My dear Sir: I came here in time to see Mr. Custis breathe his last. About Eight o’clock yesterday Evening he expired. The deep and solemn distress of the Mother, and affliction of the Wife of this amiable young Man, requires every comfort in my power to afford them; the last rights of the deceased I must also see performed; these will take me three or four days; when I shall proceed with Mrs. Washington and Mrs. Custis to Mount Vernon.
As the dirty tavern you are now at cannot be very comfortable; and in spite of Mr. [Reverend Laurence] Sterne observation the House of Mourning not very agreeable; it is my wish, that all of the Gentn of my family, except yourself, who I beg may come here and remain with me; may proceed on at their leizure to Mount Vernon, and wait for me there. Colo. Cobb will join you on the road at the Tavern we breakfasted at (this side Ruffens). My best wishes attend the Gentn. and with much sincerity and affectn.93
Thus, there is clear evidence that Washington not only read the Laurence Sterne sermons that were in his library, but that he even had digested them to the point that he could refer to them and even quote them, whether from memory, or by reading them. Since the quotation of Reverend Sterne comes from Headquarters at West Point in 1779, it is possible that this quotation was from memory, since Washington’s library did not travel with him during the war.
As we conclude then, the question in Washington studies can no longer be if Washington read the sermons he collected. It is clear that he at least read many of them (if not all). The question, instead, must be whether the scholars who have written on Washington have sufficiently read much of his own writings. If they haven’t, that is sloppy and substandard scholarship. If they have, and they claim that they have found only two sermons that Washington commented upon, then it is no longer merely a matter of sloppy scholarship. It’s worse—it’s a case of dishonesty. Our founding father is certainly worthy of better research than that.
THIRTY FOUR
George Washington on Heaven and Eternal Life
“The Sweet Innocent Girl [his step-daughter Patsy]
Entered into a more happy and peaceful abode than she has met with in the afflicted Path she hitherto has trod.”
George Washington, March 22, 1783
1
“’Tis well.
”
Last words of George Washington, December 14, 1799
2
Those who believe George Washington was a Deist argue that he essentially did not believe in heaven either, or that he believed that heaven was irrelevant. Joseph J. Ellis in his recent book, His Excellency, argues that the only type of “immortality” that Washington believed in was not the Christian kind. He claims that Washington believed that immortality was simply being remembered by future generations. Ellis writes:
Never a deeply religious man, at least in the traditional Christian sense of the term, Washington thought of God as a distant, impersonal force, the presumed wellspring for what he called destiny or providence. Whether or not there was a hereafter, or a heaven where one’s soul lived on, struck him as one of those unfathomable mysteries that Christian theologians wasted much ink and energy trying to resolve. The only certain form of persistence was in the memory of succeeding generations, a secular rather than sacred version of immortality....3 (emphasis ours)
Meanwhile, as noted repeatedly, the classic work on George Washington’s religion is Paul Boller Jr.’s, George Washington and Religion.4 As we have seen, Boller’s perspective is well summarized in his phrase, “Washington and his fellow deists.”5 As we turn our attention to the question of George Washington’s beliefs about heaven and eternal life, or immortality, we must consider Professor Boller’s views in regard to this question. Boller writes, “There is some evidence, though it is far from conclusive, that Washington believed in immortality.”6 But is this very tentative statement regarding immortality even consistent with his thesis of Washington the Deist?
DEIST BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY
It appears to us that this hesitating “far from conclusive” interpretation of the evidence is strange, since if Washington were a Deist, he ought to have believed in immortality, since it was a foundational belief of the Deists. To have doubted or denied immortality would have placed a thinker in Washington’s day in the category of an atheist, even beyond a most hardened Deist. Even Thomas Paine, the most vehement Deist of his day, believed in immortality.7 Thus, in the secularists’ quest to make Washington into a Deist, he has been made into even more of an unbeliever than the Deists were!
Consider Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1581-1648), often called the father of English Deism. He evaluated everything, including religion, in light of the new emphasis on reason. As seen in his work, Religion of the Gentiles With the Causes of their Errors, published in 1645, his essential articles of faith were: (1) the existence of God; (2) the worship of God; (3) the practice of virtue; (4) repentance of sin; and (5) a faith in immortality. He believed these truths, including immortality, to be self-evident and accessible by all men everywhere, since these beliefs were (supposedly) rationally based.8
Thus, if Washington were a Deist, he ought to have believed in immortality, since it was not only a tenet of Deism, but it was also a claim of the other Deist-leaning founders such as Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.9 To the best of our knowledge, there was not a single founding father that denied the immortality of the soul. Not one.
MASONIC BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY
But there is even further reason why we insist that Washington believed in immortality. He was a Mason.10 As we saw in the chapter on Washington’s Masonic beliefs, a foundational claim of the Masonic Order was a belief in immortality. In this context, consider Washington’s correspondence with the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania in 1792. The Lodge wrote,
To these our grateful acknowledgements (leaving to the impartial pen of history to record the important events in which you have borne so illustrious a part), Permit us to add our most fervent prayers that after enjoying the utmost span of human life, every felicity which the Terrestrial Lodge can afford, you may be received by the great Master Builder of this World and of worlds unnumbered, into the ample felicity of that celestial lodge in which alone distinguished virtues and distinguished labors can be eternally rewarded.11 (emphasis ours)
This is a clear statement of belief in immortality. Washington wrote the following to his Masonic brothers, which reflected a belief in eternal life,
Fellow Citizens and Brothers of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. I have received your address with all feelings of brotherly affection mingled with those sentiments for the society, which it was calculated to excite.
To have been in any degree an instrument in the hands of Providence, to promote order and union, and erect upon a solid foundation the true principles of government, is only to have shared with many others in a labor, the result of which, let us hope, will prove through all ages a sanctuary for brothers and a lodge for the virtuous.
Permit me to reciprocate your prayers for my temporal happiness and to supplicate that we may all meet thereafter in that eternal temple, whose builder is the great architect of the universe.12
Immortality would have been a strongly held belief of Washington, not just because he was a Mason, but also because Washington’s Masonic Order was a fraternity of “Christian Masons.”
ANGLICAN BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY
A foundational tenet of Christianity is the certainty of immortality through faith in the saving work of Christ. The Thirty Nine Articles of the Anglican Church that Washington had adopted as his confession of faith when he became a vestryman said in the eighteenth Article:
Of Obtaining eternal Salvation only by the Name of Christ. They also are to be had accursed that presume to say, That every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that Law, and the light of Nature. For Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the Name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved.13
One of Christianity’s foundational claims is eternal life through faith in Christ. So, regardless of how one views Washington in his historical context, whether as Deist, Mason, or Christian, each of these potential identifications of Washington anticipates his belief in immortality.
The scholarly confusion must be set straight concerning Washington’s view of immortality. To help us appreciate his views on the reality of heaven, the attainment of eternal life or immortality, we must begin with a discussion of his views of death and dying.
GEORGE WASHINGTON ON DEATH AND DYING
Death came early to the Washington household, since George’s father died when he was a child of eleven. George’s mother was the second wife of his father Augustine. His first wife had died, and so George had two half-brothers. As we have seen earlier, Mary Ball Washington was a very serious student of the scriptures and raised her family as a single mother. Her key textbook was Sir Matthew Hale’s Contemplations Moral and Divine, a copy of which was in Washington’s library when he died. This was his mother’s copy, with her signature and well-marked and used pages. We have a copy of the 1685 edition—the same one that the Washingtons had. The very first article is, “Of the Consideration of our Latter End and the Benefits of it,” a study based on Deuteronomy 32:29, “Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their Latter End!”14
Young George’s home training and early experiences taught him the reality of death and to prepare to face the “grim king.” He wrote to Richard Washington on October 20, 1761, as only a twenty nine-year-old man,
Dear Sir: Since my last of the 14th July I have in appearance been very near my last gasp; the Indisposition then spoken of Increased upon me and I fell into a very low and dangerous State. I once thought the grim King would certainly master my utmost efforts and that I must sink—in spite of a noble struggle but thank God I have now got the better of the disorder and shall soon be restord I hope to perfect health again.15
