I learn with concern from your letter of the 18th. Instant, that your crops were still labouring under a drought, and most of them very much injured. At disappointments and losses which are the effects of Providential acts, I never repine; because I am sure the alwise disposer of events knows better than we do, what is best for us, or what we deserve.³¹

We do not know what George thought about this change in plans, but he obviously submitted to his mother’s authority. Respect for higher authority was a principle that Washington maintained throughout his life. Years later, even though entrusted by Congress with the powers of a dictator for a season,³² and even though given the opportunity to become a new king at the end of the war by his soldiers, Washington never wavered in his immovable commitment to submit to lawful powers over him. This aspect of his character was remarkably highlighted by Alexander Hamilton years later in the midst of the efforts to make Washington King, as seen in a later chapter.³³

“The maternal hand that bent the twig” never lost the place of honor in the heart of her son. Even to the final years of Mary Washington’s life, General Washington called her in his letters “My Revered Mother” or “Honored Madam,” but this was also his title for her in his public statements as well. Thus, he wrote to the people in his hometown of Fredericksburg in 1784: “To a beneficent Providence, and to the fortitude of a brave and virtuous Army, supported by the general exertion of our common Country I stand indebted for the plaudits you now bestow; ... my sensibility of them is heightened by their coming from the respectable Inhabitants of the place of my growing Infancy and the honorable mention which is made of my revered Mother; by whose Maternal hand (early deprived of a Father) I was led from Childhood.”³⁴ His consciousness of her impact on his character was implied in his advice given in 1796 to his own young “son,” George Washington Parke Custis, “...for you know it has been said, and truly, ‘that as the twig is bent so it will grow.’ This, ... shows the propriety of letting your inexperience be directed by maturer advice.”³⁵ As Mary had guided young George, so the new young George needed to be guided by a mature adult as well.

Washington had come to trust the wisdom of divine intervention in the events of his life. He also understood the power of a reluctant mother’s intervention in a son’s decision for military service. In a letter to Landon Carter on April 15, 1777, General Washington remarked, “I should have been very happy in seeing your Grandson enlisted under the Banners of His country...But a mother’s tenderness and Tears too often interpose, and check the ardour of our Youth.”³⁶

YOUNG GEORGE COMES OF AGE AT MT. VERNON

During the years 1746-48 when George was between fourteen and sixteen years of age, he lived primarily with his brother Lawrence at Mount Vernon. In 1747, at the age of fifteen, George assumed an adult responsibility when he became a godfather to a child in baptism.³⁷ Throughout his life he became a godfather for some eight children in all. That role required subscribing to the orthodox and Trinitarian doctrines of the Church of England. In conformity with the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, the following affirmations were required of the fifteen-year-old Washington, as they were of all godfathers and godmothers:

Then shall the Priest speak unto the Godfathers and Godmothers on this wise.

DEARLY beloved, ye have brought this Child here to be baptized, ye have prayed that our Lord Jesus Christ would vouchsafe to receive him, to release him of his sins, to sanctify him with the Holy Ghost, to give him the kingdom of heaven, and everlasting life. Ye have heard also that our Lord Jesus Christ hath promised in his Gospel to grant all these things that ye have prayed for: which promise he, for his part, will most surely keep and perform. Wherefore, after this promise made by Christ, this Infant must also faithfully, for his part, promise by you that are his sureties, (until he come of age to take it upon himself,) that he will renounce the devil and all his works, and constantly believe God’s holy Word, and obediently keep his commandments.

I demand therefore,

DOST thou, in the name of this Child, renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the same, and the carnal desires of the flesh, so that thou wilt not follow, nor be led by them? [Washington then answered]. I renounce them all.

                     Minister.

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?

[Washington then answered] All this I stedfastly believe.

                     Minister.

WILT thou be baptized in this faith?

[Washington then answered] That is my desire.

                     Minister.

WILT thou then obediently keep God’s holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of thy life?

[Washington then answered] I will.

                     Then shall the Priest say,

O MERCIFUL God, grant that the old Adam in this Child may be so buried, that the new man may be raised up in him.

[Washington then responded] Amen.

Grant that all carnal affections may die in him, and that all things belonging to the Spirit may live and grow in him. [Washington then responded] Amen.

Grant that he may have power and strength to have victory, and to triumph, against the devil, the world, and the flesh. [Washington then responded] Amen.

Grant that whosoever is here dedicated to thee by our office and ministry may also be endued with heavenly virtues, and everlastingly rewarded, through thy mercy, O blessed Lord God, who dost live, and govern all things, world without end.

[Washington then responded] Amen.

ALMIGHTY, everliving God, whose most dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of our sins, did shed out of his most precious side both water and blood; and gave commandment to his disciples, that they should go teach all nations, and baptize them In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Regard, we beseech thee, the supplications of thy congregation; sanctify this Water to the mystical washing away of sin; and grant that this Child, now to be baptized therein, may receive the fulness of thy grace, and ever remain in the number of thy faithful and elect children; through Jesus Christ our Lord. [Washington then responded] Amen.

So, on some eight different occasions, George Washington publicly and explicitly affirmed his Christian faith in these words, a remarkable fact given Washington’s powerful conscience. Significantly, Thomas Jefferson, a Unitarian rather than an orthodox Christian, turned down the invitation to be a godfather in 1788, because he could not in good conscience subscribe to the Trinitarian beliefs of the church.³⁸

CONCLUSION

In 1748, George took another step as a sixteen-year-old young adult when he joined a surveying trip to Shenandoah Valley with James Genn on behalf of Lord Fairfax. Perhaps we can say that George officially came of age in 1749, when he was appointed a public surveyor. Even here the Christian influences in his life are evident. The very first page of his surveyor notebook has a single sentence inscribed by the youthful Washington’s hand. It says, “If you can’t find it in the book of Ezekiel, look for it in Israel.”

The cryptic message makes sense in light of Washington’s Christian training. As Washington was taught the scriptures by his Anglican childhood tutors, he learned that Israel was a nation marked out by very clear boundaries (Joshua 13-21), such as would be well understood by surveyors. And the book of Ezekiel concludes with a remarkable survey of the New Jerusalem (Ezekiel 40-48). The young surveyor apparently autographed his official record with this observation. His task in the pristine woods of the New World in some way reminded him of the biblical accounts of marking off expanses of land that had been gifted by God.

Cover page of Washington’s first surveyor’s notebook with reference to Ezekiel and Israel.

³⁹

Not much is known about George Washington’s childhood and early manhood. His father, who was a successful businessman and leader in the church, died young. His mother was a woman of faith. From everything we can tell, he was an obedient son. We do know a little more about his education and, as we shall see next, it was Christian.

SEVEN

The Christian Education of George Washington

“I heartily thank our heavenly Father, that he hath called me to this state of salvation, through Jesus Christ our Saviour.”

——Anglican Catechism taught to George Washington as part of his education

George Washington’s education can be summarized briefly. First, he received a home-based education by tutors who trained him in the topics that were essential for his success as a leader in colonial Virginia. His superlative penmanship and his poor spelling are legendary. Fortunately, his grammar continued to improve throughout his life. His childhood education included extensive instruction in applied mathematics, business law, as well as the teachings of Christianity. His education not only enabled him to become skilled in surveying, real estate law, and land acquisition, but also in local leadership of the Anglican Church. His mother, his church, and his teachers imparted to him a substantial knowledge of the Bible that was manifested in his writings by a high level of Bible literacy.

Second, although he never received a college education, given his disciplined and methodical temperament, he never stopped learning. As author Frank Grizzard, Jr. put it, Washington was “conscious of a defective education.”¹ Nonetheless (or perhaps because of this), he strove to overcome it by the continual self-improvement of reading, experimenting, and correspondence. The legacy of his commitment to learning was seen in his extensive library,² the many scholarships he gave to young scholars,³ his generous endowments of schools and universities,⁴ as well as a persistent advocacy of the formation of schools of higher education.⁵

In spite of his limited education, he learned enough to make a tremendous mark on the world. The traits of the mature Washington which most impressed his contemporaries were his consistent character and astute and wise judgment. Thomas Jefferson remarked:

His mind was great and powerful, without being of the very first order; his penetration strong, though not so acute as that of a Newton, Bacon or Locke; and as far as he saw, no judgment was ever sounder. It was slow in operation, being little aided by invention or imagination, but sure in conclusion. Hence, the common remark of his officers of the advantage he derived from councils of war, where, hearing all suggestions, he selected whatever was best; and certainly no general ever planned his battles more judiciously.⁶

Furthermore, the Duke of Wellington, the great British military leader (a generation or so after the American Revolution) described George Washington with these words: “The purest and noblest character of modern time—possibly of all time.”⁷ We already noted Jefferson’s sense of Washington’s judgment. He went on to describe his character in terms consistent with the Duke of Wellington:

His integrity was most pure, his justice the most inflexible I have ever known, no motives of interest of consanguinity, of friendship or hatred, being able to bias his decision. He was, indeed, in every sense of the word, a wise, a good, and a great man. His temper was naturally irritable and high-toned; but reflection and resolution had obtained a firm and habitual ascendancy over it. ...

On the whole, his character was, in its mass, perfect, in nothing bad, in few points indifferent; and it may truly be said that never did nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great, and to place him in the same constellation with whatever worthies have merited from man an everlasting remembrance.⁸

A page of young George’s geometry notes from school