“… When I was first introduced to him he was neatly dressed in a plain blue coat, white cassimir waistcoat, and black breeches and boots, as he came from his farm… The General came in again, with his hair neatly powdered, a clean shirt on, a new plain drab coat, white waistcoat and white silk stockings.”36
(10) Jedidiah Morse (1789)
“General Washington in his person was tall, upright, and well made; in his manner easy and unaffected. His eyes were of a bluish cast no prominent, indicative of deep thoughtfulness, and when in action, on great occasions remarkably lively. His features strong, manly, commanding; his temper reserved and serious; his countenance grave, composed, and sensible. There was in his whole appearance an unusual dignity and gracefulness which at once secured him profound respect, and cordial esteem. He seemed born to command his fellow men.”37
(11) Anonymous Briton (1790)
“It was not necessary to announce his name, for his peculiar appearance, his firm forehead, Roman nose, and a projection of the lower jaw, his height and figure, could not be mistaken by any one who had seen a full-length picture of him, and yet no picture accurately resembled him in the minute traits of his person. His features, however, were so marked by prominent characteristics, which appear in all likeness of him, that a stranger could not be mistaken in the man; he was remarkably dignified in his manners, and had an air of benignity over his features which his visitant did not expect, being rather prepared for sternness of countenance…his smile was extraordinarily attractive. It was observed to me that there was an expression in Washington’s face that no painting had succeeded in taking. It struck me no man could be better formed for command. A stature of six feet, a robust, but well-proportioned frame, calculated to sustain fatigue, without that heaviness which generally attends great muscular strength, and abates active exertion, displayed bodily power of no mean standard. A light eye and full–the very eye of genius and reflection rather than of blind passionate impulse. His nose appeared thick, and though it befitted his other features, was too coarsely and strongly formed to be the handsomest of its class. His mouth was like no other that I ever saw; the lips firm and the under jaw seeming to grasp the upper with force, as if its muscles were in full action when he sat still.”38
(12) Senator William Maclay (1791)
“In stature about six feet, with an unexceptionable make, but lax appearance. His frame would seem to want filling up. His motions rather slow than lively, though he showed no signs of having suffered by gout or rheumatism. His complexion pale, nay, almost cadaverous. His voice hollow and indistinct, owing, as I believe, to artificial teeth before his upper jaw, which occasions a flatness.”39
(13) Jean Pierre Brissot De Warville (1791)
“You have often heard me blame M. Chastellux for putting too much sprightliness in the character he has drawn of his general. To give pretensions to the portrait of a man who has none is truly absurd. The General’s goodness appears in his looks. They have nothing of that brilliancy which his officers found in them when he was at the head of his army; but in conversation they become animated. He has no characteristic traits in his figure, and this has rendered it always so difficult to describe it; there are few portraits which resemble him. All his answers are pertinent; he shows the utmost reserve, and it very diffident; but, at the same time, he is firm and unchanged in whatever he undertakes. His modesty must be astonishing, especially to a Frenchman.”40
(14) Edward Thornton, of English Legation (1792)
“His person is tall and sufficiently graceful; his face well formed, his complexion rather pale, with a mild philosophic gravity in the expression of it. In his air and manner he displays much natural dignity; in his address he is cold, reserved, and even phlegmatic, though without the least appearance of haughtiness or ill-nature; it is the effect, I imagine, of constitutional diffidence. That cause and circumspection which form so striking and well known a feature in his military, and indeed, in his political character, is very strongly marked in his countenance, for his eyes retire inward (do you understand me?) and have nothing of fire animation or openness in their expression.”41
(15) Henry Wansey (1795)
“The President in his person is tall and thin, but exact; rather of an engaging than a dignified presence. He appears very thoughtful, is slow in delivering himself, which occasions some to conclude him reserved, but it is rather, I apprehend, the effect of much thinking and reflection, for there is great appearance to me of affability and accommodation He was at this time in his sixty-third year… but he had very little the appearance of age, having been all his life long so exceeding temperate.”42
(16) Isaac Weld (1797)
“His chest is full; and his limbs, though rather slender, well shaped and muscular. His head is small, in which respect he resembles the made of a great number of his countrymen. His eyes are of a light grey colour; and in proportion to the length of his face, his nose is long. Mr. Stewart, the eminent portrait painter, told me, that there were features in his face totally different from what he ever observed in that of any other human being; the sockets for the eyes, for instance, are larger than what he ever met with before, and the upper part of the nose broader. All his features, he observed, were indicative of the strongest and most ungovernable passions, and had he been born in the forests, it was his opinion the he would have been the fiercest man among the savage tribes.”43
(17) Anonymous (1798)
“It was in the month of November, 1798, I first beheld the Father of his Country. It was very cold, the northwest wind blowing hard down the Potomac, at Georgetown, D. C. A troop of light-horse from Alexandria escorted him to the western bank of the river. The waves ran high and the boat which brought him over seemed to labor considerably. Several thousand people greeted his arrival with swelling hearts and joyful countenances; the military were drawn up in the long line to receive him; the officers, dressed in regimentals, did him homage. I was so fortunate as to walk by his side, and had a full view of him. Although only about ten years of age, the impression his person and manner then made on me is now perfectly revived. He was six feet one inch high, broad and athletic, with very large limbs, entirely erect and without the slightest tendency to stooping; his hair was white, and tied with a silk string, his countenance loft, masculine, and contemplative; his eye light gray. He was dressed in the clothes of a citizen, and over these blue surtout of the finest cloth. His weight must have been two hundred and thirty pounds, with no superfluous flesh, all was bone and sinew, and he walked like a soldier. Whoever has seen in the Patent Office at Washington, the dress he wore when resigning his commission as commander-in-chief, in December, 1783, at once perceives how large and magnificent was his frame. During the parade, something at a distance suddenly attracted his attention; his eye was instantaneously lighted up as with the lightning’s flash. At this moment I see it marvelous animation, its glowing fire, exhibiting strong passion, controlled by deliberate reason.
“In the summer of 1799 I again saw the chief. He rode a purely white horse, seventeen hands high, well proportioned, of high spirit; he almost seemed conscious that he bore on his back the Father of his Country. He reminded me of the war-horse whose neck is clothed with thunder. I have seen some highly-accomplished rider, but not one of them approached Washington; he was perfect in this respect. Behind him, at the distance of perhaps forty yards, came Billy Lee, his body-servant, who had periled his life in many a field, beginning on the heights of Boston, in 1775, and ending in 1781, when Cornwallis surrendered, and the captive army, with unexpressible chagrin, laid down their arms at Yorktown. Billy rode a cream colored horse, of the finest-form, and his old Revolutionary cocked hat indicated that its owner had often heard the roar of cannon trying scenes. Billy was a dark mulatto. His master speaks highly of him in his will, and provides for his support.”44
(18) Marquis de Lafayette (1824)
“The person of Washington, always graceful, dignified and commanding, showed to peculiar advantage when mounted; it inhibited, indeed, the very beau ideal of a perfect cavalier. The good Lafayette, during his last visit to America, delighted to discourse of the ‘times that tried men’s souls.’ From the venerated friend of our country we derived a most graphic description of Washington and the field of battle. Lafayette said, ‘At Monmouth I commanded a division, and, it may be supposed I was pretty well occupied; still I took time, to admire our beloved chief, who, mounted on a splendid charger, rode along the ranks amid the shouts of the soldiers cheering them by his voice and example, and restoring to our standard the fortunes of the fight. I thought then, as now,’ continued Lafayette, ‘that never had I beheld so superb a man.’”45
(19) George Washington Parke Custis (1826)
“General Washington, in the prime of life, stood six feet two inches and measured precisely six feet when attired for the grave. From the period of the Revolution, there was an evident bending in that frame so passing straight before, but the stoop is attributable rather to the care and toils of that arduous contest than to age; for his step was firm, and his carriage noble and commanding, long after the time when the physical properties of man are supposed to be in the wane.
“To a majestic height, was added correspondent breath and firmness, and his whole person was so cast in nature’s finest mould as to resemble the classic remains of ancient statuary, where all the parts contribute to the purity and perfection of the whole.
“The power of Washington’s arm was displayed in several memorable instances: in his throwing a stone from the bed of the stream to the top of the Natural Bridge; another over the Palisades in the Hudson, and yet another across the Rappahannock, at Fredericksburg. Of the article with which he spanned this bold and navigable stream, there are various accounts. We are assured that it was a piece of slate, fashioned to about the size and shape of a dollar, and which, sent by an arm so strong, not only spanned the river, but took the ground at least thirty yards on the other side. Numbers have since tried this feat, but none have cleared the water.”46
(20) Judge Gibson
Judge Gibson in his reminiscences of the Whiskey Rebellion relates: “The rendezvous of the northern division, by far the strongest, was at Carlisle, where the President joined it as Commander-in-chief. Passing through the town without dismounting at the quarters proposed for him, he proceeded at once, under an escort of New Jersey dragoons, to the plain at the south of it, where ten thousand volunteers, the flower of the Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania youth, were drawn up to be reviewed by him. Finer looking fellows were perhaps never brought into line; and their uniforms, arms and accoutrements were splendid. But the observed of all observers was Gen. Washington. Taking off his small revolutionary cocked hat, and letting it fall at his side with inimitable grace, he rode slowly along the front, receiving, with a puff of military pride, the salute of the regiments with drums and colors; of the officers with swords and spontoons; and of the private soldiers with presented arms. His eye appeared to fall on every man in the line; and every man in the line appeared to feel that it did so. No man ever sat so nobly in a saddle, and no man’s presence was ever so dignified. To a boy, as the writer then was, it was an impressive spectacle, that review.”47
III. DESCRIPTIONS OF WASHINGTON’S CHARACTER AND SERVICE BY HIS CONTEMPORARIES
Unless otherwise noted, all of these citations are also taken from Albert Bushnell Hart’s, Tributes to Washington, Pamphlet No. 3 (Washington, D.C.: George Washington Bicentennial Commission, 1931.) They are presented in chronological order.
A. As stated by Americans
(1) Delegate Patrick Henry (1774)
“When Patrick Henry was asked ‘whom he thought the greatest man in Congress,’ he replied: ‘If you speak of eloquence, Mr. Rutledge of South Carolina is by far the greatest orator, but if you speak of solid information and sound judgment, Colonial Washington is unquestionably the greatest man on that floor.’”48
(2) Delegate Silas Deane (1775)
“General Washington will be with You soon, possibly by the Time You receive This. His Election was unanimous, his acceptance of the high Trust, modest and polite, his Character I need not enlarge on but will only say to his honor, that he is said to be as fixed and resolute in having his Orders on all Occasion executed, as he is cool and deliberate, in giving them.”49
(3) President John Hancock (1775)
“The Congress have appointed George Washington, Esqr., General and Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. His Commission is made out and I shall Sign it to morrow. He is a Gentleman you will all like. I submit to you the propriety of providing a suitable place for his Residence and the mode of his Reception. Pray tell Genl. Ward of this with my Respects, and that we all Expect to head that the Military Movements of the Day of his Arrival will be such as to do him and the Commander in Chief great honour.…General Washington will set out in a few Days. …Pray do him every honour. By all means have his Commission read at the head of the whole Forces.”50
(4) Delegate John Adams (1775, 1776)
“I can now inform you that the Congress has made choice of the modest and virtuous, the amiable, generous and brave George Washington, Esquire to be General of the American army, and that he is to repair, as soon as possible, to the camp before Boston. This appointment will have a great effect in cementing and securing the union of these colonies.
