“Acts of candor when performed, if acknowledged by the party to whom they are said to be rendered, ought not to be boasted of by those who perform them.”
b) SPEECH TO CONGRESS, June 16, 1775.
“Mr. President: Though I am truly sensible of the high honor done me in this appointment, yet I feel great distress from a consciousness that my abilities and military experience may not be equal to the extensive and important trust. However, as the Congress desire it, I will enter upon the momentous duty and exert every power I possess in the service and for support of the glorious cause. I beg they will accept my most cordial thanks for this distinguished testimony of their approbation. But lest some unlucky event should happen unfavourable to my reputation, I beg it may be remembered by every gentleman in the room, that I this day declare with the utmost sincerity I do not think myself equal to the command I am honored with.
“As to pay, Sir, I beg leave to assure the Congress, that as no pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to accept this arduous employment at the expense of my domestic ease and happiness, I do not wish to make any profit from it. I will keep an exact account of my expenses. Those I doubt not they will discharge, and that is all I desire.”
12. Happiness
a) THE FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS [April 30, 1789.]
“The foundations of our National policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality; and the pre-eminence of a free Government, be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its Citizens, and command the respect of the world.… there is no truth more thoroughly established, than that there exists in the oeconomy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness, between duty and advantage, between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity: Since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven, can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained: And since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of Government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.” (emphasis in the orginal)
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 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.”
