p. 152, From John Parke Custis Kings-College July 5th (1773).
“I generally get up about Six or a little after, dress myself & go to chappel, by the time that Prayers are over Joe has me a little Breakfast to which I sit down very contended after eating heartyly. I thank God, and go to my Studys, with which I am employed till twelve then I take a walk and return about one dine with the professors, & after dinner study till Six at which time the Bell always rings for Prayers they being over college is broak up, and then we take what Amusement we please.
“Things My dear Mother were going on in this agreeable Manner, till last Thursday, the day I receiv’d Pappa’s melancholy Letter, giveing an account of my dear & only Sister’s Death. I myself met the Post, & brought the sad Epistle to Doctor Cooper who I beg’d to open his Letter immediately, the Direction I did not know, but the Seal I knew too well to be deceived. My confusion & uneasiness on this occasion is better conceiv’d that expresst. Her case is more to be envied than pitied, for if we mortals can distinguish between those who are deserveing of grace & who are not, I am confident she enjoys that Bliss prepar’d only for the good & virtuous, let these consideration, My dear Mother have their due weight with you and comfort yourself with reflecting that she now enjoys in substance what we in this world enjoy in imagination & that there is no real Happiness on this side of the grave. I must allow that to sustain a shock of this kind requires more Philosophy than we in general are (possest) off, my Nature could not bear the shock. (illegible) sunk under the load of oppression, and hindered me from administering any consolation to my dear and nearest relation, this Letter is the first thing I’ve done since I received the melancholy News, & could I think my Presence wou’d be condusive to the Restoration of your Tranquility neither the distance nor the Fatigue of traveling could detain me a moment here. I put myself & Joe into deep Mourning & shall do (all) Honour in my power to the Memory of a deceas’d & well belov’d Sister, I will no longer detain you on a subject which is painful to us both but conclude with beging you to remember you are a Christian and that we ought to submit with Patience to the divine Will and that to render you happy shall be the constant care of your effectionate and dutiful son.
John Parke Custis”
p.159 From George Washington, Philadelphia June 18, 1775.
“I shall rely therefore, confidently, on that Providence which has heretofore preservd, & been bountiful to me, not doubting but that I shall return safe to you in the fall...”
p. 161 From George Washington, Phila. June 23rd. 1775.
“... I go fully trusting in that Providence, which has been more bountiful to me than I deserve, & in full confidence of happy Meeting with you sometime in the Fall-“
p. 175 To Burwell Bassett, My Dear Sir, Mount Vernon December 22d 1777.
“... she has I hope a happy exchange – and only gone a little before us the time draws near when I hope we shall meet never more to part-if to meet our departed Friends and know them was scertain we could have very little reason to desire to stay in this world where if we are at ease one hour we are in affliction days...
“... my dear sister in her life time often mentioned my taking my dear Fanny if should be taken away before she grew up- If you will lett her come to live with me, I will with the greatest pleasure take her and be a parent and mother to her as long as I live—and will come down for her as soon as I come from the northward, ...”
p.223-224 To Mercy Otis Warren, New York December the 26th 1789
“...for you know me well enough to do me the justice to believe that I am only fond of what comes from the heart....
.... it is owing to this kindness of our numerous friends in all quarters that my new and unwished for situation is not indeed a burden to me. ...With respect to myself, I sometimes think the arrangement is not quite as it ought to have been, that I, who had much rather be at home should occupy a place with which a great many younger and gayer women would be prodigiously pleased.—As my grand children and domestic connections made a great portion of felicity which I looked indemnify me for the Loss of a part of such endearing society. I do not say this because I feel dissatisfied with my present station—no, God forbid:—for everybody and everything conspire to make me as contented as possable in it; yet I have too much of the vanity of human affairs to expect felicity from the splendid scenes of public life. – I am still determined to be cheerful and to be happy in whatever situation I may be, for I have also learnt from experianence that the greater part of our happiness or misary depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances; we carry the seeds of the one, or the other about with us, in our minds, wherever we go.”
p.339 To Jonathan Trumball Mount Vernon January 15, 1800
“...the good Christian will submit without repining to the Dispensations on Divine Providence and look for consolation to that Being who alone can pour balm into the bleeding Heart and who has promised to be the widows god -... your kind letter of condolence of the 30th of December was greatfull to my feeling....
...the loss is ours the gain is his....
“For myself I have only to bow with humble submission to the will of that God who giveth and who taketh away looking forward with faith and hope to the moment when I shall be again united with the Partner of my life But while I continue on Earth my prayers will be offered up for the welfare and Happiness of my Friends among who you will always be numbered being.”
p.364 To Catherine Livingston Garretson Mount Vernon, March 15t, 1800
“The kind sympathy which you expressed for my affictive loss – and your fervent prayers for my present comfort and future happiness, impress my mind with gratitude. The precepts of our holy Religion have long since taught me, that in the severe and trying scenes of life, our only sure Rock of comfort and consolation is the Divine Being who orders and directs all things for our good.
“Bowing with humble submission, to the dispensations of his Providence, and relying upon that support which he has promised to those who put their trust in him, I hope I have borne my late irreparable loss with Christian fortitude. – To a feeling heart, the sympathy of friends, and the evidences of universal respect paid to the memory of the deceased, - are truly grateful. – But while these aleviate our grief, we find that the only sense of comfort is from above.
“It give me great pleasure to hear that your good Mother yet retains her health and faculties unimpaired, - and that you experience those comforts which the Scriptures promise to those who obey the Laws of God. – That you may continue to enjoy the blessings of this life – and receive hereafter the portion of the Just is the prayer of your sincere friend & obt Serv.”
p.368 To Theodore Foster Mount Vernon, March 28, 1800
“While these evidences of respect and veneration paid to the memory of our illustrious Chief, make the most grateful impression on the heart of Mrs. Washington, she finds that the only source of Consolation is from that Divine Being who sends Comfort to the Afflicted, and has promised to be the Widow’s God. Your prayers for her health and happiness are received with gratitude, and reciprocates with sincerity.”
p. 371 To Janet Livingston Montgomery Mount Vernon, April 5th
“... your affliction I have often marked and as often have keenly felt for you but my own experience has taught me that griefs like these can not be removed by the condolence of friends however sincere – If the mingling tears of numerous friends – if the sympathy of a Nation and every testimony of respect of veneration paid to the memory of the partners of our hearts could afford consolation you and myself would experience it in the highest degree but we know that there is but one source from whence comfort can be derived under afflictions life ours To this we must look with pious resignation and with that pure confidence which our holy religion inspires.
...but as you justly observe it is certainly a consolation and flattering to poor mortality to believe that we shall meet here after in a better place.”
38 Sparks, The Writings of George Washington, vol. XII, pp. 405-407. See John Eidsmoe, Christianity and the Constitution, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1987), p. 140-141.
39 Lathrop, Discourse Before the Humane Society in Boston, p. 5. A summary of the sermon is provided here:
Lathrop begins by asserting that “Publick institutions, founded on the general principles of benevolence, and calculated either to promote the happiness or to alleviate the sufferings of human life, are honoured and encouraged among all the civilized nations of the world.” The establishment of the Humane Societies was based on the insight “That the total suspension of the vital functions of the animal body, is by no means incompatible with life....the success which has attended the exertions of societies formed for the recovery of persons visibly dead, particularly such as were drowned, has far exceeded expectation.” But the Humane Society, although medical in focus, decided to “be introduced with a Religious Exercise, and that the first Discourse be rather on the general object of the society, than confined to the Medical Science.” In other words, these were Christian physicians and Christian leaders coming together to do this good work in the very spirit of Christ Himself: “the words of our LORD, placed at the head of the Discourse, naturally lead us to consider the value of human life, and the duty of preserving it by every method in our power. The holy Evangelists who have faithfully recorded the life of JESUS CHRIST, abundantly testify that his actions perfectly corresponded with he declaration it the text: He constantly went about doing good.” [Emphasis is in the original.] Lathrop’s continuing explanation points out Jesus’ resurrections of the widow’s daughter, Jairus’ daughter and Lazarus. He points to the man as the highest creature of God who bears the image of God and so is to rule over all creation, including in areas of science and medicine. Useful knowledge and knowledge of the heavenly regions are all to be part of man’s scientific enterprise. In so doing, man is only being “the head of the creatures which dwell on the face of the earth...he longs to converse with superiour beings, and feels the highest pleasure in contemplating the perfections of his Creator, in the boundless Universe.”
Thus Lathrop concludes, “From all that has been said, human life appears highly valuable: It is our duty to preserve our own life, and the life of others. ‘The Son of Man came not to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” And thus the existence of the Humane Societies. Next Reverend Lathrop details stories of rescued drowning victims who had been under water for up to two hours; of the rescuing of a convict who had been hung, after the performance by a physician of what we would call today a tracheotomy—apparently the man rapidly revived and was able to successfully elude the law. The Humane Society in Great-Britain in the first ten years had 796 lives that had been “restored from apparent death.” Lathrop adds examples of those spared after being hit by lightning, and in one case, of someone even being rescued on the third day laying in their coffin when he had died in France, but was then living in Philadelphia nearly six years after the event. The organizations that had performed these great works had actually had assemblies of those rescued and made sure that they were being instructed “at stated periods for religious worship, and devotional books, suited to their circumstances are distributed among them.”
The conclusion of this most remarkable medical sermon that Washington read with “singular satisfaction” declares “let us present our grateful acknowledgments to the FATHER of LIFE, that he hath, in this age of rapid improvement, led to those important discoveries, by which many of the human race may be saved from an untimely end. The tender feelings of our heart, and the Spirit of our holy Religion, happily unite in the cause of Humanity. The Son of God came into the world to save the life, and promote the happiness of the children of men. Let it be our determination to follow his most amiable example. Let us be constant and unwearied in works of humanity, and we shall receive the full reward of our labours, when those who found relief from our hand, when ready to perish, shall rise up and call us BLESSED.”
Did this medical sermon impact Washington? Clearly it did. He did not want to be placed in his tomb until he had been dead for three days. But was Washington’s hesitancy for burial a potential rejection of Christianity as implied by Ellis? Not at all, it was an affirmation of the compassionate Christian Medical spirit that Washington had read with “singular satisfaction” twelve years earlier. Had the tracheotomy been done on Washington, instead of only on the convict mentioned in Lathrop’s discourse, he might have lived too. Apparently, Washington’s “singular satisfaction” was not diminsished by the Reverend Dr. Lathrop’s Gospel hope expressed in the words, “...they had tasted death, and sunk into a state of insensibility, from which, if left without assistance, they could not have awoke, ‘till the morning of the resurrection.” Given the serious science coupled with the sincere Christian faith combined in Lathrop’s Discourse, there was no need for a man of faith and reason like Washington to abandon Christianity for Deism.
40 WGW, vol. 29, 8-15-1787.
41 Ibid., vol. 28, 7-25-1785.
42 Ibid., vol. 34, 12-16-1795.
43 Ibid., vol. 15-28-1755.
44 Ibid., vol. 1, 9-6-1756.
45 PGW, Letterbook 38, Image 147.
46 WGW, vol. 35, 3-3-1797.
