Among all men who have attained to an equal degree of...

Remarks on George Washington prepared for the Washington Bicentennial Service in The Mother Church and Branch Churches on—February 22, 1932

Among all men who have attained to an equal degree of prominence, George Washington is one of comparatively few whose public and private lives are conspicuous for the presence of right and the absence of wrong. This meeting, therefore, furnishes an occasion for recounting some of his moral and spiritual traits.

When his environment is considered, Washington can be seen as conspicuously unselfish. For instance, he responded twice to his colony's call for public service involving extreme hazards with little promise of personal returns. In later years, after having acquired position and wealth, he put them completely at risk by responding to his country's call for greater and more difficult service. Then, when national independence had been gained, but not consolidated or established, and when he could have chosen to retire with plaudits and without responsibilities, he heeded another call from his fellow citizens for a constructive service which encountered extreme difficulties due to conflicting interests and plans, incurred the malice of personal hostility, and required the largest measure of patience, poise, and wisdom.

Another of Washington's traits was his intelligent devotion to unity of thought and action by the American colonies and states at times when this fundamental requisite seemed almost hopeless. Woodrow Wilson has described the colonists as "the headstrong subjects of a distant government they would not obey, the wayward constituents of a score of petty and jealous assemblies" (Life of George Washington, p. 60). All historians have told how the New England colonies, the middle colonies, and the southern differed by sections, and how these sections differed within themselves. Even during the war for independence, when Washington commanded the American Army, his subordinate officers often differed from him and disputed or even quarreled among themselves. They did this at times to such an extent that he yielded or employed persuasion almost as much as he exercised his authority. Then, after the colonies had become independent, when the new states met to form a national constitution, probably they would have failed, at least for that time, but for the unifying influence of Washington as president of the convention.

Unquestionably, Washington was a man of good character and of good intelligence. The famous hatchet and cherry tree story attached to his boyhood was a fiction invented by one of his biographers. But there is dependable evidence that the companions of his youth regarded Washington as having, as one of them has recorded, "an extraordinary and exalted character." When Washington, at the age of forty-two, was in the Continental Congress of 1774, Patrick Henry said, "If you speak of solid information and sound judgment, Colonel Washington is unquestionably the greatest man on that floor." It is such facts as these which explain why Washington was early the outstanding figure in American life, even before his later and greater prominence.

Among Washington's most firmly formed traits were his faith in God and his respect for religion, even for other people's religions. When once extremely ill he calmly said, "I know that I am in the hands of a good Providence." And he recovered. To divine Providence, also, he attributed his immunity from injury in battle; and at different times, particularly in the French and Indian war, his escapes from harm seemed miraculous. Evidently, also, he had a sense of Principle. For instance, when the Constitutional Convention met in 1787, and the prospect for agreement on a plan of national government seemed remote, Washington said to his fellow delegates from Virginia: "Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God."

On the whole, therefore, it can be said of George Washington that he served God and men consistently and faithfully, according to what he regarded as his opportunities, that he did this unselfishly, and that no lapse of time is likely to dim either the value or the virtue of his service. The United States of America has been greatly blessed by having the benefit of Washington's wholesome example and influence, not only during our nation's inception, but also throughout its history, even to the present time.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit