forth and they endured the frozen limb, and the gangrened wounds, exhausting hunger and the long march, because the Generals and private soldiers altogether looked up and saw the mountains were filled with horses of fire and chariots of fire coming to the American rescue.
"Why, my friends, miracles! Washington was a miracle: a positive miracle !"
Should that sermon on Washington survive a thousand years hence, with the comments, interpolations, and ad- denda that might be expected, we can well imagine the writer on George Washington in that distant day, searching topographical and outline maps to locate the spot where Washington stood when he had his miraculous vision of the Archangelic Captain leading the chariots of fire and the squadrons of the skies in glorious array symbolic of coming victory.
In the World War, you will recall the story that was telegraphed from border to border of the civilized world, of the Angel of Mons, the specter in the sky, that led the hosts of France to victory. Millions believe that story today, although the newspaper correspondent who wrote it has himself told the story of how he invented the hoax.
One of the most important contributions to the religious life of Washington was made about thirty-five years ago. I am unable to state whether or not the manuscript is still in existence.
On June 6, 1886, the venerable Philip Slaughter, D.D., delivered a sermon on "The Religious Character of General
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Washington," before a large congregation in the old Powhic Church, in Fairfax county, Virginia.
Bancroft, the historian, who was present, pronounced it the most valuable contribution to the literature of the sub- ject yet made.
In the course of his address, Dr. Slaughter stated that "The recent discovery of the old vestry book of Truro Parish sets at rest any questions as to Washington's having been a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church, as it is of record that he was for years a warden of Powhic Church."
The Washington who was the Christian gentleman, is known as such, not from any perfunctory expressions, but from a constant and unstudied recognition of power divine, and the expression of his faith in the efficacy of prayer.
To this day, therefore, this great question of the belief which he actually held in his heart upon vital subjects of religion, is as much an enigma as it was when he closed his eyes in death at Mount Vernon.
Another of the unsolved, and, in its way, most romantic enigmas in the life of Washington, was his relations toward women. There has been but one other subject that has created as much discussion and doubt, and that is the ques- tion of his religious convictions.
Washington has been described, and by several contem- poraries, as a man possessing a sentimental vein, and ready at the slightest encouragement to fall in love with a pretty face.
He has been depicted as a beau; fastidious as to his dress and deportment, yielding readily to the dictates of the fashion of his day, and apparently anxious to shine, or be at his best, on all occasions when there were ladies present.
Contrariwise, he has been depicted as a great man whose bosom never knew the flame of an intense absorbing love. His austerity of manner, a characteristic dignity that was rarely relaxed, repelled women, who, nevertheless, de- lighted to be in his company, because of his position and his fame before the world.
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It was not the intent to array him as a supreme egotist, a poseur, or a social iceberg. Rather it was that his early en- vironment, his training by a mother who was a kindly but strict disciplinarian, who exacted deference as well as obedience from her own children, held him in awe of the sex.
Washington's mother was dignified to the point of stateliness, if not severity. It was from her that he inherited what has been described as the awe-inspiring manner which he possessed.
Ingersoll Lockwood, a lecturer of a generation ago, best described one side of this enigma of Washington's relations, or feeling, toward the opposite sex. Sketching the lives and loves of Washington, he said :
"Washington never received the sympathy or encouragement born of a woman's love in the whole course of his remarkable life. He had no youth. When a child, his mother imbued his mind so thoroughly with the obligations to duty, that all the impulsive love of the boy was destroyed. He never learned to call his mother by affectionate terms. It was always "Honored Madame" in his letters. Soon after his sixteenth year he met and loved a beautiful girl in the lowlands of Virginia, but owing to his shy- ness, his ignorance of woman's nature, he failed to win her. This sorrow followed him through life, and influenced him in many ways. Twice since then he came near surrendering to a beautiful woman, but they failed to understand him. He needed an encouragement which they did not give. His final capitulation to Martha Custis was due more to her than to him. This love was a pure, calm, dignified affection. Although Washington was never known to kiss even a child, he was a man who hungered for love.
"Washington lavished terms of endearment upon his horses, which alas! were not for women. He sat on horseback so splendidly and so grandly that it was no wonder he excited the applause and admiration of the multitude. He was a poor walker, heavy and shambling in his gait. The oft-repeated statement that during his seven years' campaign his grave countenance never lost its solemnity is a gross exaggeration. Nature gave him a crystal box filled with the strongest feelings, but bound so tightly with locks that no one ever found the combination. He hadn't the courage to swing a wee maiden in his arms, and kiss her rosy cheek. This gravity was not affected: it was as natural as the gloom of a Virginia forest.
"The wife of John Parke Custis won from him the first, last, and only surrender that gave to her the heart of the bravest and most dis- tinguished-looking man in all Virginia. He was what she wanted. She
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was not what he wanted. There was no courtship. She had two children, and was not finely educated. She had too much of the hussy about her. She would have delighted Solomon's heart. Her daughter, though, so won over his softer nature that when she was on her death bed he threw himself on his knees and beseeched high heaven to spare her life. All Washington wanted in his love affairs was a little encouragement, and he never got it."
While this description of Martha Washington may justly be termed exaggerated and overdrawn, it is well known that while she was the prettiest woman and richest heiress in the region when Washington married her, her education was very limited. It was, perhaps, the best obtainable in that period in a rural community. It would be about upon a par of an average twelve-year-old school-girl of today.
A few years ago, at a sale of Washington relics in Phila- delphia, a small volume entitled "The Jilts, or the Female Fortune Tellers" was offered for sale. It bore the autograph of Martha Washington. It brought $100, largely because the auctioneer, in offering it, remarked concerning the char- acter of the book, "I regret to say that this is rather in- delicate."
The mystery of Washington's "lowland beauty" has al- ways been a mystery, even during his life. He was seemingly in love with two or three young women. Whether in each case it was a harmless flirtation, with an exhibition of gal- lantry, courteous address, and attention to a pretty woman, has never been solved.
There was one Virginia girl, though, to whom Washing- ton referred frequently as "My lowland beauty," and even Benson J. Lossing, the historian, discusses this affair at some length. Washington proposed marriage to her, whoever she was.
Miss Betty Fauntleroy seems to be the one singled out for this great distinction, because in a letter of May 20, 1752, to her father, or perhaps, a brother, William Fauntle- roy, Sr., in Richmond, Washington says :
"May 20th, 1752-Sir: I should have been down long before this, but my business in Fredericksburg detained me somewhat longer than I expected, and immediately upon my return from thence, I was taken
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with a violent pleurisy which has reduced me very low, but propose as soon as I recover my strength to wait on Miss Bettie in hopes of a re- consideration.of the former cruel sentence and to see if I cannot obtain a decision in my favor. I have enclosed a letter to her which I should be much obliged to you for the delivery of it. I have nothing to add but my best respects to your good lady and family, and that I am, sir, your most obedient, humble servant.
Wm. Fauntleroy, Sr.
G. WASHINGTON.
In Richmond."
Whether this letter was to the father or some other near relative of the girl, whether Washington ever renewed his suit as he wrote he would-are unanswered questions. He was at this period of his life nothing but a surveyor and Indian hunter.
According to many accounts, he made three attempts before he could get a lady to accept him. It is said that he in vain addressed, not only Miss Betty Fauntleroy, but Miss Mary Ambler, and Miss Lucy Grim.
A beautiful New York girl, Miss Mary Phillipse, whom he met while on his way to Boston, seemed to attract him greatly. She was an heiress with aristocratic con- nections.
A careful study of the love affairs of Washington shows that there was no real romance after his "lowland beauty" disappeared from his life. His courtship with the widow Custis was brief and formal, though their married life was placid until the end.
By all odds the most interesting mystery is that of "The Miniature."
Washington, as the commanding figure in the new Re- public of the west, posed more frequently for artists than any other American of his time.
The story of the miniature was vouched for in 1887 by Bushrod C. Washington, of Charleston, West Virginia, a blood connection of the family.
A member of the Washington family, who had seen the great General in his life-time, was walking one day, in the early part of the last century, through London, when his
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attention was drawn to a huge porcelain vase in a shop window. He was particularly attracted to it by reason of the fact that a bust portrait of Washington was painted on the outer surface.
He had seen practically all the portraits of Washing- ton, but it seemed that the unknown artist had been more successful than any of the others in depicting the real coun- tenance of the hero of the Revolution.
The vase, itself of no particular value, was bought, and the circular piece containing the portrait cut out and brought to America.
It hung for many years in a room at Mount Vernon, but the identity of the artist was never discovered.
About the middle of the last century, the miniature came into the possession of Lawrence Washington. During the Civil War, his house was in possession of the invading army, during which time the porcelain vanished. It was sub- sequently returned to him, and was one of his possessions up to the time of his death.
The miniature mystery has never been solved. It is prob- able that it was the work of an obscure artist, for it was painted in off-hand fashion, evidently a copy from a larger painting. But the artist had the gift, or luck, or possibly the benefit of having seen Washington in the flesh, to paint the "father of his country" as he appeared in real life, and in unstudied repose.
The question as to whether Washington would have sur- vived the illness which ended his life, had he not been weakened by bleeding by his physicians till he had lacked the strength to rally, is another disputed question.
Washington was not in vigorous health when he was inaugurated as President. He suffered from a carbuncle which for a time seriously threatened his life. He died from suppuration, tonsilitis and laryngeal œdema.
It has been maintained that the amount of blood taken by the physician from his system was the primal cause of his death.
This has been combatted by the medical fraternity. Some years ago, the "Boston Medical and Surgical Journal,"
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discussing this frequently debated event in the life, or rather the death, of Washington, said :
"The recent strictures of a metropolitan journal upon the medical profession of his day for having hastened Washington's death, while very likely true so far as the main question, that of bleeding, is con- cerned, will nevertheless bear comment that venisection was so far a measure of domestic treatment at Mt. Vernon that Washington had him- self bled by his overseer before the doctor's arrival, and considered the amount of blood drawn by that functionary-eight ounces-entirely in- adequate."
The perversion of historical facts throughout the ages has been due to two causes: the deliberate liar, and the wil- ful forger of manuscripts and documents.
There is another class, who cannot be ranked simply as careless writers, who have contributed their share to the distortion of truth and the inaccuracy of narrative, as the result of vivid imagination and the reckless disregard of the necessity for verification of important facts.
It will be interesting for those who come after us a hun- dred years from now, to read the following remarkable mixture of fact and fiction, of hero worship and human traits, which came into my possession a third of a century ago. The writer goes on to say :
"Washington's riding boots were enormous. They were number thir- teen. His ordinary walking shoes were number eleven. His hands were large in proportion, and he could not buy a glove to fit him, and had to have his gloves made to order. His mouth was his strong feature, the lips being always tightly compressed.
"At that time he weighed two hundred pounds, and there was no surplus flesh about him. He was tremendously muscled, and the fame of his great strength was everywhere. His huge tent, when wrapped up with the poles, was so heavy that it required two men to place it in the camp wagon. Washington could lift it with one hand, and throw it in the wagon as easily as if it were a pair of saddle-bags.
"He could hold a musket with one hand, and shoot with precision as easily as other men did with a horse pistol.
"His lungs were his weak point, and his voice was never very strong. His hair was a chestnut brown, his cheeks were prominent, and his head was not large in contrast to every other part of his body, which seemed large and bony at all points. His finger joints and wrists were so large
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as to be genuine curiosities. As to his habits of that period I found out much that might be interesting.
"He was an enormous eater, but was content with bread and meat, if he had plenty of it, but hunger seemed to put him in a rage. It was his custom to take a drink of rum or whiskey on awaking in the morning.
"Of course all this was changed when he grew old. I saw him at Alexandria a year before he died. His hair was very grey, and his form was slightly bent; his chest was very thin, and he had false teeth, which did not fit, and pushed his under lip outward.
"He had whiskey in the morning, and at dinner two bottles of Madeira wine. He was a great lover of fine wines and fine horses."
Among a number of clippings from the "United States Gazette" of 1813-18, in my possession, I found a poem, written by John Pierpont in 1814. Pierpont was an Amer- ican author, poet and Unitarian preacher.
ODE
By JOHN PIERPONT, EsQ. TUNE-Roderick Dhu-Sung by MR. DUREN
Hark, 'tis the children of WASHINGTON, pouring The full tide of song to the conqueror's praise,
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