February 22

George Washington (1732)

It was on this date, February 22, 1732, that George Washington, the first U.S. President, was born into an agrarian Virginia family. He was educated in Virginia and worked as a surveyor before entering the military. He was commissioned a lieutenant colonel in 1754, and the 22-year-old soon saw service in the French and Indian Wars. He left the military in 1759 to tend his Shenandoah Valley lands while serving in the Virginia House of Burgesses. Already chafing under the British yoke, in 1775, Washington was elected Commander in Chief of the Continental Army by the Second Continental Congress, assembled in Philadelphia.

If we discount the "life" penned by religious charlatan Mason Weems, which should have been called The Lie of Washington (1800), the first semi-competent biography, by Jared Sparks (one-time president of Harvard), suffers from the hagiographic view presented by a churchman. Sparks took a flawed man and morphed him into towering marble.

Nowhere in Washington's extant writings — and many have been lost, either through careless handling or deliberate destruction[1] — does he make direct reference to Jesus Christ, as has been discussed elsewhere. The closest he ever came, according to exhaustive research by Sparks (in 12 volumes),[2] are two indirect references. When Washington was 13, he wrote in a copy book,

Assist me, Muse divine, to sing the morn,
On which the Savior of mankind was born.[3]

Well, then, how did Washington address God as the end neared? He died on 14 December 1799 at age 67. Two days earlier Washington had caught what modern physicians conjecture was a streptococcal infection of the throat, probably aggravated by the primitive palliative of "bleeding," and died of a combination of shock, blood loss, asphyxia and dehydration. Washington knew the end was near, but sent for no priest. Instead, he reluctantly sent for physicians. It seems certain that his family and friends would have suggested clerical attendance, so Washington must have refused. Otherwise, if his wishes were well known, they would not have suggested it.

As he felt his life slipping away on the evening of the 14th, Washington asked all to leave the room so that he might "spend his last hour with his Maker." Those tempted to make more of this request are reminded that no one disputes that Washington was a Deist.

Thomas Jefferson, who notes in his own diary that Washington rather slyly avoided giving his opinion on Christianity when provided the opportunity to do so,[5] quotes a friend's recollection of Washington thus:

I know that Gouverneur Morris, who pretended to be in his secrets and believed himself to be so, has often told me that General Washington believed no more in the system [Christianity] than he did.[6]

[1] To those who would argue that those writings which clearly identified Washington as a Christian might have been the very ones lost, I ask that you consider this: those wishing to wishing to portray Washington as a Christian (as opposed to a believer in God, which no one disputes) must acknowledge that pro-Christian writings would be unlikely to cause Washington political or social trouble in life. Only those writings of the opposite nature are likely to have been suppressed, or "lost."
[2] Jared Sparks, ed., The Writings of George Washington, 12 vols.; Boston, 1833-37, p. 519.
[3] Franklin Steiner, The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents, 1936. The copy book was for copying lines from elsewhere, rather than for original composition. The chapter on Washington from Steiner's book can be found at this link.
[4] Rupert Hughes, George Washington: Savior of the States, 1777-1781, 1930, (vol. 3 of a series), p. 290. The complete series is: George Washington: The Human Being and the Hero, 1926 (covering 1732-1762); George Washington: The Rebel and the Patriot, 1927 (covering 1762 to 1777); and George Washington: Savior of the States, 1777-1781, 1930.
[5] Entry of 1 February 1800, a few weeks after Washington's death:

Dr. Rush [a physician] tells me that he had it from Asa Green [a Presbyterian minister and former Congressional chaplain] that when the clergy addressed General Washington on his departure from the Government, it was observed in their consultation that he had never on any occasion said a word to the public which showed a belief in the Christian religion and they thought they should so pen their address as to force him at length to declare publicly whether he was a Christian or not. They did so. However, he observed, the old fox was too cunning for them. He answered every article in their address particularly except that which he passed over without notice. Rush observes he never did say a word on the subject in any of his public papers except in his valedictory address to the governors of the States when he resigned his commission in the army, wherein he speaks of the benign influence of the Christian religion.