20 William Fairfax, Washington’s paternal advisor, had recently counseled him by letter to have public prayers in his camp, especially when there were Indian families there; this was accordingly done at the encampment in the Great Meadows, and it certainly was not one of the least striking pictures presented in this wild —- campaign the youthful commander presiding with calm seriousness over a motley assemblage of half-equipped soldiery, leathern-clad hunters and woodsmen, and painted savages with their wives and children, and uniting them all in solemn devotion by his own example and demeanor. Jared Sparks, The Writings of George Washington: Being His Correspondence Addresses, Messages, and other Papers, Official and Private (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1847), p. 138.
20 Washington Irving, Life of George Washington Part I, p. 203ff. Washington Irving writes, “Dr. Craik dressing his wounds, and Washington attending him with faithful assiduity….Captain Orme, who gave these particulars to Dr. Franklin, says that Braddock “died a few minutes after.” This, according to his account, was on the second day; whereas the general survived upward of four days. Orme, being conveyed on a litter at some distance from the general, could only speak of his mood from hearsay…..He died on the night of the 13th at the Great Meadows, the place of Washington’s discomfiture in the previous year. His obsequies were performed before break of day. The chaplain having been wounded, Washington read the funeral service. All was done in sadness, and without parade, so as not to attract the attention of lurking savages, who might discover and outrage his grave. It is doubtful even whether a volley was fired over it, that last military honor which he had recently paid to the remains of an Indian warrior. The place of his sepulture, however, is still known, and pointed out.”
It is undisputed tradition, according to the recounting of Washington’s soldiers, that he became chaplain at such times when there was no other to perform the service. The record that David Humphreys gives in his biography of George Washington is significant, because it is the only biography of his life that Washington read and approved: “General Braddock breathed his last. —- He was interred with the honors of War, and as it was left to George Washington to see this performed, & to mark out the spot for the reception of his remains to guard against a savage triumph, if the place should be discovered.” In David Humphreys, Life of George Washington (University of Georgia Press, 1991), pp. 15-20. Thus, Washington’s presiding over the burial service for General Braddock is not mere tradition. Braddock was buried with “the honors of war” and this ceremony would have included the use of the prayers from the Book of Common Prayer.
21 See WGW, vol. 2, Oct 12, 1761; vol. 3, July 18, 1771, July 15, 1772. Under the date of July 18, 1771 is found: “INVOICE OF GOODS TO BE SHIPD BY ROBERT CARY & CO. FOR THE USE OF GEO. WASHINGTON, POTOMACK RIVER, VIRGINIA, A Prayr. Book with the new Version of Psalms and good plain type, covd. with red Moroco., to be 7 Inchs. long 4? wide, and as thin as possible for the greatr. ease of caryg. in the Pocket.”
22 The Apostles’ Creed was to be said in both the morning and evening prayer as outlined by the 1662 Book Of Common Prayer, as well as the 1789 revision. This historic Christian creed declares: “I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary; Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell, The third day he rose from the dead; He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; The holy Catholic Church; The Communion of Saints; The Forgiveness of sins; The Resurrection of the body; And the Life everlasting. Amen.”
23 The Lord’s Prayer, as given in the 1662 Book Of Common Prayer says, “ Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. Amen.” It was to be used daily both in the morning and evening prayer.
24 The Ten Commandments were an essential part of the catechism in the1662 Book Of Common Prayer. The public corporate reading of the Ten Commandments provided for in the Communion Service of the 1662 Book Of Common Prayer was as follows:
“Then shall the Priest, turning to the people, rehearse distinctly all the TEN COMMANDMENTS; and the people still kneeling shall, after every Commandment, ask God mercy for their transgression thereof for the time past, and grace to keep the same for the time to come, as followeth.
Minister.
God spake these words, and said; I am the Lord thy God: Thou shalt have none other gods but me.
People. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.
Minister. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, and visit the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and shew mercy unto thousands in them that love me, and keep my commandments.
People. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.
Minister. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless, that taketh his Name in vain.
People. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.
Minister. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath-day. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all that thou hast to do; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt do no manner of work, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, thy cattle, and the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it.
People. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.
Minister. Honour thy father and thy mother; that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
People. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.
Minister. Thou shalt do no murder.
People. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.
Minister. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
People. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.
Minister. Thou shalt not steal.
People. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.
Minister. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
People. Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.
Minister. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his.
People. Lord, have mercy upon us, and write all these thy laws in our hearts, we beseech thee.”
25 The Golden Rule of Matthew 7:12 provides the answer to the catechism in the 1662 Book Of Common Prayer: “Question. What is thy duty towards thy Neighbour? Answer. My duty towards my Neighbour, is to love him as myself, and to do to all men, as I would they should do unto me….”
26 Washington’s code of conduct learned as a child, entitled “Rules of Civility,” was relevant in regard to his conscience. As a child, Washington had written down rule 110th that said, “Labor to keep alive in your breast that little celestial fire called conscience.” Washington’s concern for his character will be considered at some length in chapter three.
27 WGW vol. 7, 2-4-1777, see Fitzgerald’s note.
28 This was long before the Oxford movement of the 1830s impacted the Anglican Church and placed the sacramental and Eucharistic life at the front of the churches’ life. Sir Matthew Hale, for example, an exemplar of Anglican piety whose books were used by Mary Washington in the spiritual nurture of her children, wrote that a serious minded believer should commune three times per year. The early Virginia colony only held Communion three times per year, “It was the custom in the colonial churches to administer communion only at Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide [Pentecost Sunday], and it was not an uncommon practice for communicants to receive only once a year.” (William Johnson, George Washington the Christian (Arlington Heights: Christian Liberty Press, 1919), (p.58) A 1631 pamphlet describes early Virginian Anglican worship, “… yet we had daily Common Prayer morning and evening, every Sunday two sermons, and every three months the holy communion, till our minister died.”) When one remembers the lack of clergy in the colonial Anglican churches, even this ideal may have been difficult to achieve.
29 Bishop Meade, Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia vol. 2 (Philadelphia: J.B.Lippencott & Co., 1857) p. 495.
30 Jared Sparks, The Writings of George Washington; XII, pp. 405ff.
31 Ibid., p. 409.
32 John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Diaries of George Washington (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1925) “Sunday October 11, 1789 ‘At home all day – writing private letters.’ (p. 19); For another example consider November 1, 1789 “Attended by the president of the State (Genl. Sullivan), Mr. Landon, and the marshal, I went in the forenoon to the Episcopal church, under the incumbency of a Mr. Ogden; and in the afternoon to one of the Presbyterian of Congregational Church, in which a Mr. Buckminster Preached. Dines at home with the marshal, and spent the afternoon in my own room writing letters.” (p. 43)
33 Ibid., vol. 26, 6-8-1783.
34 Ibid., vol. 2, 4-27-63.
35 We will detail this story in a later chapter.
