9 See WGW, vol. 2, Catalogue of Books for Master Custis Referred to on the Other side.
10 See the chapter on the Godly Leader.
11 WGW, vol. 27, 6-11-1783. To Reverend John Rodgers, “Dear Sir: I accept, with much pleasure your kind Congratulations on the happy Event of Peace, with the Establishment of our Liberties and Independence.
Glorious indeed has been our Contest: glorious, if we consider the Prize for which we have contended, and glorious in its Issue; but in the midst of our Joys, I hope we shall not forget that, to divine Providence is to be ascribed the Glory and the Praise.1
“Your proposition respecting Mr Aikins Bibles [Note: Rodgers’s letter (May 30) suggested that Congress present each soldier with a Bible. This letter is in the Washington Papers.] would have been particularly noticed by me, had it been suggested in Season; but the late Resolution of Congress for discharging Part of the Army, takg off near two thirds of our Numbers, it is now too late to make the Attempt. It would have pleased me, if Congress should have made such an important present, to the brave fellows, who have done so much for the Security of their Country’s Rights and Establishment.
“I hope it will not be long before you will be able to go peaceably to N York; some patience however will yet be necessary; but Patience is a noble Virtue, and when rightly exercised, does not fail of its Reward.”
12 WGW, vol. 3-5-1794. To Charles Thompson. “Dear Sir: Weeks have passed since I finished reading the first part of your translation of the Septuagent; but having neglected (when I had the pleasure to see you last) to ascertain the medium through which I was to return it, and being unwilling to hazard the production to an uncertain conveyance, I give this letter to the Post Office in hopes of its reaching you, and of my receiving the information above.”
13 See Boller, George Washington & Religion, p. 40.
14 WGW, vol. 37, Last Will and Testament,
15 Reverend Bryan Fairfax, Minister of Christ Church, Alexandria, Sermon; from Christ Church, Rare BV 4500 P14.
16 “While President, Washington followed an invariable routine on Sundays, The day was passed very quietly, no company being invited to the house. After breakfast, the President read aloud a chapter from the Bible, then the whole family attended church together. Washington spent the afternoon writing personal letters, never neglecting his weekly instructions to his manager at Mount Vernon, while Mrs. Washington frequently went to church again, often taking the children with her. In the evening, Lear read aloud to the family some sermon or extracts from a book of a religious nature and everyone went to bed at an early hour. The President was an Episcopalian and in New York at first went to Saint Paul’s Chapel, as Trinity Church, which had been burned in the great fire of September, 1776, was then being rebuilt. The new church, when completed in March following, contained the ‘President’s Pew,” which was offered to Washington and accepted and after the new edifice was consecrated on the twenty-fifth of March, 1790, he attended services there until his departure from the city the following autumn.” (Stephen Decatur, Private Affairs of George Washington: From the Records and Accounts of Tobias Lear, Esquire, his Secretary, pp. 90-91.)
17 M’Guire, Religious Opinions, p. 134 and following; Johnson, George Washington The Christian, p. 229-230; Meade, Old Churches, vol. 2, p. 246.
18 Custis, Recollections, p. 477.
19 Boller, George Washington & Religion, p. 40. See also P. Marion Simms, The Bible in America (New York, 1936), p. 132.
20 Consider here Uzal Ogden’s 1795 work, Antidote to Deism, against Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason that Washington declined to endorse. Boller, p. 80, following Eliot Morison (The Young Man Washington (Cambridge, 1932), p. 37), implies that this was because of his sympathies for Deism. Washington received the two volumes on March 22, 1796. Ogden had written, “Dear Sir—I beg your acceptance of a Publication (which I have taken the Liberty to inscribe to you) designed to check the Progress of Infidelity and Vice, and to promote the Interests of Truth and Virtue—I shall be happy if the work shall be honored with your approbation, and am with sincere and great Esteem, Dear Sir, Your most obedient and very humble Servant Uzal Ogden.” (William Lane, A Catalogue of the Washington Collection, (The Boston Athenaeum, 1897) pp. 154-55; The George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, Series 4. General Correspondence. 1697-1799, Uzal Ogden to George Washington, March 22, 1796, Image 20 of 1122.) The truth is Washington by this time had determined to deal with Paine in total silence. To have endorsed a book that critiqued Paine would have opened him up for further wrangling with his erstwhile friend. See chapter two above. This view is corroborated by the fact that Washington in this instance did not even acknowledge Ogden’s letter, although earlier he had clearly enjoyed an evangelical and biblically based sermon by Ogden, as is evident from Washington’s letter to Ogden (WGW, vol. 16, 8-5-1779), and in another instance, although declining to endorse a publication by him, he graciously explained that he could not (WGW, vol. 30, 7-6-1789.) Interestingly, Washington not only retained Ogden’s anti-Deistic work in his library, but Washington’s autograph is on the title page of both volumes. Lane, Washington Collection, Boston Athenaeum p. 154.
21 WGW, vol. 30, April 1789.
22 Ibid., vol. 29, 4-25-1788.
23 Ibid., vol. 26, 6-8-1783.
24 Ibid., vol. 28, 7-25-1785.
25 Ibid.
26 Ibid., vol. 29, 4-5-1788. To Marquis de Chastellux. “...but for the sake of humanity it is devoutly to be wished, that the manly employment of agriculture and the humanizing benefits of commerce, would supersede the waste of war and the rage of conquest; that the swords might be turned into plough-shares, the spears into pruning hooks, and, as the Scripture expresses it, “the nations learn war no more.”
27 Ibid., vol. 3, 5-21-1772. To Reverend Jonathan Boucher.
28 Ibid., vol. 16, 9-30-1779. To Marquis de Lafayette.
29 Ibid., vol. 32, 6-21-1792. To Gouverneur Morris.
30 Ibid., vol. 33, 5-26-1794. To the Earl of Buchan. “But providence, for purposes beyond the reach of mortal scan, has suffered the restless and malignant passions of man, the ambitious and sordid views of those who direct them, to keep the affairs of this world in a continual state of disquietude; and will, it is to be feared, place the prospects of peace too far off, and the promised millenium at an awful distance from our day.” The millennium refers to the biblical text of Revelation 20:6 where a period of one thousand years is mentioned.
31 Ibid., vol. 30, 10-23-1789. To the First Presbytery of the Eastward. “I am persuaded, you will permit me to observe that the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction.”
32 Ibid., vol. 30, 10-9-1789, note. “On October 9 the Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church in North America sent an address to Washington, the answer to which is undated, but recorded immediately...In the answer he stated: “I readily join with you that ‘while just government protects all in their religious rights, true religion affords to government its surest support.’” WGW, vol. 30, 10-3-1789. Washington’s first Thanksgiving Proclamation declared in part, “And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the People, by constantly being a government of wise, just and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue,...” WGW, vol. 24, 6-28-1782. To the Ministers, Elders, and Deacons of the Reformed Dutch Church at Albany. “Your benevolent wishes and fervent prayers for my personal wellfare and felicity, demand all my gratitude. May the preservation of your civil and religious Liberties still be the care of an indulgent Providence; and may the rapid increase and universal extension of knowledge virtue and true Religion be the consequence of a speedy and honorable Peace.”
33 Ibid., vol. 13, 12-17-1778.
34 Ibid., vol. 10, 1-29-1778.
35 Ibid., vol. 25, 12-18-1782.
36 Ibid., vol. 30, April 1789.
37 Ibid., vol. 7, 1-22-1777
38 Ibid., vol. 12, 8-20-1778.
39 Ibid., vol. 27, 12-13-1783.
40 Ibid., vol. 35, 11-18-1796.
41 Ibid., vol. 36, July 25, 1798
42 Ibid., vol. 35, 5-15-1796.
43 Ibid., vol. 35, May 15, 1796
44 Interview with Mary Thompson, with Jerry Newcombe and Peter Lillback, 2005.
45 Ibid., vol. 29, 6-19-1788.
