The war now existing between the United States and some tribes of the western Indians prevents, for the present, any interference of this nature with them. The Indians of the five nations are, in their religious concerns, under the immediate superintendence of the Revd. Mr. Kirkland; and those who dwell in the eastern extremity of the United States are, according to the best information that I can obtain, so situated as to be rather considered as a part of the inhabitants of the State of Massachusetts than otherwise, and that State has always considered them as under its immediate care and protection. Any application therefore relative to these Indians, for the purposes mentioned in your memorial, would seem most proper to be made to the Government of Massachusetts. The original letters on this subject, which were submitted to my inspection, have been returned to Charles Carroll, Esq. of Carrollton.
Impressed as I am with an opinion, that the most effectual means of securing the permanent attachment of our savage neighbors, is to convince them that we are just, and to shew them that a proper and friendly intercourse with us would be for our mutual advantage: I cannot conclude without giving you my thanks for your pious and benevolent wishes to effect this desirable end, upon the mild principles of Religion and Philanthropy. And when a proper occasion shall offer, I have no doubt but such measures will be pursued as may seem best calculated to communicate liberal instruction, and the blessings of society, to their untutored minds. With very great esteem etc.” WGW, vol. 32: 4-10-1792.
60 WGW, vol. 31, 1-11-1792. See also The Papers of George Washington, W. W. Abbot, Ed., Dorothy Twohig, Assoc. Ed., Presidential Series (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia), vol. 9, pp. 394-395.
61 Ibid., vol. 35: 5-16-1796.
62 Ibid., vol. 35:11-14-1796.
63 Ibid., vol. 28, 12-8-1784.
64 Ibid., vol. 35: 5-16-1796.
CHAPTER 5
1 Rule 108 of the “Rules of Civility,” copied by George Washington in his school paper 1746. The “Rules of Civility” are a part of the George Washington Papers and can be read on line at: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/P?mgw:1:./temp/~ammem_LB9I:: George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741-1799: Series 1a George Washington, Forms of Writing, and “The Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation,” ante 1747. They have also been recently released in contemporary form. See: George Washington, George-isms (New York: Athenaeum Books for Young Readers, 2000). See also the appendix I.
2 Frank E. Grizzard Jr., George Washington: A Biographical Companion (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, Inc. 2002) p. 331. Grizzard notes: “The Reverend Lawrence Washington, M.A., Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford, and later a country rector allegedly ousted by the Puritans for drunkenness.”
Historian Henry Cabot Lodge questions the moral charge, but explains that both poverty and politics made the move to the New World for this noble family a good decision: “The rector had been ejected on the grounds that he was “scandalous” and “malignant.” That he was guilty of the former charge we may well doubt; but that he was, in the language of the time, “malignant,” must be admitted, for all his family, including his brothers, Sir William Washington of Packington and Sir John Washington of Thrapston, his nephew, Sir Henry Washington, and his nephew-in-law, William Legge, ancestor of the Earl of Dartmouth were strongly on the side of the king. In a marriage which seems to have been regarded as beneath the dignity of the family, and in the poverty consequent upon the ejectment from his living, we can find the reason for the sons of the Reverend Lawrence Washington going forth into Virginia to find their fortune, and flying from the world of victorious Puritanism which offered just then so little hope to royalists like themselves. Yet what was poverty in England was something much more agreeable in the New World of America. The emigrant brothers at all events seem to have had resources of a sufficient kind, and to have been men of substance, for they purchased lands and established themselves at Bridges Creek, in Westmoreland county. With this brief statement, Lawrence disappears, leaving us nothing further than the knowledge that he had numerous descendants.” Henry Cabot Lodge, George Washington, (New Rochelle, NY, Arlington House, 1898), pp. 36-37.
3 WGW, vol. 32, 5-2-1792.
4 Colonial Families of the United States of America vol. II http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/va/rappahannock/wills/w2520001.txtWill of Lawrence Washington, Rappahannock co, 1677 Submitted by Sandra Ferguson <ferg@intelos.net> for use in the USGenWeb Archives In several sources it is noted that John, George Washington’s great-grandfather, said in his will, “In the name of God, Amen. I, John Washington, of Washington parish, in the county of Westmoreland, in Virginia, gentleman, being of good and perfect memory, thanks be unto Almighty God for it, and calling to remembrance the uncertain state of this transitory life, that all flesh must yield unto death, do make, constitute, and ordain this my last will and testament and none other. And first, being heartily sorry, from the bottom of my heart, for my sins past, most humbly desiring forgiveness of the same from the Almighty God, my Saviour and Redeemer, in whom and by the merits of Jesus Christ I trust and believe assuredly to be saved, and to have full remission and forgiveness of all my sins, and that my soul with my body at the general resurrection shall rise again with joy. . . .through the merits of Jesus Christ’s death and passion to possess and inherit the kingdom of heaven prepared for his elect and chosen.”
5 Historian James K. Paulding shuns the historical records of earlier Washingtons who were military leaders and heroes in British history.
6 Grizzard, George Washington: A Biographical Companion, p. 26.
7 Henry Cabot Lodge, George Washington, (New Rochelle: Arlington House, 1898), p. 37.
8 We will highlight John Washington’s sense of justice in a story of his crossing the ocean to America in the Chapter on “George Washington and the Enlightenment.”
9 Joseph D. Sawyer, Washington (New York: MacMillian, 1927), vol. I. p. 53.
10 Grizzard George Washington: A Biographical Companion, p. 53.
11 WGW, vol. 29, 10-1783, Biographical Memoranda. See Also David Humphreys, Life of General Washington (Athens and London: The University of Georgia Press) p.10.
12 Sawyer, Washington, vol. I. p. 53.
13 Ibid., p. 54.
14 Ibid., p. 53.
15 It is difficult to keep all of the Lawrence Washingtons distinct. Grizzard lists 11 Lawrence Washingtons from the years of George Washington’s great-great-great-great-great-grandfather Lawrence Washington of Sulgrave Manor (c.1500-1584) to Lawrence Augustine Washington (1775-1824), George’s nephew and son of his brother Samuel Washington. Grizzard George Washington: A Biographical Companion, p. 409.
16 Grizzard lists six other George Washingtons beside the first. These date from 1758—a nephew, son of half brother Augustine Washington and the last, a grandnephew born in 1790. George’s adopted grandson (1781-1857) would unofficially be named Washington twice, George Washington Parke Custis Washington! Grizzard George Washington: A Biographical Companion, pp. 404, 408.
17 Ibid., p. 327.
18 Ibid., p. 326.
19 See, for example, the 39 Articles of the Church of England which can be found in Schaff, Creeds of Christendom vol. 3. p. 486. The Catalogue of Homilies are listed in Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, vol. 3, pp. 509-511.
20 Slaughter, The History of Truro Parish p. 34ff.
21 Benson J. Lossing, Mary and Martha: The Mother and Wife of George Washington (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1886) p. 31.
22 Ibid.
23 Cited by Grizzard George Washington: A Biographical Companion, p. 327.
CHAPTER 6
1 WGW, vol. 35, 11-28-1796.
2 How much of Mason L. Weems’ biography is grounded in fact? Consider the following example of how scholars have interacted with a traditional Washington story from Parson Weems. It comes from the time of Washington’s early adult life as he was completing his service as a soldier and beginning to enter into politics. It well illustrates the difficulty in assessing the value for history of what Parson Weems preserved of Washington’s life for posterity. John Corbin, The Unknown Washington (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930), pp. 44-45 gives the following summation: Washington Irving ignored the story. Bishop Meade offered local traditions that seemed to support Weems. Lodge utterly rejected it, declaring, “That Washington . . . allowed himself to be knocked down in the presence of his soldiers, and thereupon begged his assailant’s pardon for having spoken roughly to him, [is a story] so silly and so foolish impossible that [it does not] deserve an instant’s consideration.” Yet Rupert Hughes accepted it as authentic. John Corbin believes the evidence is available to prove that it is an authentic event in the life of Washington. Thus some historians consider Weems’ traditional stories to be historical, and others do not, and each judgment varies from case to case and author to author. It is here cited from Mason L. Weems, The Life of Washington, (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1962), p. 187-189.
Brissot, another famous French traveller, assures us, that, “throughout the continent, every body spoke of Washington as of a father.”
That dearest and best of all appellations, “the father of his country,” was the natural fruit of the benevolence which he so carefully cultivated through life. A singular instance of which we meet with in 1754, and the 22d year of his age.
He was stationed at Alexandria with his regiment, the only one in the colony, and of which he was colonel. There happened at this time to be an election in Alexandria for members of assembly, and the contest ran high between colonel George Fairfax, and Mr. Elzey. Washington was the warm friend of Fairfax, and a Mr. Payne headed the friends of Elzey. A dispute happening to take place in the courthouse-yard, Washington, a thing very uncommon, said something that offended Payne; whereupon the little gentleman who, though but a cub in size, was the old lion in heart, raised his sturdy hickory, and, at a single blow, brought our hero to the ground. Several of Washington’s officers being present, whipped out this cold irons in an instant, and it was believed that there would have been murder off-hand. To make bad worse, his regiment, hearing how he had been treated, bolted out from their barracks, with every man his weapon in his hand, threatening dreadful vengeance on those who had dared to knock down their beloved colonel. Happily for Mr. Payne and his party, Washington recovered, time enough to go out and meet his enraged soldiers; and, after thanking them for this expression of their love, and assuring them that he was not hurt in the least, he begged them, as they loved him or their duty, to return peaceably to their barracks. As for himself, he went to his room, generously chastising his imprudence, which had this struck up a spark that had like to have thrown the whole town into a flame. Finding on mature reflection, that he had been the aggressor, he resolved to make Mr. Payne honourable reparation, by asking his pardon on the morrow! No sooner had he made this noble resolution, than recovering that delicious gaiety which accompanies good purposes in a virtuous mind, he went to a ball that night, and behaved as pleasantly as though nothing had happened! Glorious proof that great souls, like great ships, are not affected by those little puffs which would overset feeble minds with passion, or sink them with spleen!
The next day he went to a tavern, and wrote a polite note to Mr. Payne, whom he requested to meet him. Mr. Payne took it for a challenge, and repaired to the tavern not without expecting to see a pair of pistols produced. But what was his surprise on entering the chamber, to see a decanter of wine and glasses on the table! Washington arose, and in a very friendly manner met him, and gave him his hand. “Mr. Payne,” said he “to err is nature; to rectify error is glory; I find I was wrong yesterday, but wish to be right to-day. You have had some satisfaction; and if you think that sufficient, here’s my hand, let us be friends.”
3 The following story entitled, “The Poisoned Dish” allegedly comes from the time of Washington’s military command of the revolutionary army. Yet it has all the signs of legend, even though it is in a book entitled, True Stories of the Days of Washington. It has no author, no source, and no other known record of the story occurring. It is, nevertheless, a valuable popular example of the fear of the possibility of Washington being assassinated.
