Which breathes of nations saved, not worlds undone.
How sweetly on the ear such echoes sound!
While the mere victor’s may appal or stun
The servile and the vain, such names will be a watchword till the future shall be free.
“Great men have always scorn’d great recompenses; …
George Washing had thanks and nought beside,
Except the all-cloudless glory (which few men’s is)
To free his country.”
“While Franklin’s quiet memory climbs to Heaven,
“Calming the lightning which he thence had riven,
Or drawing from the no less kindled earth
Freedom and peace to that which boast his birth;
While Washington’s a watchword, such as ne’er
Shall sink while there’s an echo left to air.”94
Endnotes
FOREWORD
1 George Washington’s quotes are found in the original sources of Washington’s writings and also in the very helpful article by Michael Novak and Jana Novak, Washington’s Faith and the Birth of America, found in The American Enterprise, May 2006 issue, pages 20-27.
2 Ibid.
CHAPTER 1
1 Paul F. Boller, Jr., George Washington & Religion (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1963) p. 93.
2 John Clement Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington, from the Original Manuscript Sources 1749-1799, 39 vols.(Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1931-1944). The writings of George Washington are now readily and easily available online at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/washington/. Readers may find quotations by searching by word, date, or recipient. Further references to Washington’s writings will be referenced simply by WGW followed by the volume number and date. WGW vol. 2, 4-27-63.
3 Joseph J. Ellis, His Excellency (New York: Alfred K. Knopf, 2004).
4 Franklin Steiner, The Religious Beliefs Of Our Presidents From Washington to FDR (New York: Prometheus Books, 1995).
5 Willard Sterne Randall, George Washington: A Life (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1997).
6 Douglas Southall Freeman, George Washington A Biography. 7 Vols (New York:, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1948).
7 James T. Flexner, Washington: The Indispensable Man (New York: Signet, 1984).
8 William Maclay, The Journal of William Maclay, United States Senator from Pennsylvania 1789-1791, (New York: Albert & Charles Boni, 1927) p. 9.
9 WGW, Inaugural Address.
10 Ibid., vol. 37, 5-13-1776.
11 Ibid., vol. 30, 10-3-1789.
12 The eighteenth century in America was a remarkable time. This is not simply because of the political and international events surrounding the birth of our nation. It was remarkable, too, because of many aspects of the modern world that emerged from this period. One of the most important ingredients of the modern world is the elevation of human reason above scriptural revelation. In the 1700’s, this was beginning to take place among many of the educated. The movement during that time was called “The Enlightenment.” One of the central components of the Enlightenment era was a shift from biblical Christianity to a theological viewpoint called “Deism.” James Flexner, Washington: The Indispensable Man, p. 216, declares, “Washington subscribed to the religious faith of the Enlightenment: like Franklin and Jefferson he was a Deist. Although not believing in the doctrines of the churches, he was convinced that a divine force, impossible to define, ruled the universe, and that this ‘Providence’ was good.” If there is not a Providential God in Deism and Washington is claimed to have been a Deist, how then could he have believed in Providence? Let’s consider a historical definition of Deism given by America’s first lexicographer, Noah Webster. His personal experience argues that he understood the issues involved, given his own history of intellectualism and unbelief in the Gospel:
About a year ago an unusual revival of religion took place in New Haven, and frequent conferences of private meetings for religious purposes were held by pious and well disposed persons in the Congregational societies. . . .I closed my books, yielded to the influence which could not be resisted or mistaken, and was led by a spontaneous impulse of repentance, prayer, and entire submission and surrender of myself to my Maker and Redeemer. My submission appeared to be cheerful, and was soon followed by the peace of mind which the world can neither give nor take away. . . .You will readily suppose that such evidence of the direct operation of the divine spirit upon the human heart, I could no longer question or have a doubt respecting the Calvinistic and Christian doctrines of regeneration, of free grace, and of the sovereignty of God. I now began to understand and relish many parts of the scriptures, which before appeared mysterious and unintelligible or repugnant to my natural pride. . . .Permit me here to remark, in allusion to a passage in your letter, that I had for almost fifty years exercised my talents such as they are, to obtain knowledge and to abide by its dictates, but without arriving at the truth, or what now appears to me to be the truth, of the gospel. I am taught now the utter insufficiency of our own powers to effect a change of the heart, and am persuaded that a reliance on our own talents or powers is a fatal error, springing from natural pride and opposition to God, by which multitudes of men, especially of the more intelligent and moral part of society are deluded into ruin. I now look, my dear friend, with regret on the largest portion of the ordinary life of man, spent ‘without hope and without God in the world.’ I am particularly affected by a sense of my ingratitude to that Being who made me and without whose constant agency I cannot draw a breath, who has showered upon me a profusion of temporal blessings and provided a Savior for my immortal soul . . .In the month of April last I made a profession of faith.” (“Noah Webster: Founding Father of American Scholarship and Education” in Facsimile First Edition of American Dictionary of the English Language (1828) by Noah Webster (1989), p. 20-21).
His 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language provides the following definitions:
Deism: n. [Fr. Deisme; Sp. Deismo; It. Id.; from L. deus, [God]. The doctrine or creed of a Deist; the belief or system of religious opinions of those who acknowledge the existence of one God, but deny revelation: or Deism is the belief in natural religion only, or those truths, in doctrine and practice, which man is to discover by the light of reason, independent and exclusive of any revelation from God. Hence Deism implies infidelity or a disbelief in the divine origin of the scriptures.
Deist: n. [Fr. Deiste; It. Deista.] One who believes in the existence of a God, but denies revealed religion; one who professes no form of religion, but follows the light of nature and reason, as his only guides in doctrine and practice; a freethinker.
Deism in Washington’s day rejected divine revelation, affirmed the preeminence of human reason, but had not yet necessarily denied the validity of Providence. Clearly, Webster’s definition of Deism does not prohibit a belief in Providence. As we shall see, Washington did believe in the Providence of God in the affairs of human history. Later Deism may well have rejected this idea, but such was not the case in colonial America. On the basis of this, in the next chapter we will make a distinction between “hard” and “soft” Deism.
13 Ellen Sorokin, “No Founding Fathers? That’s Our New History,” Washington Times, January 28, 2002.
14 Brit Hume, “The Political Grapevine,” February 22, 2005, Fox News.
