USA > Virginia > Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia, Vol. II > Part 27
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That there was a devotional spirit in Washington, a belief in the virtue of prayer, leading to private supplication, is also rendered most probable by his conduct as an officer in seeking to have public prayer for his soldiers, and even conducting them himself in the absence of a minister.
At twenty-two years of age, when heading an expedition against the Indians, he was in the habit of having prayer in the camp at Fort Necessity, at the Great Meadows, in the Alleghany Mountains. His friend and neighbour, Mr. William Fairfax, of Belvoir, a few miles from Mount Vernon, and whose daughter, Lawrence, the elder brother of George Washington, married, thus writes to him while at the Great Meadows, and in the letter evinces not only his own pious disposition, but his confidence in that of the youthful Wash- ington :- "I will not doubt your having public prayer in the camp, especially when the Indian families are your guests, that they, see- ing your plain manner of worship, may have their curiosity to be informed why we do not use the ceremonies of the French, which, being well explained to their understandings, will more and more dispose them to receive our baptism and unite in strict bonds of cordial friendship."
In the year 1755, Washington was the volunteer aid-de-camp to General Braddock, and, though in danger of pursuit by the Indians, he did, on the night after the memorable defeat, in the absence of
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a chaplain, himself perform the last funeral rites over the body of Braddock, a soldier holding the candle or lighted torch while the solemn words were read. For several successive years Washing- ton was engaged in a trying contest with the Indians, and during a considerable portion of that time-according to the testimony of one of his aids, Colonel B. Temple, of King William county- he frequently, on the Sabbath, performed divine service, reading the Scriptures and praying with them when no chaplain could be had. It was during this period that a sharp correspondence was carried on between Washington and Dinwiddie, the latter being offended at the persevering importunity of the former that a chap- lain might be allowed his army. At the recall of Dinwiddie, Wash- ington addressed the following letter to the President of the Council, who was chief in the Colony until the arrival of Governor Fauquier, saying, "The last Assembly, in their Supply Bill, provided for a chaplain to our regiment. . On this subject I had often, without any success, applied to Governor Dinwiddie. I now flatter myself that your honour will be pleased to appoint a sober, serious man for this duty. Common decency, sir, in a camp, calls for the services of a divine, which ought not to be dispensed with, although the world may think us void of religion and incapable of good instructions."
In the year 1759 Colonel Washington was married, and until the Revolution lived at Mount Vernon. That he was interested in the affairs of the Church at this time is evident from what we have said as to the part he acted in relation to the building of Pohick Church. The Rev. Lee Massey was the minister during part of this time. His testimony was, "I never knew so constant an attendant at church as Washington. His behaviour in the house of God was ever so reverential that it produced the happiest effects on my con- gregation and greatly assisted me in my pulpit labours. No com- pany ever kept him from church."
In the year 1774 he was sent as a Burgess to Williamsburg. It was at that time that a day of fasting and prayer was appointed in view of the approaching difficulties with England. The following entry in his diary shows his conduct on that occasion :- "June 1st, Wednesday. Went to church and fasted all day." In September of that year he was in Philadelphia, a member of the first Congress. In his diary he speaks of going, during the three first Sabbaths, three times to Episcopal churches, once to the Quaker, once to the Presbyterian, and once to the Roman Catholic. He was a member of Congress again the next year, and then chosen commander-in- chief of our army. On the day after assuming its command he
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issued the following order :- "The General requires and expects of all officers and soldiers, not engaged on actual duty, a punctual attendance on divine service, to implore the blessings of Heaven upon the means used for our safety and defence." On the 15th of May, 1776, Congress having appointed a day of humiliation, the following order is given :- "The General commands all officers and soldiers to pay strict obedience to the order of the Continental Congress, that by their unfeigned and pious observance of their religious duties they may incline the Lord and giver of victory to prosper our arms." The situation of the army not admitting the regular service every Sunday, he requires the chaplains to meet together and agree on some method of performing it at other times, and make it known to him. Such was Washington as head of the army.
As President of the United States his conduct exhibited the same faith in and reverence for religion. Not only did he regularly attend divine service in the Church of his fathers and of his choice, but he let it be understood that he would receive no visits on the Sabbath. The only exception to this was an occasional visit, in the latter part of the day, from his old friend, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Colonel Trumbull, who was confessedly one of the most pious men of the age, and who would not have sought the company of an irreligious man on the Sabbath, even though that man were President of the United States. On the subject of a strict observance of the Sabbath, we might have men- tioned other proofs of it, occurring before his being elevated to the chief command of the army or first Presidency in the Republic. His private diary shows it in various places. Let one suffice. On a certain occasion he was informed on Saturday evening that the smallpox was among his servants in the valley. He set out the next morning to visit them, but notes in his diary, "Took church on the way," thus combining duty to the poor and to his God.
His condemnation of the prevailing vices of the day deserves also to be mentioned in proof that he understood Christianity as being that "grace of God which hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present evil world."
Not only was he addicted to no kind of intemperance, scarcely ever tasting ardent spirits or exceeding two glasses of wine,-which was equal to total abstinence in our day,-and not using tobacco in any shape, but he used his authority in the army to the utmost to put down swearing, games of chance, and drinking, and irregularities
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of every other kind. Whilst at Fort Cumberland in 1757, we find the following order :- "Colonel Washington has observed that the men of his regiment are very profane and reprobate. He takes this opportunity to inform them of his great displeasure at such practices, and assures them that if they do not leave them off they shall be severely punished. The officers are desired, if they hear any man swear, or make use of an oath or execration, to order the offender twenty-five lashes immediately, without a court-martial. For the second offence he shall be punished more severely." The day after General Washington took command of the American army he issued orders to the troops, from which we take the following :-- "The General most earnestly requires and expects a due observance of those articles of war which prohibit profane cursing, swearing, and drunkenness," and soon after issued the following order :-
" All officers, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers are posi- tively forbid playing at cards and other games of chance. At this time of public distress men may find enough to do in the service of their God and their country, without abandoning themselves to vice and immorality." Again, we find in August of that year an order in these remarkable words :- " The General is sorry to be in- formed that the foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing-a vice hitherto little known in the American army-is growing into fashion. He hopes the officers will, by example as well as influence, endeavour to check it; and that both they and the men will reflect that we can have little hope of the blessing of Heaven on our arms, if we insult it by our own folly and impiety : added to this, it is a vice so mean and low, without any temptation, that every man of sense and character detests and despises it." And is this the man of whom some have reported that he was addicted to this very disgusting vice, only saying that he did it most gracefully and swore like an angel ? Credat Judeus Apella. It has also been attempted by some to introduce greater variety into the character of Washington, and bring him down to the common level, by representing him as passionately fond not merely of the chase and much addicted to it, but also of the dance, the ballroom, and the theatre. On what ground does this rest ? His fondness for the chase is associated with that of Lord Fairfax, during the time that he lived at Mount Vernon and his lordship at Belvoir, the seat of his relation, William Fairfax, a few miles off. But how long did this sporting-intimacy continue? Washington came to Mount Vernon in his sixteenth year. Lord Fairfax came to Virginia at that time, and young Washington for a few months
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sometimes attended him in hunting, but not neglecting his mathe- matical studies and surveying, which recommended him to Lord Fairfax as a suitable agent in the valley. At the beginning of his seventeenth year, Washington came over the Blue Ridge on duty,- laborious duty. Lord Fairfax, after visiting England, settled at Greenway Court. His house was only the occasional abode of Washington during the two years in which he was surveying and dividing the immense landed possessions of Lord Fairfax, and also acting as public surveyor in all Western Virginia. What time was left him to waste in the sports of the chase ? From the age of nineteen he was faithfully and painfully serving his country in the field of battle, except when on his voyage to the West Indies with a sick brother. During the period between his marriage and the Revolution, he was a most diligent farmer at Mount Vernon,- sometimes visiting his plantationsin Jefferson, and acting as Burgess in Virginia and Delegate to the earlier American Congresses. What time, I ask, for the sports of the field ? What do we find, in his diary, of dogs and kennels and the chase ? We do not say that he may never have thus exercised himself at a time and in a country where game and forests abounded and it was less a waste of time than at other periods and other places : but how different must have been the pursuit with Washington from that of the idlers of his day ?* And as to his admiration of the theatre and his delighting in its ludicrous and indelicate exhibitions, does it seem probable
* In proof of how little dependence is to be placed on assertions of this kind, I quote a passage from the life of General Muhlenberg. While a minister at Wood- stock, in what is now in Shenandoah county, in the Valley, he was among the first to join Revolutionary movements in 1774. It is said that he " corresponded ex- tensively with the prominent Whigs of the Colony, and with two of whom-Washing- ton and Henry-he was on terms of personal intimacy. With the former he had frequently hunted deer among the mountains of his district ; and it is said that, fond as Washington was of the rifle and skilled in its use, on trial he found himself in- ferior to the Pennsylvanian." Now, Mr. Muhlenberg did not come to the Valley until twenty years after Washington had left the service of Lord Fairfax, and four- teen years after he had been settled at Mount Vernon as a farmer. Mr. Muhlen- berg came to Virginia in the fall of 1772, and in the summer of 1774 he was- though a clergyman-in the House of Burgesses and Convention with Washington and Henry, and there, in all human probability, commenced their acquaintance and subsequent correspondence. As for Washington's frequently hunting deer with him in the mountains of Shenandoah, during the short time Mr. Muhlenberg was there, preceding their meeting in Williamsburg, it is a most improbable conjecture. Washington was, during that time, busy with his farm at Mount Vernon and as a Delegate to the House of Burgesses. He visited his estates in Jefferson occasion- ally, but I believe there was nothing to draw him to the mountains of Shenandoah.
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that the grave and dignified Washington, with all the cares of the army and afterward of the state pressing upon him, should have found time for such entertainments ? In a letter to the President of Congress, dated New York, April, 1776, he thus writes :- "I give in to no kind of amusements myself, and consequently those about me [alluding to his aids] can have none." On the 12th of October, 1778, the following preamble and resolutions were adopted by the American Congress :- "Whereas, true religion and good morals are the only solid foundation of public liberty and happi- ness, Therefore, resolved, that it be, and is hereby, recommended to the several States to take the most effectual measures for the en- couragement thereof, and for suppressing theatrical entertainments, horse-racing, gaming, and such other diversions as are productive of idleness, dissipation, and a general depravity of manners." Is it probable that Washington, at the head of the army, then calling upon his officers and soldiers to abandon their oaths and drinking and games of chance, in obedience to military laws and lest they should offend God and lose his favour, would himself despise and disobey this solemn call of Congress, and that too when the names of Adams and Gerry, Sherman and Ellsworth, Morris and Dean, Lee and Smith, of Virginia, Laurence and Mathews, of South Carolina, were on the list of those who voted for it, and so few were against it ?
As to Washington's passionate fondness for the dance, if Cicero thought it an unbecoming exercise for any Roman citizen, as be- neath the dignity of any who were admitted to the citizenship of that great republic, how unlikely that our great Washington-even if feeling no religious objection to this childish amusement- should be still a child and delight himself in such frivolous things ! May we not rather suppose him to have felt and said, with a great man in Israel when tempted to leave the work of the Lord-the building of his house on Mount Zion-and come down to some meeting in one of the villages of the plain, "I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down"? Let not the sons and daughters of idleness, vanity, and pleasure seek to find a sanction for their favourite amusements in the example of Washington,-even though in a dark age and under peculiar circumstances he may at times have lent himself to some of them.
I come now to speak of that feature in Washington's religious character which must most forcibly strike every reader of his public and private communications,-his firm reliance on a special Provi- dence, as distinguished from that philosophic belief in Providence which is little better than atheism. In a letter to his brother, John
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A. Washington, written a few days after Braddock's defeat, he says, " By the all-powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been pro- tected beyond all human probability or expectation ; for I had four bullets through my coat and two horses shot under me,-yet escaped unhurt,-although death was levelling my companions on every side of me." In his entrance on the contest with England, he thus writes to General Gage :- "May that God to whom you appeal judge between America and you ! Under his providence, those who influenced the councils of America, and all the other inhabitants of the Colonies, at the hazard of their lives, are determined to hand down to posterity those just and invaluable privileges which they received from their ancestors." In a letter to his friend, Joseph Reed, in 1776, under some great trials in relation to his supplies, he writes, " How it will end, God in his great goodness will direct. I am thankful for his protection to this time." In his address to the General Assembly of Massachusetts, after the evacuation of Boston without blood, he ascribes it "to the interposition of that Providence which has manifestly appeared in our behalf through the whole of this important struggle." Speaking of the expecta- tion of a bloody battle, he says, in a letter to his brother John, “It is to be hoped that, if our cause be just,-as I do most religiously believe it to be,-the same Providence which has in so many in- stances appeared for us will still go on to afford its aid." In view of an expected attack from the combined forces of the enemy he thus calls on his soldiers :- "The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Let us rely upon the goodness of the cause, and the aid of the Supreme Being, in whose hand victory is, to animate and encourage us to noble actions." After the surrender of Burgoyne's army, he writes to his brother John, "I most devoutly congratulate my country and every well-wisher to the cause on this signal stroke of Providence." In the year 1778, just after the battle of Monmouth, he writes to his brother, that all would have been lost "had not that bountiful Providence, which has never failed us in the hour of distress, enabled me to form a regiment or two of those who were retreating in the face of the enemy and under their fire." To General Nelson, in that same year, in taking a retrospect of the vicissitudes of the war, he says, "The hand of Providence is so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obli- gations." In a letter to Benjamin Harrison, in 1778, he writes, " Providence has heretofore taken care of us when all other means.
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seemed to be departing from us." To General Armstrong, in 1781, he writes, "Our affairs are brought to a perilous crisis, that the hand of Providence may be more conspicuous in our deliverance. The many remarkable interpositions of the Divine government in the hours of our deepest distress and darkness have been too lumi- nous to suffer me to doubt the issue of the present contest." The foregoing are only a few out of the many passages which pervade all the private letters and public communications of Washington touching a special Providence. Is it too much to say that the communications of no king, ruler, general, or statesman in Chris- tendom ever so abounded in expressions of pious dependence on God? There was an habitual reliance on God which must have been connected with habitual prayer to God. Nor can we forbear to institute a comparison between the language of trust in Provi- dence, as seen in the letters and orders of Washington, and those of Cromwell. Who for a moment questions the sincerity and deep feeling of Washington in all he writes ? Who does not sometimes suspect at least the hypocrisy of Cromwell and revolt at his cant ? Who does not see and feel that, while Washington was all for his country and his God, Cromwell was sometimes seeking his own ?
On one other subject in connection with the religious character of Washington I must ask the attention of the reader. Washington in word and deed condemned duelling. Nearly all our great men have done it by word, but, if they have not recommended it by deed, have been afraid to say that they might not so do, either by giving or receiving a challenge. When a young man in Alexandria and an officer in the army, a quarrel ensued on an election-day, in which he used strong and offensive language to one who, with a stick, prostrated him to the ground. On the following day he sought an interview with his antagonist, when it was fully expected that another rencounter or the preliminaries for one would take place. Instead of this, Captain Washington, conscious of being in fault, declared that the interview was sought in order to acknowledge it. Here was true greatness of soul. Here was the true courage of the Christian, breathed into the soul by the Spirit of God. God was training up the spirit of Washington for all the subsequent trials and duties of life. In the army he of course discouraged and prevented this most foolish and wicked practice. M. Lafayette, in a chivalrous spirit, wished to revenge some supposed insult to his country on an Englishman who offered it, and asked leave of Wash- ington to send a challenge. Washington conducted the matter with consummate skill,-and, while fully resolved not to permit it,
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chose rather by a grave irony to laugh him out of it. What an example was thus set to the gentlemen and officers and public functionaries of America ! How does Washington tower above those who, while acknowledging that the practice is indefensible by any laws of God or man, and utterly opposed to them, and condemned by common sense and true honour and humanity, yet, in a most incon- sistent and cowardly manner declare that, nevertheless, such is their apprehension of public opinion, they might be induced to engage in this murderous act! To receive a blow, be felled to the earth before a crowd, and then ask pardon for having provoked the blow, must surely be considered in a young officer as an act of moral courage which is prompted by the Spirit of God.
One question only remains to be settled :- Was Washington a communicant of the Church? That he was, might be reasonably inferred from the indication of youthful piety, his religious, his ministerial offices at the head of his regiment, the active part taken . in the concerns of the parish, his habits of devotion, his regular attendance at church, his conscientious observance of the Sabbath, his strict fasting on appointed days. It is also believed that he was a communicant, from the testimony of the Rev. Lee Massey, as handed down through his family, and also of others which have come down to us. The testimony which has often been adduced to prove that, during the war, he did commune on a certain Sabbath in a Presbyterian church at Morristown, New Jersey, ought to be enough to satisfy a reasonable man of the fact. Add to these the decla- ration of so many, in the sermons and orations at the time of his death. But still it has been made a question, and it may be well to consider on what ground. It is certainly a fact, that for a certain period of time during his Presidential term, while the Congress was held in Philadelphia, he did not commune. This fact rests on the authority of Bishop White, under whose ministry the President sat, and who was on the most intimate terms with himself and Mrs. Washington. I will relate what the Bishop told myself and others in relation to it. During the session or sessions of Congress held in Philadelphia, General Washington was, with his family, a regular attendant at one of the churches under the care of Bishop White and his assistants. On Communion-days, when the congregation was dismissed, (except the portion which communed,) the General left the church, until a certain Sabbath on which Dr. Abercrombie, in his sermon, spoke of the impropriety of turning our backs on the Lord's table,-that is, neglecting to commune,-from which time General Washington came no more on Communion-days. Bishop
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White supposes that the General understood the "words turning our backs on the Lord's table" in a somewhat different sense than was designed by the preacher ; that he supposed it was intended to censure those who left the church at the time of its administration, and, in order not to seem to be disrespectful to that ordinance, thought it better not to be present at all on such occasions. It is needless to attempt to conjecture what may have been the reason of this tempo- rary (as we hope it was) suspension of the act of communicating. A regard for historic truth has led to the mention of this subject. The question as to his ever having been a communicant has been raised on this fact, as stated by Bishop White, and we have thought it best to give the narrative as we heard it from the lips of the Bishop himself. It has been asked why he did not, in the dying hour, send for some minister and receive the emblems of a Saviour's death. The same might be asked of thousands of pious communi- cants who do not regard the sacrament as indispensable to a happy death and glorious eternity, as some Romanists do. Moreover, the short and painful illness of Washington would have forbidden it. But his death was not without proofs of a gracious state. He told to surrounding friends that it had no terrors for him,-that all was well. The Bible was on his bed: he closed his own eyes, and, folding his arms over his breast, expired in peace.
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