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    George Washington's Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior: ...And Other Important Writings
    George Washington's Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior: ...And Other Important Writings
    George Washington's Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior: ...And Other Important Writings
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    George Washington's Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior: ...And Other Important Writings

    By George Washington

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    "Labour to keep alive in your breast that little celestial fire called conscience."

    "Run not in the streets. . .nor with mouth open; go not upon the toes nor in a dancing fashion."

    George Washington was known as a remarkably modest and courteous man. Humility and flawless manners were so ingrained in his character that he rarely if ever acted without them.

    The "Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior" that governed Washington's etiquette were by turns practical, inspirational and curious. These rules are as instructive and invaluable today as they were hundreds of years ago.

    George Washington's Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior includes the complete text of the rules, as well as famous Washington writings such as:

    • Farewell to the Armies speech
    • Inaugural Address
    • Retirement Address
    • Address at the End of His Presidency
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSourcebooks
    Release dateFeb 1, 2008
    ISBN9781402249532
    George Washington's Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior: ...And Other Important Writings

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      Book preview

      George Washington's Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior - George Washington

      Copyright © 2007 by Sourcebooks, Inc.

      Cover and internal design © 2007 by Sourcebooks, Inc.

      Cover Photo © Corbis

      Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews without—permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.

      Published by Sourcebooks, Inc.

      P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410

      (630) 961-3900

      Fax: (630) 961-2168

      www.sourcebooks.com

      Printed and bound in the United States of America.

      CONTENTS

      A Life of Virtue and a Leader of Legend

      The Rules of Civility

      Farewell to the Armies

      Army Retirement Address

      Washington’s First Inaugural Address

      Address at the End of His Presidency

      Back Cover

      …your union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear to you the preservation of the other.

      —ADDRESS AT THE END OF HIS PRESIDENCY,

      NEW YORK CITY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1796

      A Life of Virtue

      AND A LEADER OF LEGEND

      IT IS PERHAPS THE DEFINING moment of the United States, the most shining and influential example of the nobility and character of the American people. After the Revolutionary War, when he could have accepted the throne that the officers who had served beneath him during his victory over the British were so eager to have him assume, George Washington humbly refused the monarchy, quelled the movement of his officers to give him the crown, and returned to his plantation to live as a tobacco farmer.

      Of course, Washington was not permitted the sedate life of farmer and family man—a life he so desperately craved—for long. In 1787 he was called out of retirement to preside at the Constitutional Convention; two years later, he was the first president of the United States of America (the first and only president to be elected unanimously by the Electoral College, a feat he duplicated in 1792).

      Throughout his life and certainly during his time as the country’s most influential leader, Washington was known as a remarkably modest and courteous man. Humility and flawless manners were so ingrained in his character that he rarely if ever acted without them (despite his famously short temper); and historians have long speculated that one particular school exercise, completed before he was sixteen years old, had such an impact that it shaped and affected his character and actions for the duration of his life.

      That school exercise was, of course, copying 110 maxims for proper behavior, Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior, the very same text you’re holding in your hands right now. The rules themselves are ancient; they have been traced back to a longer work on etiquette, Bienseance de la Conversation entre les Hommes (Decency of Conversation among Men) written by Jesuit scholars in the late sixteenth century. The book was written at the College of La Fleche in the western French city of La Fleche (which still exists as a school today, the Prytanée National Militaire).

      The book was sent on to a monastery in northeastern France, Pont-a-Mousson, where it was translated into Latin in 1617. The translator, a Father Perin, added his own chapter on table manners. The Latin edition appeared in Paris in 1638.

      In 1640, Youths Behavior, or Decency in Conversation amoungst Men, was published in English in London. The translator was listed as eight-year-old Francis Hawkins (whether or not the rules were actually translated by so young a boy is debatable). As a testament to the rules’ influence and popularity, the book went through at least eleven editions over the next few decades and was even published as Youth’s Behaviour, or Decency in Conversation amongst Women by a Puritan bookmaker, Robert Codrington, in 1664.

      It is not precisely known how the rules got to Colonial Virginia and into the hands and mind of the young George Washington, though it is possible that his father or one of his half-brothers—all of

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