In GOD We Trust: George Washington and the Spiritual Destiny of the United States of America

In GOD We Trust:

George Washington

And the Spiritual Destiny

of the

United States of America

By Michael A. Shea

Liberty Quest L.L.C.

.

In GOD We Trust: George Washington and the Spiritual Destiny of the United States of America

Copyright © 2012 by Michael A. Shea

First Edition

(Second Issue)

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the permission of the publisher, except for brief quotations in articles and reviews.

Liberty Quest L.L.C.

55 Crystal Ave, Unit 7, PMB145

Derry, NH 03038-1725

www.libertyquest.net

Cataloging information

ISBN-13: 978-0-9851287-4-6 (eBook edition)

ISBN-10: 0985128747

In GOD We Trust:

George Washington and the Spiritual Destiny of the United States of America

Contents

Preface

Eulogy of Washington

Acknowledgments

Author’s Note

Book One - In God We Trust: George Washington

A Patriot Without Reproach

Washington’s Family Lineage and his Young Restless Years

The French and Indian War

Join or Die

Politics and Prophecy

The Second Continental Congress

Commander-in-Chief, an Honor he Wished to Avoid

God and the Battle of Boston

An Appeal to Heaven

A Fortuitous Escape from Long Island

I am Resolved not to be Forced From this Ground While I Have Life

Victory or Death

We will Bag the Old Fox in the Morning

Valley Forge: A Valley of Death & Rebirth

Son of the Republic, Look and Learn

A Turning Point in the War

Fighting a Just War

The Iroquois Problem

Winter at Morristown

The Providential Train of Circumstances

The Dash for Yorktown

God Brings the War to a Conclusion

Military Officers in Arms Against Congress

The British Evacuate New York City

The Miracle at Philadelphia

Without Ratification, All That We Glory in is Lost.

In Great Trepidation Over the Presidency

The Whole National Experiment Hangs in the Balance

Barbary Coast Terrorism and Extortion

The Firestorm Over the Jay Treaty

Retirement at Last?

Washington’s Dream Forewarning his Impending Death

Noteworthy Aspects of Washington’s Life

Book Two - In God We Trust: The Spiritual Destiny of the United States of America.

Exordium

The French Invasion of America in 1746

Thomas Paine and his Prophetic Dream

The USS Constitution—Divinely Protected?

God’s Hand in Reuniting Adams and Jefferson

The Americas, Virgin Mary’s Land

The Bible Arrives in the Americas

Future History

The Letter

End Notes, Book One

End Notes, Book Two

Preface

This book, In God We Trust: George Washington and the Spiritual Destiny of the United States of America, is a unique look into God’s hand in American history (American Providentialism), viewed through the life of George Washington. The book reflects the providential view that Washington and the other Founding Fathers had of the God of history (God of Abraham) a God in whom they placed their trust, lives, fortunes and sacred honor for the country’s future and their success in arms. The book attempts to document God’s hand in Washington’s life and the Revolutionary War using Washington’s own words and detailing the numerous miracles that led to the country’s eventual independence and subsequent Constitution. God’s hand in the founding of the United States of America and its history is perhaps one of the greatest stories seldom told. The book also explores the country’s reason for existence, God’s purpose in the founding of the United States, and what it portends for our future survival as a nation.

This is a book that I did not want to write. It is a book I did not feel qualified to write. But it is a book that needed to be written so that future generations of Americans will no longer be deceived about their country’s true history and heritage. I hope and pray that in some way this book will help the country (if it’s not too late) retain and preserve its God given blessings of liberty and freedom that have been bestowed upon this country, so those blessings may be preserved and passed on to our children and their children’s children.

I hope you enjoy the book.

Michael A. Shea

Eulogy of Washington

It is natural that the gratitude of mankind should be drawn to their benefactors. A number of these have successively arisen, who were no less distinguished for the elevation of their virtues, than the luster of their talents. Of those, however, who were born, and who acted, through life, as if they were born, not for themselves, but for their country and the whole human race, how few, alas! are recorded in the long annals of ages, and how wide the intervals of time and space that divide them. In all this dreary length of way, they appear like five or six light houses on as many thousand miles of coast: they gleam upon the surrounding darkness, with an inextinguishable splendor, like stars seen through a mist; but they are seen like stars, to cheer, to guide, and to save. Washington is now added to that small number. Already he attracts curiosity, like a newly discovered star, whose benignant light will travel on to the world’s and time’s farthest bounds. Already his name is hung up by history as conspicuously, as if it sparkled in one of the constellations of the sky. ...

We are called this day to yield the homage that is due to virtue; to confess the common debt of mankind as well as our own. … blessed be God! the Constitution was adopted. Yes, to the eternal honor of America among the nations of the earth ... blessed be God! who endued him with wisdom and clothed him with power. … Washington, appears like the polestar in a clear sky ... an epoch, and … living monument, to which the first of patriots would have chosen to consign his fame, it is my earnest prayer to heaven, that our country may subsist, even to that late day, in the plenitude of its liberty and happiness, and mingle its mild glory with Washington’s.¹

By Fisher Ames. Delivered at the request of the Legislature of Massachusetts, February 8, 1800.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank God for His continued blessings and support of my writings and I hope that I have truthfully and accurately represented His Word, intent, and hand in history within this book. I would like to thank my wife Sue for her help, my family, my sister Kathy and the friends who have heard ad nauseam about my research into American Providentialism and religio-political issues and history. I would also like to thank Sally Humphres for her input and continued encouragement, as well as Gary Kelly, Larry Rice, Pastor Garrett Lear, Diane Gilbert, Jerry Still, Thomas Pietropaoli, Laurie Turner, Father Steven Montesanti for his George Washington print and advice, Russell D. James of James Literary Services in Pensacola for editing, Lynn Rockwell for early editing, and others who have helped with input on this book. While we may differ some in our religious convictions, I believe we agreed on the truth of God’s Word, divinity of Jesus Christ, and God’s hand in history that led to the formation of the United States of America, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution.

Lastly, I would like to thank the many writers over the years who have preserved history, and contributed their perspective. Without their previous work, it would have been impossible to write this book.

Author’s Note

In the layout of the book, I have attempted to keep the flow of events, letters, and quotes in chronological order, as much as possible. Most letters, speeches, proclamations, treaties, and laws are excerpts taken from the original, but shortened to convey the pertinent points that need to be communicated without being too lengthy. Some excerpts are more lengthy due to the nature of the information being covered. The use of capitalization and spelling of a number of the words has changed over the years. Therefore, I have made occasional capitalization and spelling changes to the original text in an effort to enhance readability. A number of words were left the way they were originally spelled, reflecting the period from when they were written, which by today’s spelling and writing standards would be considered misspelled. The meaning of a number of words has changed over the years to where they have a different meaning in today’s vernacular. For any words in question, the reader is encouraged to reference Noah Webster’s 1828 dictionary or online at www.1828.mshaffer.com to check for the earlier historical definition.

When coincidences and miracles happen in history, they are considered to be from God’s intercession in the affairs of man. While God does not always share the reasons for the coincidences and miracles with man, they can be inferred at times based on the circumstance or in hindsight of history. Thus, proving that the hand of God was involved in history can be nearly impossible, and conversely, proving God’s hand was not involved in history can be nearly impossible to prove as well.

All Bible quotes are from the Revised Standard Version¹ unless otherwise noted.

Book One - In God We Trust: George Washington

Chapter 1

A Patriot Without Reproach

Washington was an ordinary man who had been raised up and prepared by God to be the father of his country. He was a patriot without reproach, a statesman, a husband, and a farmer who had learned self control over both his passions and anger. He led a virtuous life and conducted himself as a true Christian without compromise or apology. He was a humble man who knew God.

Perhaps a short, but accurate account of his life was given by his adopted daughter, Nelly Custis-Lewis, who said:

He always rose before the sun, and remained in his library until called to breakfast. I never witnessed his private devotions. 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. He communed with his God in secret. ... he spoke little generally; never of himself. I never heard him relate a single act of his life during the war.¹ His mottoes were, Deeds, not Words, and For God and my Country.²

His friend, Major General Henry Lee, from Virginia described him as having a Godlike virtue. Lee also described him as:

Possessing a clear and penetrating mind, a strong and sound judgment, calmness for deliberation, with invincible firmness and perseverance in resolution maturely formed; drawing information from all: acting from himself, with incorruptible integrity and unvarying patriotism; his own superiority and the public confidence alike marked him as the man designed by Heaven to lead in the great political as well as military events which have distinguished the era of his life. The finger of an over-ruling Providence, pointing at Washington, was neither mistaken nor unobserved when, to realize the vast hopes to which our revolution had given birth, a change of political system became indispensable.³

Thomas Jefferson wrote that:

[Washington was] incapable of fear, meeting personal dangers with the calmest unconcern. Perhaps the strongest feature in his character was prudence, never acting until every circumstance, every consideration, was maturely weighed; refraining if he saw a doubt, but, when once decided, going through with his purpose, whatever obstacles opposed. His integrity was most pure, his justice the most inflexible I have ever known; no motives of interest or consanguinity, of friendship or hatred, being able to bias his decision. He was, indeed, in every sense of the words, a wise, a good, and a great man. His temper was naturally irritable and high toned; but reflection and resolution had obtained a firm and habitual ascendancy over it. If ever, however, it broke its bonds, he was most tremendous in his wrath.⁴

Jefferson continued with his recollections:

His heart was not warm in its affections; but he exactly calculated every man’s value, and gave him a solid esteem proportioned to it. His person, you know, was fine, his stature exactly what one would wish, his deportment easy, erect, and noble; the best horseman of his age, and the most graceful figure that could be seen on horseback. ... On the whole, his character was, in its mass, perfect, in nothing bad, in few points indifferent; and it may truly be said, that never did nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great, and to place him in the same constellation with whatever worthies have merited from man an everlasting remembrance. For his was the singular destiny and merit, of leading the armies of his country successfully through an arduous war, for the establishment of its independence; of conducting its councils through the birth of a government, new in its forms and principles, until it had settled down into a quiet and orderly train; and of scrupulously obeying the laws through the whole of his career, civil and military, of which the history of the world furnishes no other example. … He has often declared to me that he considered our new constitution as an experiment on the practicability of republican government, and with what dose of liberty man could be trusted for his own good; that he was determined the experiment should have a fair trial, and would lose the last drop of his blood in support of it. And these declarations he repeated to me the oftener and the more pointedly …

These are my opinions of General Washington, which I would vouch at the judgment seat of God, having been formed on an acquaintance of thirty years. I served with him in the Virginia legislature from 1769 to the revolutionary war, and again, a short time in Congress, until he left us to take command of the army. During the war, and after it, we corresponded occasionally, and in the four years of my continuance in the office of Secretary of State, our intercourse was daily, confidential, and cordial. … I felt on his death, with my countrymen, that verily a great man hath fallen this day in Israel.⁵

Fisher Ames, who served in Congress from Massachusetts described him as of a small number of men over the years, who were distinguished by their virtues, than the luster of their talents … who were born, and who acted, through life, as if they were born, not for themselves, but for their country and the whole human race.⁶ Reverend Jedidiah Morse, from Charleston, Massachusetts, compared Washington to Moses. He said:

Never, perhaps, were coincidences in character and fortune, between any two illustrious men who have lived, so numerous and so striking, as between Moses and Washington. ... Both were born for great and similar achievements; to deliver, under the guidance of Providence, each the tribes of their respective countrymen, from the yoke of oppression, and to establish them, with the best form of government and the wisest code of laws, an independent and respectable nation.⁷

Chief Justice John Marshall, who served as Captain in the Continental Army at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777-1778, said that Washington was

the hero, the patriot, and the sage of America, the man on whom in times of danger every eye was turned, and all hopes were placed. ... of those whom Heaven has selected as its instruments for dispensing good to man.⁸

Washington stands virtually alone in history, because few men have possessed such a strong moral Christian character and have accomplished so much positive good for their country, and the world in their short time on earth. While over the years many have attempted to describe George Washington, his character, and the effect he had on United States and the world, they typically fall short. Even Daniel Webster, the great orator and master of the English language, found it difficult to describe him.

Webster, at the ceremonial laying of the cornerstone at the Bunker Hill Monument on June 17, 1825 said:

America has furnished to the world the character of Washington! And if our American institutions had done nothing else, that alone would have entitled them to the respect of mankind. ... Washington is all our own! The enthusiastic veneration and regard in which the people of the United States hold him, prove them to be worthy of such a countryman; while his reputation abroad reflects the highest honor on his country. I would cheerfully put the question today to the intelligence of Europe and the world, what character of the century, upon the whole, stands out in the relief of history, most pure, most respectable, most sublime; and I doubt not, that, by a suffrage approaching to unanimity, the answer would be Washington! ... I claim him for America. In all the perils.⁹

But the reason it is so difficult to describe George Washington is because as he did his best to walk the Christian journey throughout his life God worked miracles and moved American history in the intended direction. As Washington wrote after the war, I have only been an instrument in the hands of Providence.*¹⁰ What Daniel Webster missed in his eloquent address was that America did not furnish the world with the character of George Washington, God did. Washington was simply His humble servant. It was God, not man, that had given America to be free!

* {Providence or Divine Providence is defined as the hand of God that guides the affairs of man. It is the will of God being worked out in the world through man’s interaction with God, his fellow man, and with nature in conjunction with man’s free will. God is creator and the power sustaining and guiding human destiny.¹}

Perhaps the most accurate description of Washington was made by an uneducated but observant man by the name General Daniel Morgan. Morgan had known Washington from his days during in the French and Indian war in the Virginia Regiment and had served in the Continental Army throughout the Revolutionary War. He stated:

We had officers of great military talents, as for instance, Greene and others; we had officers of the most consummate courage and enterprise in spirit, as, for instance, Wayne and others. One was yet necessary, to guide, direct and animate the whole, and it pleased Almighty God to send that one in the person of George Washington.¹¹

Washington had been raised up and trained by God to be used for His greater purpose. For that reason, it is important for us to understand God’s hand behind the endeavors of Washington and the other Founders, the Biblical truths they stood for, and were willing to die for. Also of importance is the advice they shared for the survival of the Republic. Washington wrote that Heaven has crowned (more blessings upon the country) ... than any other nation has ever been favored.¹² But,

The cup of blessing is thus reached out to us, notwithstanding happiness is ours, if we have a disposition to seize the occasion and make it our own; yet, it appears to me there is an option still left to the United States of America, that it is in their choice.¹³

— George Washington

What Washington tried to convey to his country and to future generations was that our destiny as a nation was intimately tied to and dependent on the religion of Jesus Christ. There is a destiny, Washington wrote in confidence to Sally Fairfax, which has the control of our actions, not to be resisted by the strongest efforts of human nature.¹⁴ There was a destiny he witnessed in his own life and national destiny which God had shared with him glimpses of. A summary of Washington’s words provide a gleam of light on our national destiny:

The Hand of Providence has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge His obligations.¹⁵

No nation upon earth ever had it more in its power to attain these blessings than United America. Wondrously strange, then, and much to be regretted indeed would it be, were we to neglect the means, and to depart from the road, which Providence has pointed out to us so plainly. I cannot believe it will ever come to pass. ... By folly and improper conduct, proceeding from a variety of causes, we may now and then get bewildered; but I hope and trust that there is good sense and virtue enough left to recover the right path before we shall be entirely lost.¹⁶

But as he forewarned future generations:

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.¹⁷

I should be pained to believe that they have forgotten that agency, which was so often manifested during our revolution, or that they [American people] failed to consider the omnipotence of that God who is alone able to protect them.¹⁸

The country’s creation to its progress has depended on God’s blessings and grace. Our future history and our survival as a nation will ultimately depend on God’s blessings and grace. It was Washington and the country’s destiny in his day and this remains our shared destiny as a people and a nation. It is a destiny that we should not and cannot escape.

Chapter 2

Washington’s Family Lineage and his Young Restless Years

By the hand of God, George Washington was born into a family of wealth, with well placed political connections in Virginia. For Washington to have his tall, imposing, physical build towering over most of his peers, a good genetic lineage was required. For Washington’s family to be in Virginia, politically well-connected to the House of Burgesses and later the Fairfax family, and for Washington to have amassed such a large land inheritance and financial base over three generations, which gave him financial freedom was not by accident. It was planned. Washington’s financial good fortune would later be put to good use toward the cause of God and country. For if he had not been born into a family of privilege, he would not have had the financial means to serve as commander-in-chief for free, finance his personal expenses during the Revolutionary War (reimbursed after the war), pay some soldiers out of his own pocket, assist in launching six schooners of the Massachusetts Navy during the war and attend the later Continental Congress.

The history of George Washington’s family lineage in America started back about seventy-five years before his birth with his great-grandfather John Washington’s swim to safety. John Washington the son of an English clergyman, who was short on money, took job on a merchant ship bound for the Virginia Colony. Loaded with tobacco for the return voyage, the ship was caught in a sudden storm off the Virginia coast and sank in 1657. By good fortune or divine plan,

The ship sank near the Cliffs, a plantation owned by Nathaniel Pope. Pope befriended the young Washington and, fortunately for John, had a marriageable daughter named Anne. John and Anne were married in 1658 and received a wedding gift of 700 acres on Mattox Creek from her father. John and Anne had five children ..., two died in childhood and whose names are unknown. After Anne’s death in 1668/9, John married twice more before his death in 1677.¹

It was by good fortune that John chose to stay in America, as his father was a Royalist who quickly fell out of favor when Oliver Cromwell’s Parliament overthrew the king in 1656.² During his lifetime, John was active in local politics and served for a time in the Virginia House of Burgesses. He actively acquired land and, by the time of his death, owned more than 8,500 acres.³

John Washington’s oldest son was Lawrence Washington who as the firstborn male child would, by tradition, inherit the majority of the estate. Lawrence was sent to England where he received a formal education. He married Mildred Warner (whose father had been speaker of Virginia’s House of Burgesses), eventually becoming sheriff, justice, and Burgess. He died at age 38, leaving his estate to Mildred (Warner) and his three children. John, his eldest, received the home tract and other lands; his second born, Augustine (George Washington’s father), received about 1,100 acres. Little sister Mildred, then an infant, received about 2,500 acres.⁴

Augustine Washington (George Washington’s father) was four years old at the time of his father’s death. His mother Mildred, widowed with three children, soon married George Gale. Gale returned to his home in Whitehaven, Cumberland, England with his new wife and stepchildren. George [Gale] intended to keep the children in England, and it seemed certain that Augustine Washington would not return to America in his formative years, if ever. George Gale sought proper schooling for his step children and he enrolled them in the prestigious Appleby School in Westmoreland, England. Life in England seemed very promising for young Augustine Washington until he was faced with a second tragedy. His mother Mildred died in 1701, only three years after his father Lawrence’s death. Augustine, at age 8, had already endured the loss of both parents.⁵

By an odd twist of fate, Augustine Washington would return to rural Virginia in 1706.

Lawrence Washington provided that upon the death of he and his wife, his estate should revert to, and be managed by his first cousin John Washington of Chotank, King George County [then Stafford County] Virginia. Upon learning of the death of his cousin’s wife, John dispatched George Gale and the Courts of Stafford County, petitioning for the legal adoption of young Augustine and his older brother and younger sister under the terms of Lawrence Washington’s will. The courts found in favor of John, and George Gale relinquished custody of Augustine."⁶

Augustine Washington married Jane Butler in 1715. Together they had four children, of which only two, Lawrence and Augustine Jr., would live to adulthood. Augustine’s first wife Jane died in 1729. Augustine Washington was described as a blond six-footer, very tall for his day. He was also noted for his great physical strength and kindly disposition.⁷ Following the death of his first wife, Jane, he married Mary Ball in 1731. She was an imposing woman, known to be an extremely self-willed,⁸ determined and at times high tempered. They had six children, with George Washington being the firstborn born on February 22, 1732, in Popes Creek, Virginia in Westmoreland County. His sister Betty was born in 1733, followed by Samuel in 1734, John Augustine in 1736, Charles in 1737, and Mildred in 1739. Mildred would not live to adulthood.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you.

— Jeremiah 1:5 RSV

Washington was born into a Christian family at a time when the country was experiencing a massive spiritual reawakening in God, which was known as the First Great Awakening (1730-1770). His mother Mary Ball Washington was strong willed especially in area of religion and religious education. She took a personal hand in teaching and instilling a set of strong moral and religious teachings in her children. His father spent much time and took great pains to teach George to be unselfish, to inspire him with love and truth, and to teach him to know and worship God.⁹ After his father’s death,

his religious instruction was turned over to his mother. ...She taught George the Bible. She taught him to pray. She taught him from the prayer book of the Anglican Church, of which they were faithful members.¹⁰

His mother Mary would have the most influence on George’s spiritual, and religious formation. "She also taught him from various devout and Godly books such as the famous book titled Contemplations: Moral and Divine by Sir Matthew Hale, a leading jurist in England. Washington kept that book all of his life. The volume, copiously underlined, was found in the library at Mount Vernon after his death.¹¹ Also found was a small book, pages of prayers that were carefully written in Washington’s own hand when he was about 20 years of age.¹²

Washington’s closest and most influential siblings were his half-brother Lawrence and John Augustine, nicknamed Jack. Most of his education was from his home schooling or self-taught with activities of the plantation and from family members. He learned a lot from his older brother and mentor, Lawrence. George was likely looking forward to a formal education in England, much like his half-brother Lawrence. God, it seems, may have had other plans. Any hopes for a formal education in England were quickly dashed when his father Augustine died in 1743. At the formative age of eleven, he went to live with his half-brother Lawrence, a respected captain in the British Army. Lawrence had married Ann Fairfax, daughter of one of the most politically influential families and the largest land owner in Virginia. It would be those family connections that started him in a job surveying and then later military adventures. Lord Fairfax’s daughter, Sally, was his first love. While Washington later took note of the workings of the hand of providence (God) in his life, this one single event would cast his lot and set his course as a future military leader. The sudden death of his father and move to his half-brother Lawrence’s plantation at Mount Vernon proved to be fortuitous for his future political, financial, and military career as well as for the future republic.

Washington’s limited education, cut short by his father’s death, was unsettling throughout his entire life. It proved to be awkward at times for him, especially in prominent social circles. To make up for his educational deficiencies, he learned from what was available. For an early handwriting exercise, he copied The Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation, written by French Jesuits in 1595, which he commited to memory. While his moral religious beliefs instilled by his mother formed his foundation, The Rules of Civility became the basis for much of his social interaction. Years later, many a foreign dignitary was impressed with Washington as a gentleman and with his social graces, considering his lack of formal training, sparse education, and backwoods upbringing. Others, like John Adams, who knew him better and were perhaps jealous of his reputation, said that he was, too illiterate, too unlearned, too unread for his station and reputation.¹³

Washington’s lack of a formal education, and his feeling of inadequacy, proved to be one of his greatest strengths. It added to his quiet humility, which was one of his most admired personal traits. It was his quiet humility and his self-sacrifice that years later helped to hold a nation together around his moral courage. Below are some excerpts from 110 rules from his schoolbook, The Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation.

Every action done in company ought to be with some sign of respect to those that are present; In the presence of others, sing not to yourself with a humming voice, or drum with your fingers or feet; If you cough, sneeze, sigh or yawn, do it not loud but privately, and speak not in your yawning, but put your handkerchief or hand before your face and turn aside; Kill no vermin, or fleas, lice, ticks, etc. in the sight of others; If you see any filth or thick spittle put your foot dexterously upon it; if it be upon the clothes of your companions, put it off privately, and if it be upon your own clothes, return thanks to him who puts it off; In putting off your hat to persons of distinction, as noblemen, justices, churchmen, etc., make a reverence, bowing more or less according to the custom of the better bred, and quality of the persons.

Among your equals expect not always that they should begin with you first, but to pull off the hat when there is no need is affectation. In the manner of saluting and resaluting in words, keep to the most usual custom; Let your discourse with men of business be short and comprehensive; Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for ‘tis better to be alone than in bad company; Let your conversation be without malice or envy, for ‘tis a sign of a tractable and commendable nature, and in all causes of passion permit reason to govern; Never express anything unbecoming, nor act against the rules moral before your inferiors; Utter not base and frivolous things among grave and learned men, nor very difficult questions or subjects among the ignorant, or things hard to be believed; stuff not your discourse with sentences among your betters nor equals; Undertake not what you cannot perform but be careful to keep your promise.

In company of those of higher quality than yourself, speak not ‘til you are asked a question, then stand upright, put off your hat and answer in few words; Speak not evil of the absent, for it is unjust; Speak not of doleful Things in a Time of Mirth or at the Table; Speak not of Melancholy Things as Death and Wounds, and if others Mention them Change if you can the Discourse tell not your Dreams, but to your intimate Friend.

Cleanse not your teeth with the tablecloth, napkin, fork or knife, but if others do it, let it be done with a pick tooth; Be not angry at table whatever happens and if you have reason to be so, show it not but on a cheerful countenance especially if there be strangers, for good humor makes one dish of meat a feast; If others talk at table be attentive, but talk not with meat in your mouth; When you speak of God or His attributes, let it be seriously and with reverence. Honor and obey your natural parents although they be poor; Let your recreations be manful not sinful; Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.¹⁴

By the age of fourteen, George Washington was restless and looking for adventure. He was perhaps trying to emulate his half-brother Lawrence when he attempted to join the British Navy.

Such youthful plans, however, were not to be. He had his bags packed and was ready to go when his mother put a stop to his navy enlistment. In honor and respect of his mother and her wishes, he did not join the navy. Soon his interests and ambitions turned to surveying. Fortunately, George inherited his father’s surveying instruments. ... He quickly learned the elements of surveying in 1746-47 and began to run lines at Ferry Farm.¹⁵

Lord Thomas Fairfax had recently arrived in the colonies to oversee a family land grant from King Charles II. He had inherited a large grant of land containing over 5,272,000 acres which was in an area lying between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers and extending west to the origins of both rivers.¹⁶ Thomas Fairfax planned to have the land surveyed and sold as farm-sized lots. Impressed by Washington, and his talents and surveying abilities, Fairfax hired him to survey land over the Blue Ridge Mountains and to survey the fertile lands of the Shenandoah Valley. At the age of sixteen, Washington accompanied George William Fairfax and surveyor James Genn to the wilderness territory.

In 1748, Lord Thomas Fairfax, as somewhat of a father figure in Washington’s life, responded to a letter from Mary Ball Washington looking into the possibility of temporary residence for her son in England. Lord Fairfax added his observations of George Washington. He wrote:

I should be sorry your son were exposed to (renowned gamblers and rakes), even if his means easily admitted of a residence in England. He is strong and hardy, and as good a master of a horse as any could desire. His education might have been bettered, but what he has is accurate and inclines him to much life out of doors. He is very grave for one of his age, and reserved in his intercourse; not a great talker at any time. His mind appears to me to act slowly, but, on the whole, to reach just conclusions, and he has an ardent wish to see the right of questions—what my friend Mr. Addison was pleased to call the intellectual conscience. Method and exactness seem to be natural to George. He is, I suspect, beginning to feel the sap rising, being in the spring of life, and is getting ready to be the prey of your sex, wherefore may the Lord help him, and deliver him from the nets those spiders, called women, will cast for his ruin. I presume him to be truthful because he is exact. I wish I could say that he governs his temper. He is subject to attacks of anger on provocation, and sometimes without just cause; but as he is a reasonable person, time will cure him of this vice of nature, and in fact he is, in my judgment, a man who will go to school all his life and profit thereby I hope, madam, that you will find pleasure in what I have written, and will rest assured that I shall continue to interest myself in his fortunes.¹⁷

By the age of seventeen Washington was surveyor of Culpepper Country. He did surveying work for Lord Fairfax and for the Ohio Company in the Allegheny Mountains. He made his first land purchase in 1750 at the age of eighteen.

By an odd twist of fate or divine hand, George Washington inherited Mount Vernon. His half-brother Lawrence was dying of tuberculosis. In the hopes of relieving his symptoms and possibly curing him of the disease, Washington accompanied Lawrence to Barbados in September of 1751. When Lawrence finally succumbed to the disease and died early in 1752, Washington had to deal with the death of his closest brother and military role model. In addition to the emotional toll, he contracted smallpox and became very sick. He survived the disease, but it took him over two years to fully recover and left his face scarred for life. However, his exposure to smallpox did help him later in life, especially during the American Revolutionary War. While many succumbed to the smallpox epidemic and died during the war, he was immune. One other advantage of his trip to Barbados was that he had a chance to personally inspect the British military installations and talk with many of the officers.

When Lawrence died the estate passed to his infant heir, Sarah, the one surviving child of four that had been born to Lawrence and his wife, Ann Fairfax.

Under Lawrence’s will, Ann received a life interest in Mount Vernon and the use of one-half of the property’s slaves; the rest of his estate was left to Sarah. The will stipulated further that if Sarah died before her mother Mount Vernon would pass to George Washington. If Sarah died childless, part of the estate would descend to her mother and part would be divided between Augustine and George Washington. As it turned out, Sarah died in 1754 at age 4. ... Ann remarried to George Lee (1714-1761).¹⁸

As executor of his brother’s estate, George Washington worked out an agreement to rent Mount Vernon from Ann in 1754. He took ownership of the estate after Ann Fairfax Lee’s death in 1761.

Chapter 3

The French and Indian War

Upon his return from Barbados, George Washington took over the plantation operations at Mount Vernon. Influenced by his recent trip to Barbados, or the attempted French Invasion* (French Armada) *{See Book Two, Chapter One, The French Invasion of America in 1746} of New England in 1746, he decided to follow in Lawrence’s footsteps. With no military experience, he lobbied Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia for a position with the Virginia militia. He was appointed to a position as major shortly before the first shots were fired in the French and Indian War. In the divine order of things, less than a year later, he would be deeply involved in the conflict. It would prove to be valuable military experience for the later Revolutionary War.

In 1753, the French began the construction of a fort in the Ohio country near Lake Erie. Within a few months, Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie learned that the French had a force of some 800 men and were in the process of building another fort to the south on the Allegheny River in British-claimed territory.¹

Washington volunteered for the dangerous mission of leading an expedition to the Ohio River to challenge the French claims to the Allegheny River Valley. It was a 500 mile journey over uncharted land, through ice and snow, during the coldest months of the year with a message for the French military officials that they did not want to hear. As a special envoy for Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie,

Washington set out from Williamsburg [October 31, 1753] with orders to deliver a message to the French commander complaining of their encroachments into British territory. In addition, he was to seek assistance from Indian leaders of the Six Nations to collect information on the construction of French forts and to provide intelligence on the numbers of French troops in the area. Major Washington delivered the governor’s letter to the French commander at Fort Le Boeuf, who asserted France’s claim to the valley and refused to withdraw.²

When Washington heard about the French plans to take possession of the Ohio Country and of their troop strength, he headed back immediately to warn Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie. In a risky and perhaps foolish move, he and a trapper named Christopher Gist split off from the main group and supplies to travel on foot to make better time. He was extremely fortunate to have made it back alive. They had to deal with ice-clogged rivers, deep snow, frigid temperatures, an assassination attempt, and roving bands of warriors in the woods. At one point, he wrote in his journal:

We fell in with a Party of French Indians, who had lain in wait for us; one of them fired at ... me, not 15 steps, but fortunately missed.³

Gist wished to kill him. Washington could not bear to see a man killed. So the brave was set off in one direction while Gist and Washington ran in another. For a long time they dared not light a campfire. They moved sometimes separately, sometimes together, ever wary of an Indian attack.⁴

Crossing one river by raft, an ice jam caused Washington to be thrown overboard into the ice-cold water. When Washington climbed back aboard the raft, Mr. Gist said it is a miracle that he was not drowned, to which Washington responded that he was cool enough for now and that he would not despair so long as I remember that one faithful saint [his mother] is praying for me.⁵ Before his trip, his mother’s parting words to him were remember that God is our sure trust, To Him I commend you. ... My son, neglect not the duty of secret prayer.⁶

It was a miracle that Washington did not drown being thrown into the icy river waters, and it was also a miracle he survived an assassination attempt by the Indian warrior at almost point blank-range. He arrived back at Williamsburg on January 16, 1754, reporting to Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie:

The wine ... soon banished the restraint which at first appeared in their conversation; and . . . they told me, that it was their absolute design to take possession of the Ohio ... They pretend to have an undoubted right to the river from a discovery made by one La Salle 60 years ago. ... [At a French fort further on, the commander] told me that the country belong’d to them; that no Englishman had a right to trade upon those waters; and that he had orders to make every person prisoner, who attempted it on the Ohio, or the waters of it.⁷

Washington kept a journal of his adventures, which was published in the Maryland Gazette in March and London in June of 1754 under the title, The Journal of Major George Washington. The journal George Washington sent to British officials by Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie of the French forces in Ohio and the translated French officers response being published earned him a great deal of notoriety in America, and in Britain as well. The following is a brief excerpt from his journal on crossing the river by raft:

There was no way for getting over but on a raft, which we set about, with but one poor hatchet, and got finished just after sun setting, after a whole day’s work; we got it launched, and on board of it, and set off; but before we were half way over, we were jammed in the ice in such a manner that we expected every moment our raft to sink, and ourselves to perish: I put out my setting pole to try to stop the raft, that the ice might pass by, when the rapidity of the stream threw it with so much violence against the pole, that it jerked me out into 10 feet water, but I fortunately saved myself by catching hold of one of the raft logs; notwithstanding all our efforts we could not get the raft to either shore, but were obliged, as we were near an island, to quit our raft and make to it. The cold was so extremely severe, that Mr. Gist had all his fingers, and some of his toes frozen, and the water was shut up so hard, that we found no difficulty in getting off the island on the ice in the morning.⁸

Washington was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and in April of 1754, he headed out with a group of 150 men led by Colonel Joshua Fry toward Ohio. Colonel Fry’s sudden death from injuries received from a fall from his horse, unexpectedly left Washington in command. They intercepted and surrounded a small party of French and Indian troops and battle immediately ensued. In a letter to his brother John Augustine on May 31, 1754, Washington wrote:

Since my last we arrived at this place, where three days ago we had an engagement with the French, that is, a party of our men with one of theirs. Most of our men were out upon other detachments, so that I had scarcely 40 men remaining under my command, and about 10 or 12 Indians; nevertheless we obtained a most signal victory. The battle lasted about 10 or 13 minutes, with sharp firing on both sides, till the French gave ground and ran, but to no great purpose. There were 12 of the French killed, among whom was Mons. de Jumonville (Ensign Jumonville), their commander, and 21 taken prisoners …

P. S. I fortunately escaped without any wound, for the right wing, where I stood, was exposed to and received all the enemy’s fire, and it was the part where the man was killed, and the rest wounded. I heard the bullets whistle, and, believe me, there is something charming in the sound.⁹

The party Washington and his troops ambushed was apparently a French diplomatic mission sent to meet the British. They had killed the French ambassador and nine others. The battle resulted in a pronounced escalation in tensions between the British and French, both in America, as well as in Europe. Unbeknownst to Washington and others at the time, they had just fired the first shots of the French and Indian war.

Intelligence had reached Washington that the French were erecting a fort [Fort Duquesne] at the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. He also had heard that they had enough manpower left to send eight hundred soldiers and four hundred Indians to annihilate Washington’s small army. In response, Washington and his small force of Virginia militiamen constructed a stockade fort at the edge of a clearing named Fort Necessity. It was an indefensible fort, hastily constructed in a bad location. Washington knew a French attack was imminent. He wrote Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie on May 29, 1754,

For my own part I can answer, I have a constitution hardy enough to encounter and undergo the most severe trials, and, I flatter myself, resolution to face what any man durst, as shall be proved when it comes to the test, which I believe we are on the borders of.¹⁰

As on earlier occasions, Washington also performed duties of chaplain. Twice a day, his little army were called to prayers in the fort, which he himself conducted. On the Sabbath, only works of necessity were performed; and he conducted religious services.¹¹ Washington was annoyed by the profanity and wickedness of his men.

He did not want their actions and spoken words to offend God and harm military discipline. He issued the following harsh order:

Colonel Washington has observed that the men of his regiment are very profane and reprobate. He takes this opportunity to inform them of his great displeasure at such practices; and assures them that, if they do not leave them off, they shall be severely punished. The officers are desired, if they hear any man swear for make use of an oath or execration, to order the offender twenty-five lashes immediately, without a court-martial. For a second offence he shall be more severely punished.¹²

The battle started about midday on July 3rd under a heavy rain with the French and Indians shooting from the hill down into the fort. He wrote, We continued this unequal fight ... with an enemy sheltered behind the trees, ourselves without shelter, in trenches full of water, in a settled rain, and the enemy galling us on all sides incessantly from the woods, till 8 o’clock at night when the French called for parley.¹³ Washington and his troops may have been saved by the driving rain by God in an unexpected way. The rain helped to quell the flames in the fort. The rain also soaked the powder stores and left his men-knee deep in water in the trenches.

The heavy rains and ceasefire enabled Washington to assess more clearly his hopeless situation. A third of his force—more than a hundred men—were dead or wounded. There was hardly any food or usable powder.¹⁴ By divine influence, or mercy, French officer Captain Louis Coulon de Villiers, in a surprise move offered a surrender agreement, which Washington refused to sign until amended. Perhaps it was a bad French to English translation, but in the agreement Washington signed, he agreed to the exchange the French prisoners, to stay out of said territory for one year, and admitted to the assassination of their diplomat, Jumonville.¹⁵ On July 4th, 1754, Washington and his men were sent home on foot as the French destroyed and burned the remainder of the fort. Some of Washington’s men were held captive to ensure the safe return of the French prisoners.

What Washington did not know at the time of the battle or surrender of Fort Necessity was that French commander Louis Coulon de Villiers was looking to avenge the death of his brother Ensign Jumonville (Mon. de Jumonville). Jumonville was the French diplomat that Washington and his men had mortally wounded in the ambush a little over a month earlier. Ensign Jumonville was killed by a tomahawk blow to the head from the Indian Half King who had accompanied George Washington and his men. For the French captain to offer a surrender agreement when he wanted revenge for his brothers death and when his soldiers had Washington and his men pinned down and outnumbered was unexpected. Given another day, the French and Indians would likely have won the battle. How different world history might have turned out had the French decided to do away with this green soldier when they had cause and opportunity! Instead, twenty-two years later, the French would again come to the aid of George Washington in his war of revolution against England.¹⁶

Soon after his return, the king reduced the rank on the provincial officers, giving preference to the British