Your friendly, and affectionate wishes for my health and success, has a claim to my thankful acknowledgements; and, that the God of Armies may enable me to bring the present contest to a speedy and happy conclusion, thereby gratifying me in a retirement to the calm and sweet enjoyment of domestick happiness, is the fervent prayer, and most ardent wish of my Soul.49
As he retired from his command of the Army in 1783, he promised his prayers to the “God of Armies” for his men:
...to bid a final adieu to the Armies he has so long had the honor to Command, he can only again offer in their behalf his recommendations to their grateful country, and his prayers to the God of Armies. May ample justice be done them here.50
The reason for Washington’s prayers to the God of Armies was because he believed, and had come to experience, that God was the source of “victory.” In 1776, soon after the start of the War, he repeatedly reminded his men of this fact of his faith:
We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die: Our own Country’s Honor, all call upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is.51
And again,
Thursday the seventh Instant, being set apart by the Honourable the Legislature of this province, as a day of fasting, prayer, and humiliation, “to implore the Lord, and Giver of all victory, to pardon our manifold sins and wickedness’s, and that it would please him to bless the Continental Arms, with his divine favour and protection”—All Officers, and Soldiers, are strictly enjoined to pay all due reverance, and attention on that day, to the sacred duties due to the Lord of hosts, for his mercies already received, and for those blessings, which our Holiness and Uprightness of life can alone encourage us to hope through his mercy to obtain.52
And again,
The Continental Congress having ordered, Friday the 17th. Instant to be observed as a day of “fasting, humiliation and prayer, humbly to supplicate the mercy of Almighty God, that it would please him to pardon all our manifold sins and transgressions, and to prosper the Arms of the United Colonies, and finally, establish the peace and freedom of America, upon a solid and lasting foundation”— The General commands all officers, and soldiers, to pay strict obedience to the Orders of the Continental Congress, and by their unfeigned, and pious observance of their religious duties, incline the Lord, and Giver of Victory, to prosper our arms.53
When Washington looked back over the War years, he consistently gave all of the glory to divine Providence for his victory. On June 11, 1783, he wrote 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.54
In the same spirit of worship, Washington wrote to the people of Princeton, New Jersey, on August 25, 1783:
If in the execution of an arduous Office I have been so happy as to discharge my duty to the Public with fidelity and success, and to obtain the good opinion of my fellow Soldiers and fellow Citizens; I attribute all the glory to that Supreme Being, who hath caused the several parts, which have been employed in the production of the wonderful Events we now contemplate, to harmonize in the most perfect manner, and who was able by the humblest instruments as well as by the most powerful means to establish and secure the liberty and happiness of these United States.55
All glory was to be ascribed to “that being, who is powerful to save,”56 for all of Washington’s victories.57 This was instinctive for him, since he could not forget there were moments when he thought that victory was nearly impossible. A great example of this was his immediate response to the victory at Yorktown, the battle that effectively ended the War. The General Orders on October 20, 1781 said,
Divine Service is to be performed tomorrow in the several Brigades or Divisions. The Commander in Chief earnestly recommends that the troops not on duty should universally attend with that seriousness of Deportment and gratitude of Heart which the recognition of such reiterated and astonishing interpositions of Providence demand of us.58
THE CONCATENATION OF CAUSES AND THE FINGER OF PROVIDENCE
From the War to the presidency, Washington believed that the rule of divine Providence meant that order and right would eventually emerge from the dark clouds of confusion. So in 1791 he stated,
We must, however, place a confidence in that Providence who rules great events, trusting that out of confusion he will produce order, and, notwithstanding the dark clouds, which may threaten at present, that right will ultimately be established.59
Thus, America’s victory resulted from a providential chain of events, or a “concatenation of causes,”60 as Washington called them as he wrote on July 8, 1783, to Reverend William Gordon:
To say nothing of the invisible workings of Providence, which has conducted us through difficulties where no human foresight could point the way; it will appear evident to a close Examiner, that there has been a concatenation of causes to produce this Event; which in all probability at no time, or under any Circumstances, will combine again. We deceive ourselves therefore by this mode of reasoning, and what would be much worse, we may bring ruin upon ourselves by attempting to carry it into practice.61
Similarly, just before becoming the first president under the new Constitution, Washington wrote to Annis Boudinot Stockton on August 31, 1788:
The felicitations you offer on the present prospect of our public affairs are highly acceptable to me, and I entreat you to receive a reciprocation from my part. I can never trace the concatenation of causes, which led to these events, without acknowledging the mystery and admiring the goodness of Providence. To that superintending Power alone is our retraction from the brink of ruin to be attributed.62
The bright future for America under the new Constitution was due to the “remarkably excited” and “invisible hand” of God. Writing to Philip Schuyler on May 9, 1789, Washington explained:
The good dispositions which seem at present to pervade every class of people afford reason for your observation that the clouds which have long darkened our political hemisphere are now dispersing, and that America will soon feel the effects of her natural advantages. That invisible hand which has so often interposed to save our Country from impending destruction, seems in no instance to have been more remarkably excited than in that of disposing the people of this extensive Continent to adopt, in a peaceable manner, a Constitution, which if well administered, bids fair to make America a happy nation.63
A JUST WAR, A RIGHTEOUS CAUSE, AND THE BLESSINGS OF HEAVEN
Washington believed that an army was both appropriate and necessary when it fought for a righteous cause64 in a just war65 that was conducted by the laws of war.66 A strategic policy was to put the enemy in the wrong,67 so that in the day of battle, heaven’s blessings would favor the just army, since God stood with the righteous.68
The righteousness of the American cause was an important part of the Washington family’s faith. Martha Washington, for example, thus expressed her patriotic support for her husband “to a kinswoman who deprecated what she called ‘his folly.’” She wrote in 1774, “Yes, I foresee consequences—dark days, domestic happiness suspended, social enjoyments abandoned, and eternal separations on earth possible. But my mind is made up, my heart is in the cause. George is right; he is always right. God has promised to protect the righteous, and I will trust Him.”69
The connection between a righteous army and victory meant that worship itself became part of the arsenal of the army. God’s blessings needed to rest not just on the men, but even on their “arms.” Accordingly, Washington called on his men to “religiously” observe a day of “Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer,” so that in the words of the Twenty-Third Psalm, God’s “goodness and mercy” would bless the soldiers’ weaponry. The purpose of the fasting and prayer was so that the “righteous dispensations of Providence may be acknowledged and His Goodness and Mercy toward us and our Arms supplicated and implored.”70
We can see then why it was no incongruity for the commander in chief to declare in his General Orders, “The General hopes and trusts, that every officer and man, will endeavour so to live, and act, as becomes a Christian Soldier defending the dearest Rights and Liberties of his country.”71 An army composed of soldiers striving to live and act as Christians should preeminently be a righteous army.
For Washington, righteousness was defined by the eternal rules ordained by heaven or the Ten Commandments. He believed there was “... an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness.”72 Thus, his vocabulary for the divine law includes: “Decalogue,”73 “duties to God and man,”74 “infinite obligations,”75 “goodness and happiness,”76 “virtue and happiness,”77 “obligations enjoined by the Creator, and due to his creatures.”78 He made the relationship between obedience to God’s “eternal rules” and human “happiness” most clear to the American people in his First Inaugural Address.
... the foundations of our National policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality; and the pre-eminence of a free Government, be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its Citizens, and command the respect of the world. I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my Country can inspire: since there is no truth more thoroughly established, than that there exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness, between duty and advantage, between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity: Since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven, can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained: And since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of Government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.79
Braddock’s defeat brought Washington fame and deepened his lifelong personal faith in Divine Providential care.
As a believer in divine Providence, Washington always wanted the blessings of God on the American side of the battle. This was particularly true as the American army faced the strongest nation on earth. How could a newly organized army succeed in such a contest if they violated God’s rules? Throughout his career, from soldier to president, he made a point of emphasizing that happiness or the blessings of heaven could not be expected on America’s cause if Americans as a people chose to violate heaven’s own rules. Accordingly, Washington used the religiously oriented term “blessing” over 160 times in his writings. Happiness, heaven, and blessing are related concepts for Washington.80 They come to fullest expression in his phrase, “the blessings of heaven,” variations of which he uses some twenty times.81
Because of this deep adherence to the interconnection between God’s blessings, his soldiers’ virtue and victory, he made the role of the military chaplain an important position of leadership in his army.
WASHINGTON’S INSISTENCE ON CHAPLAINS
George Washington insisted on godly conduct and leadership in his army. He did not permit swearing, cursing, or drunkenness, which might impede rather than implore the “blessings of Heaven.” Precisely a year before America’s Declaration of Independence was dated, Washington’s General Orders declared,
The General most earnestly requires, and expects, a due observance of those articles of war, established for the Government of the army, which forbid profane cursing, swearing and drunkenness; And in like manner requires and expects, of all Officers, and Soldiers, not engaged on actual duty, a punctual attendance on divine Service, to implore the blessings of heaven upon the means used for our safety and defence.82
Precisely to help engender such a standard from his Christian soldiers, Washington instituted chaplains in the Revolutionary Army:
The Hon. Continental Congress having been pleased to allow a Chaplain to each Regiment, with the pay of Thirty-three Dollars and one third pr month—The Colonels or commanding officers of each regiment are directed to procure Chaplains accordingly; persons of good Characters and exemplary lives—To see that all inferior officers and soldiers pay them a suitable respect and attend carefully upon religious exercises. The blessing and protection of Heaven are at all times necessary but especially so in times of public distress and danger—The General hopes and trusts, that every officer and man, will endeavour so to live, and act, as becomes a Christian Soldier defending the dearest Rights and Liberties of his country.83
