“In justice to the zeal and ability of the Chaplains, as well as to his own feelings, the Commander in chief thinks it a duty to declare the regularity and decorum with which divine service is now performed every sunday, will reflect great credit on the army in general, tend to improve the morals, and at the same time, to increase the happiness of the soldiery, and must afford the most pure and rational entertainment for every serious and well disposed mind.”
d) To THE GENERAL CONVENTION OF BISHOPS, CLERGY, AND LAITY OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina delivered an address to the President, August 18, 1789. Washington stated that “human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected” and that “It affords edifying prospects indeed to see Christians of different denominations dwell together in more charity, and conduct themselves in respect to each other with a more christian-like spirit than ever they have done in any former age, or in any other Nation.”
e) To MARQUIS DE CHASTELLUX, Mount Vernon, August 18, 1786.
“Nor does that mild species of philosophy which aims at promoting human happiness, ever belye itself by deviating from the generous and godlike pursuit.”
f) To HENRY LAURENS, March 20, 1779.
“Most of the good and evil things in this life are judged of by comparison.”
g.) To MRS. MARY WASHINGTON, February 15, 1787.
“Happiness depends more upon the internal frame of a person’s own mind, than on the externals in the world.”
h.) To ELEANOR PARKE CUSTIS, January 16, 1795.
“A sensible woman can never be happy with a fool.”
i.) To THOMAS PAINE, May 6, 1792.
“As no one can feel a greater interest in the happiness of mankind than I do, . . . it is the first wish of my heart, that the enlightened policy of the present age may diffuse to all men those blessings, to which they are entitled, and lay the foundation of happiness for future generations.”
j.) To de la LUZERNE, September 10, 1791.
“The United States are making great progress towards national happiness; and, if it is not attained here in as high a degree as human nature will admit . . . , I think we may then conclude, that political happiness in unattainable.”
k.) To JOHN AUGUSTINE WASHINGTON, January 16, 1783.
“Imaginary wants are indefinite; and oftentimes insatiable; because they sometimes are boundless, and always changing.” (emphasis in the orginal)
l.) To DAVID HUMPHREYS, July 20, 1791.
“In this age of free inquiry and enlightened reason, it is to be hoped, that the condition of the people in every country will be bettered, and the happiness of mankind promoted.”
m.) To THOMAS PAINE, May 6, 1792.
“As no one can feel a greater interest in the happiness of mankind than I do, . . . it is the first wish of my heart, that the enlightened policy of the present age may diffuse to all men those blessings, to which they are entitled, and lay the foundation of happiness for future generations.”
13. Habits
a) To FRANCIS HOPKINSON, Mount Vernon, May 16, 1785.
“In for a penny, in for a pound is an old adage. I am so hackneyed to the touches of the Painters pencil, that I am now altogether at their beck, and sit like patience on a Monument whilst they are delineating the lines of my face. It is a proof among many others of what habit and custom can effect. At first I was as impatient at the request, and as restive under the operation, as a Colt is of the Saddle. The next time, I submitted very reluctantly, but with less flouncing. Now, no dray moves more readily to the Thill, than I do to the Painters Chair.”
14. Idleness
a) To WILLIAM MINOR, Mount Vernon, June 16, 1785.
“Moral obligations, or the obligations of humanity therefore induced me to bestow a years schooling on Lawce. Posey, and to effect it I was willing to incur the expence of a years board also; … Was not his Fathers house, if time was to be misspent, the best place for him to waste it in? Can it be supposed I ever had it in contemplation to board him out for the purpose of idleness?”
15. Justice
a) To REVEREND WILLIAM GORDON, Mount Vernon, October 15, 1797. “The spurious letters…. the Agent or tool of those who are endeavouring to destroy the confidence of the people in the officers of Government (chosen by themselves) to dissiminate these counterfeit letters, I conceived it a piece of justice due to my own character, and to Posterity to disavow them in explicit terms; and this I did in a letter directed to the Secretary of State to be filed in his Office the day on which I closed my Administration. This letter has since been published in the Gazettes by the head of that Department.”
b) To ROBERT STEWART, August 10, 1783.
“Justice requires and a grateful government certainly will bestow those places of honor and profit, which necessity must create, upon those who have risked life, fortune and Home to support its cause.”
16. Luxury
a) To CATHERINE MACAULAY GRAHAM, New York, January 9, 1790. “Mrs. Washington is well and desires her compliments may be presented to you. We wish the happiness of your fireside, as we also long to enjoy that of our own at Mount Vernon. Our wishes, you know, were limited; and I think that our plans of living will now be deemed reasonable by the considerate part of our species. Her wishes coincide with my own as to simplicity of dress, and everything which can tend to support propriety of character without partaking of the follies of luxury and ostentation.”
17. Morality
a) To GEORGE STEPTOE WASHINGTON, Philadelphia, December 5, 1790.
“It may be proper to observe that a good moral character is the first essential in a man, and that the habits contracted at your age are generally indelible, and your conduct here may stamp your character through life. It is therefore highly important that you should endeavor not only to be learned but virtuous.”
b) To ANNIS BOUDINOT STOCKTON, Mount Vernon, August 31, 1788.
“A good general government, without good morals and good habits, will not make us a happy People; and we shall deceive ourselves if we think it will.”
c) GENERAL ORDERS, Saturday, March 22, 1783.
“In justice to the zeal and ability of the Chaplains, as well as to his own feelings, the Commander in chief thinks it a duty to declare the regularity and decorum with which divine service is now performed every sunday, will reflect great credit on the army in general, tend to improve the morals, and at the same time, to increase the happiness of the soldiery, and must afford the most pure and rational entertainment for every serious and well disposed mind.”
d) To CYRUS GRIFFIN, New York, August 18, 1789.
The general convention of bishops, clergy, and laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina delivered an address to the President at this approximate time which, together with Washington’s reply, is entered in the “Letter Book” in the Washington Papers. In that reply, Washington stated that “human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected” and that “It affords edifying prospects indeed to see Christians of different denominations dwell together in more charity, and conduct themselves in respect to each other with a more christian-like spirit than ever they have done in any former age, or in any other Nation.”
e) To HENRY LEE, Mount Vernon, September 22, 1788.
“Though I prize, as I ought, the good opinion of my fellow citizens; yet, if I know myself, I would not seek Or retain popularity at the expense of one social duty or moral virtue.”
f) To THE MINISTERS AND ELDERS REPRESENTING THE MASSACHUSETTS AND NEW HAMPSHIRE CHURCHES which compose the First Presbytery of the Eastward, Newburyport, October 28, 1789.
“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.”
18. Philanthropy
a) To MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE, Mount Vernon, August 15, 1786.
“As a Philanthropist by character, and (if I may be allowed the expression) as a Citizen of the great republic of humanity at large; I cannot help turning my attention sometimes to this subject. I would be understood to mean, I cannot avoid reflecting with pleasure on the probable influence that commerce may hereafter have on human manners and society in general. On these occasions I consider how mankind may be connected like one great family in fraternal ties. I indulge a fond, perhaps an enthusiastic idea, that as the world is evidently much less barbarous than it has been, its melioration must still be progressive; that nations are becoming more humanized in their policy, that the subjects of ambition and causes for hostility are daily diminishing, and, in fine, that the period is not very remote, when the benefits of a liberal and free commerce will, pretty generally, succeed to the devastations and horrors of war.”
b) To MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE Mount Vernon, August 15, 1786.
“Altho’ I pretend to no peculiar information respecting commercial affairs, nor any foresight into the scenes of futurity; yet as the member of an infant empire, as a Philanthropist by character, and (if I may be allowed the expression) as a Citizen of the great republic of humanity at large; I cannot help turning my attention sometimes to this subject. I would be understood to mean, I cannot avoid reflecting with pleasure on the probable influence that commerce may hereafter have on human manners and society in general. On these occasions I consider how mankind may be connected like one great family in fraternal ties. I indulge a fond, perhaps an enthusiastic idea, that as the world is evidently much less barbarous than it has been, its melioration must still be progressive; that nations are becoming more humanized in their policy, that the subjects of ambition and causes for hostility are daily diminishing, and, in fine, that the period is not very remote, when the benefits of a liberal and free commerce will, pretty generally, succeed to the devastations and horrors of war.”
