George Washington and religion

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This, the earliest portrait of Washington, was painted in 1772 by Charles Willson Peale, and shows Washington in uniform as colonel of the Virginia Regiment. The original hangs in Lee Chapel at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.

This 1866 engraving depicts Washington praying at Valley Forge. In 1918, the Valley Forge Park Commission declined to erect a monument to the prayer because they could find no evidence that the event had occurred. In 1945, an article was published by the Valley Forge Historical Society in which the writer presents the accounts of the purported incident and, while acknowledging the second hand records of the tradition "lack ... the authentication with which the historian seeks to monument his recordings in all the solemnity of established fact", rhetorically asks if it is unreasonable to believe the event might have occurred.^[1]

The exact nature of George Washington's religious beliefs has been debated by historians and biographers for over two-hundred years. Unlike some of his fellow Founding Fathers, such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and Patrick Henry, Washington rarely discussed or wrote about his religious and philosophical opinions in any great detail yet he quite often displayed a humble and gracious respect towards God in much of his personal letters and public speeches.

[edit] His Anglican affiliations

George Washington was baptized as an infant into the Church of England.^[2][3], which, before the American Revolution, was the state religion of the colony of Virginia.^[4] Since the English monarch is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and its clergy are obliged to swear an Oath of Supremacy to the monarch, following the revolution churches of this denomination in the United States joined together to establish the Episcopal Church. Until Virginia enacted the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in 1786, the Episcopal Church retained its role as the state religion of Virginia. ^[5] (The denominations that share the Church of England tradition remain associated in the Anglican Communion).

As an adult, Washington served as a member of the vestry (lay council) for his local parish. Office-holding qualifications at all levels, including the House of Burgesses to which Washington was elected in 1758, required affiliation with the current state religion, and an undertaking that one would not express dissent nor do anything that did not conform to church doctrine. At the library of the New York Historical Society, some manuscripts containing a leaf from the church record of Pohick were available to Benson Lossing, an American historian, which he included in his "Field-Book of the Revolution." The leaf contained the following signed oath, required to qualify individuals as vestrymen:

[edit] His attendance at religious services

Washington regularly attended Sunday services and purchased a family pew at several churches. Rev. Lee Massey, his pastor in Mt Vernon, wrote: "I never knew so constant an attendant in church as Washington."^[7]

Whether Washington partook of communion is a question of tremendous controversy. An 1833 statement by his adopted daughter, Nelly Custis-Lewis, states of her mother Eleanor Calvert-Lewis (who resided in Mount Vernon for two years), "I have heard her say that General Washington always received the sacrament with my grandmother before the revolution."^[8]

Major William Popham, one of General Washington's aides during the Revolution wrote, "the President [Washington] had more than once--I believe I say often--attended the sacramental table, at which I had the privilege and happiness to kneel with him."^[9]

Another contemporary, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton (Mrs. Alexander Hamilton), testified with fervency to her great-grandson as follows: "If anyone ever tells you that George Washington was not a communicant in the Church, you say that your great-grandmother told you to say that she 'had knelt at this chancel rail at his side and received with him the Holy Communion.'"^[10]

Besides a few other contemporary accounts such as the ones above, the record of his taking communion is in opposition to such claims.^[11] Among the sources, ministers at four of the churches Washington frequently attended have written that he never took communion. Rev. Dr. James Abercrombie, rector of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, related a story in which Washington himself said he was never a communicant.^[12] Washington regularly left services before communion along with the other non-communicants. When Abercrombie mentioned in a weekly sermon that those in elevated stations set an unhappy example by leaving at communion, Washington ceased attending at all on communion Sundays (communion was not celebrated every week in the Episcopal Church at that time). Long after Washington died, when asked about Washington's beliefs, Abercrombie replied: "Sir, Washington was a Deist!"^[13]

Washington requested the King James Version of the Bible be used at each of his inaugurations as President. He did not ask for any clergy on his deathbed, though one was available. The Episcopal Order of Burial was read at his funeral.^[14][15]

[edit] Search for evidence that he believed in Christianity

His adopted daughter, Nelly Custis-Lewis, in response to a request from Jared Sparks in 1833 for evidence that Washington was a Christian, wrote, "He attended the church at Alexandria when the weather and roads permitted a ride of ten miles (a one-way journey of 2-3 hours by horse or carriage). In New York and Philadelphia he never omitted attendance at church in the morning, unless detained by indisposition [sickness]." She continues by saying "No one in church attended to the services with more reverential respect". She adds: "I should have thought it the greatest heresy to doubt his firm belief in Christianity. His life, his writings, prove that he was a Christian. He was not one of those who act or pray, that they may be seen of men."^[16]

On February 1, 1800, a few weeks after Washington's death, Thomas Jefferson made the following entry in his journal, regarding an incident in which Washington avoided identifying himself as a Christian:^[17][18]

[edit] References to religion in his writings and speech

Throughout his life, he spoke of the value of righteousness, and of seeking and offering thanks for the "blessings of Heaven". Though Washington often spoke of God and Providence, there is little if any reliable source material for quotes by him containing the words Jesus, Christ, or Christianity. In his letters to young people, particularly to his adopted children, he urges upon them truth, character, honesty, but in no case does he advise going to church, reading the Bible, belief in Christ, or any other item of religious faith or practice. Analysts who have studied Washington's papers held by the Library of Congress assert that his correspondence with Masonic Lodges is replete with references to the "Great Architect of the Universe" (a neutral Masonic style of referring to God - probably derived from the writings of John Calvin),^[19] but that "his response to a Christian clergyman conspicuously avoids mention of Jesus Christ or acknowledgement of personal Christian faith".^[20]

Various prayers said to have been composed by him in his later life are highly edited.^[13][21] An unfinished book of copied Christian prayers attributed to him (as a youth) by a collector (around 1891) was rejected by the Smithsonian Institution for lack of authenticity^[22] although it has not been dismissed altogether by some in the Christian community.

In a letter to George Mason in 1785, he wrote that he was not among those alarmed by a bill "making people pay towards the support of that [religion] which they profess", but felt that it was "impolitic" to pass such a measure, and wished it had never been proposed, believing that it would disturb public tranquility.^[23]

Washington was a firm believer in the importance of religion for republican government. While he declined suggested versions^[24] of his 1796 Farewell Address that would have included statements that there could be no morality without religion, the final version remarked that it was unrealistic to expect that a whole nation, whatever might be said of minds of peculiar structure, could long be moral without religion, that national morality is necessary for good government, and that politicians should cherish religion's support of national morality:

Washington is widely credited as the originator of adding the words "so help me, God" after the presidential inaugural oath.^[25]

Washington made several official statements as General of the Army which were filled with references to religion. Sparks quotes orders given by General Washington to his Army requiring them to attend to their religious duties and to "to implore the blessing of Heaven" upon the American Army.^[26]

Early in Washington's presidency, at the request of Congress,^[27] he issued the first official National Thanksgiving Proclamation on October 3, 1789. The proclamation was sent to the governors of the each of the states, and assigns the day upon which "the people of these States" devote themselves in service to "that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be." It exhorts the people in the young country to express their gratitide to God for: his protection of them through the Revolutionary War and the peace they had experienced since; for allowing the Constitution to be composed in a "peaceable and rational manner"; for the "civil and religious liberty" they possessed; and "in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us." The proclamation also states that "it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor." It concludes by calling the people of the United States to prayer and to beseech God "to pardon our national and other transgressions"; to allow the national government to be wise and just; to "protect and guide" all nations; to promote "true religion and virtue, and the increase of science"; and to "grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best."

It has been argued that the wordage Washington typically employed to describe the spiritual realm had little in common with traditional Christian terminology and was more akin to the terminology found among deists of his day. One example of this is his statement in his First Inaugural Address in which he called for "fervent supplications to that almighty Being, who rules over the universe, who presides over the council of nations."

[edit] His support of religious toleration

Washington held that all religions, and nearly all religious practices, were beneficial to humans. On some occasions, such as during the Constitutional Convention, he attended Presbyterian, Catholic, and Friends Sunday services.

Washington was an early supporter of religious toleration and freedom of religion. In 1775, he ordered that his troops not show anti-Catholic sentiments by burning the pope in effigy on Guy Fawkes Night. When hiring workmen for Mount Vernon, he wrote to his agent, "If they be good workmen, they may be from Asia, Africa, or Europe; they may be Mohammedans (Muslims), Jews, or Christians of any sect, or they may be Atheists."^[13]

Washington was an officer in the Freemasons, an organization most branches of which have only one religious requirement, viz. that its members believe in God, regardless of other religious convictions or affiliations.

Some biographers^[28] hold the opinion that many of the American Founding Fathers held convictions that as leaders of the nation, they should remain silent on questions of doctrinal details but promote the virtues taught by religion in general due to the fear of creating unnecessary divisiveness within the nation. In Washington's case, such silence would have begun even before he conceived of the colonies becoming a nation unto themselves.

[edit] Scholars' views regarding Washington's beliefs

While some historians and biographers agree that Washington's beliefs mostly resembled that of common deists,^{[citation needed]} others disagree. ^[29] Many of those who argue that Washington was not a deist, focus on his attitude towards prayer which delineate^{[citation needed]} a belief in a God who intervenes in human affairs regularly, due to the fact that deists believe that prayers for such intervention are futile. Deist writer Matthew Tindal, expressed a nuanced view of prayer:

American philosopher Michael Novak, author of Washington's God (with his daughter Jana), maintains that his book proved that Washington could not have been strictly a Deist:

What we did prove, and quite conclusively, is that Washington cannot be called a Deist — at least, not in a sense that excludes his being Christian. Although he did most often address God in the proper names a Deist might use — such as "Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be" and "Disposer of all human events" — the actions that Washington expected God to perform, as expressed both in his official public prayers (whether as general or as president) and in his private prayers as recorded, are the sorts of actions only the God of the Bible performs: interposing his actions in human events, forgiving sins, enlightening minds, bringing good harvests, intervening on behalf of one party in a struggle between good and evil (in this case, between liberty and the deprivation of liberty), etc. Many persons at the end of the 18th century were both Christians and Deists. But it cannot be said, in the simpleminded sense in which historians have become accustomed to putting it, that Washington was merely a Deist, or even that the God to whom he prayed was expected to behave like a Deist God at all. ^[31]

Paul F. Boller, Jr. stated "Washington was no infidel, if by infidel is meant unbeliever. Washington had an unquestioning faith in Providence and, as we have seen, he voiced this faith publicly on numerous occasions. That this was no mere rhetorical flourish on his part, designed for public consumption, is apparent from his constant allusions to Providence in his personal letters. There is every reason to believe, from a careful analysis of religious references in his private correspondence, that Washington’s reliance upon a Grand Designer along Deist lines was as deep-seated and meaningful for his life as, say, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s serene confidence in a Universal Spirit permeating the ever shifting appearances of the everyday world."^[32]

David L. Holmes, author of The Faiths of the Founding Fathers, in a sidebar article for Britannica categorizes Washington as a Christian deist ^[33]. His usage of this category implies a religious spectrum of sorts for deism. Since all deists admit to the existence of deity, one spectrum of disagreement between Christian deists and non-Christian deists lies in their belief of divine intervention in human affairs, as is apparent through their use of terminology. While few non-Christian deists believe in divine intervention, Christian deists do.

In 2006 Dr. Peter Lillback published a 1200 page book dedicated entirely to settling the question of Washington's religious beliefs. The book, George Washington's Sacred Fire, concluded that Washington was an orthodox Christian within the framework of his time. Lillback claims to have entirely demolished the deist hypothesis.

[edit] See also

• List of United States Presidential religious affiliations

[edit] Further reading

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] External links

• George Washington and Christianity
• George Washington and Deism
• George Washington and Religion, Peter Henriques, unpublished notes
• Last Will and Testament of George Washington

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George Washington

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