...Brothers: I am glad you have brought three of the Children of your principal Chiefs to be educated with us. I am sure Congress will open the Arms of love to them, and will look upon them as their own Children, and will have them educated accordingly. This is a great mark of your confidence and of your desire to preserve the friendship between the Two Nations to the end of time, and to become One people with your Brethren of the United States. My ears hear with pleasure the other matters you mention. Congress will be glad to hear them too. You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are.6
Similarly, he wrote to Reverend John Ettwein from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to the Heathen from Mount Vernon on May 2, 1788:
...So far as I am capable of judging, the principles upon which the society is founded and the rules laid down for its government, appear to be well calculated to promote so laudable and arduous an undertaking, and you will permit me to add that if an event so long and so earnestly desired as that of converting the Indians to Christianity and consequently to civilization, can be effected, the Society of Bethlehem bids fair to bear a very considerable part in it....7
3. The records of the Country Court of Fairfax has under the date of February 15, 1763, “George Washington, Esqr., took the oaths according to Law repeated and subscribed the Test and subscribed to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England in order to qualify him to act as a Vestryman of Truro Parish.”8 This doctrine included the following teaching from the eleventh article of the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion:
We are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith, and not for our own works or deservings; Wherefore, that we be justified by faith only is a most wholesome doctrine and very full of comfort....9
As a committed Anglican, Washington regularly prayed the General Confession of the Morning Prayer as he worshiped with the Book of Common Prayer throughout his military career and in his lifelong worship in the Anglican/Episcopal tradition:
ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father; We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare thou them, O God, who confess their faults. Restore thou them that are penitent; According to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake; That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, To the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.10
4. On perhaps as many as eight different occasions, Washington said the following in a public worship setting as he stood as a sponsor for a child who was being baptized and answered this question:
DOST thou believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth? And in Jesus Christ his only-begotten Son our Lord? And that he was conceived by the Holy Ghost; born of the Virgin Mary; that he suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; that he went down into hell, and also did rise again the third day; that he ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; and from thence shall come again at the end of the world, to judge the quick and the dead?
And dost thou believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy Catholick Church; the Communion of Saints; the Remission of sins; the Resurrection of the flesh; and everlasting life after death?”
These are all affirmations of the Apostles’ Creed. To this question at each of these eight baptisms he publicly declared, “All this I steadfastly believe.”11 Again, Thomas Jefferson could not bring himself to say these words publicly because he did not believe them.12
5. Washington in private settings identified himself as a Christian: He wrote to comfort Major General Israel Putman on October 19, 1777, saying,
...I hope you will bear the misfortune with that fortitude and complacency of mind, that become a Man and a Christian....13
Washington wrote to John Christian Ehler on December 23, 1793, calling on him to be more of a Christian,
...Don’t let this be your case. Show yourself more of a man, and a Christian, than to yield to so intolerable a vice...14
In September 1775 he spoke as a Christian to Col. Benedict Arnold:
...I also give it in Charge to you to avoid all Disrespect to or Contempt of the Religion [Roman Catholicism] of the Country [Canada] and its Ceremonies. Prudence, Policy, and a true Christian Spirit, will lead us to look with Compassion upon their Errors without insulting them....God alone is the Judge of the Hearts of Men....15
6. Washington in public settings openly identified himself as a Christian:
In his General Orders from Head Quarters in New York on July 9, 1776, he called on his entire army to be Christian soldiers:
...The blessing and protection of Heaven are at all times necessary but especially so in times of public distress and danger—The General hopes and trusts, that every officer and man, will endeavor so to live, and act, as becomes a Christian Soldier defending the dearest Rights and Liberties of his country.16
Consistent with this are his General Orders from Middle Brook on Monday, April 12, 1779, where he “enjoins” a “strict” keeping of a day of prayer and fasting for the forgiveness of sins:
The Honorable the Congress having recommended it to the United States to set apart Thursday the 6th day of May next to be observed as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer, to acknowledge the gracious interpositions of Providence; to deprecate deserved punishment for our Sins and Ingratitude, to unitedly implore the Protection of Heaven; Success to our Arms and the Arms of our Ally: The Commander in Chief enjoins a religious observance of said day and directs the Chaplains to prepare discourses proper for the occasion; strictly forbiding all recreations and unnecessary labor.17
In his General Orders from Head Quarters in Valley Forge on Saturday, May 2, 1778, he told his men that it was even more glorious to be a Christian than to be a patriot:
While we are zealously performing the duties of good Citizens and soldiers we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of Religion. To the distinguished Character of Patriot, it should be our highest Glory to add the more distinguished Character of Christian.18
He wrote to Governor Jonathan Trumbull, also a clergyman, on September 6, 1778. His words show that he believed, along with the minister, in the sovereignty of God over life for “his people”:
...The violent gale which dissipated the two fleets when on the point of engaging, and the withdrawing of the Count D’Estaing to Boston may appear to us as real misfortunes; but with you I consider storms and victory under the direction of a wise providence who no doubt directs them for the best of purposes, and to bring round the greatest degree of happiness to the greatest number of his people.19
On June 8, 1783, Washington wrote to every Governor of all thirteen of the new American states, and in so doing, consciously and explicitly prayed as a Christian:
...the Legacy of One, who has ardently wished, on all occasions, to be useful to his Country, and who, even in the shade of Retirement, will not fail to implore the divine benediction upon it. I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection, that he would incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow Citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the Field, and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all, to do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristicks of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation.20
On October 28, 1789, Washington wrote to the First Presbytery of the Eastward indicating his sympathy for Christianity in its simplicity with respect to “the path of true piety.” He proceeds to declare his intent as leader of the new “government” under its new Constitution or “Magna Charta” to assist these “ministers of the gospel” in the “furtherance” of “true religion”:
I am persuaded, you will permit me to observe that the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction. To this consideration we ought to ascribe the absence of any regulation, respecting religion, from the Magna Charta of our country. To the guidance of the ministers of the gospel this important object is, perhaps, more properly committed. It will be your care to instruct the ignorant, and to reclaim the devious, and, in the progress of morality and science, to which our government will give every furtherance, we may confidently expect the advancement of true religion, and the completion of our happiness.21
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO GEORGE WASHINGTON
We know that George Washington was not a theologian or an evangelist. So the topics of his daily duties did not directly engage spiritual or biblical themes. Given his inward and shy personality on matters concerning himself, we should not expect a treatise from him that would summarize his “few and simple”22 points of religion.
But given the reality we have already seen repeatedly, namely, that spiritual truths and Christian ideas surface in his writings, perhaps it is a useful exercise to assemble the elements of the Christian Gospel that have been preserved for us by his own pen. This method has both a strength and a weakness. The strength is that all of the words are Washington’s. The limitation is that the distilling of all of this relevant material is ours—the result of careful study and assembly. We believe this presentation of the Gospel according to George Washington is faithful to Washington’s writings and to the theology he subscribed to and professed as an eighteenth century Anglican. This exercise will also show Washington’s extensive exposure and commitment to the Christian Gospel. It may be compared to the task of systematic theology—carefully discovering theological ideas and then constructing them in the logical order that the material itself suggests.
While the principles of Washington’s religion were “few and simple,”23 they were cognizant of the “gospel.”24 Thus he spoke of “our blessed Religion,”25 “the Religion of Jesus Christ,”26 and “the blessed religion revealed in the Word of God.”27 Washington spoke of “true religion”28 yet coupled it with his gracious spirit declaring that “a true Christian Spirit, will lead us to look with Compassion upon their Errors [the inhabitants of Quebec] without insulting them.”29 This true religion was both “natural and revealed.”30 Yet it was especially as revealed religion that it was “above all,” since it was available to Americans through “the benign light of revelation,”31 and was found in “Holy Writ.”32
Washington was aware of his own inner life, referring often to “my soul.”33 The “Divine Author” of the religion that Washington received when he wrote of “our blessed religion” was none other than the religion of Christ. It was Christ in his “charity, humility and pacific temper of mind” that Washington called all Americans to “imitate.”34 Consoling a friend he wrote, “...our Religion holds out to us such hopes as will, upon proper reflection, enable us to bear with fortitude the most calamitous incidents of life.”35 Since the “Lord and Ruler of Nations”36 and the “Divine Author of life and felicity”37 has come to the earth allowing people to celebrate the “Christmas Hollidays,”38 George Washington as a child could copy such a Christmas poem:
Assist me Muse divine to sing the morn,
On which the Saviour of mankind was born;
But oh! what numbers to the theme can rise?
Unless kind angels aid me from the skies?
Methinks I see the tunefull Host descend,
