Topics: Presidents

Sermon – Death of George Washington – 1800

Peter Thacher (1752-1802) graduated from Harvard (1769), was ordained pastor in Malden, MA (1770), and also served as pastor to the Brattle Street church (1785-1802). He was a supporter of the Americans during the Revolution, preaching a sermon against standing armies and publishing a “Narrative of the Battle of Bunker Hill.” Thacher was also a delegate to the Massachusetts state constitution convention (1780) and served as chaplain to one or the other of the branches of the state legislature for 15 years. The following sermon was preached by Thacher after George Washington’s death.

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SERMON

Occasioned By The Death Of

General George Washington,

And Preached Feb. 22, 1800, By Their Direction,

Before His Honor MOSES GILL, Esq. Commander in
Chief, the Honorable COUNCIL, the Honorable
SENATE and HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Of The

Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

BY PETER THACHER, D.D.
Chaplain to the General Court.

 

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.

In Senate, Feb. 24th, 1800.

 

Ordered, That Jona. Mason, Esq. with such as the Hon. House may join, be a Committee to wait on the Rev. Doct. Thacher, and present him the thanks of the Legislature for the Discourse he delivered on the 22d instant, before His Honor the Lieutenant Governor, the Hon. Council, and the two branches of the General Court, and request a copy for the press.

EDWARD M’LEAN, Clerk of Senate.

 

SERMON

II. CHRONICLES, XXXV. 25.

And they spake of Josiah in their lamentations to the day, and made them an ordinance in Israel.

We cannot wonder that the people of Israel were thus deeply affected by the death of a good prince who was their warm friend and their great benefactor. Josiah was the common centre around which every good citizen of Judah revolved; and on him they relied, under God, to defend their country if invaded from abroad, and to crush, with the weight of his name, and virtues, faction and rebellion at home.

How melancholy is the reflection that in the universal dominion of death over the human race, men of the most sublime virtues and most illustrious talents, are not only subjected to it, but frequently become the more early victims of his power; while some others who cumber the ground, and infest society, still live to disturb and distress all around them! We cannot comprehend the designs of Providence! It becomes us only to submit and to adore, to bow before the throne of the highest, encircled as it may be with the thickest clouds, and to know that “the Judge of all the earth will do right.”

Alas! that the empire of death is so universal; that the wise and the prudent, the brave and the virtuous, must submit to its power, as well as “the fool and the brutish person.” It is indeed “appointed unto all me once to die, and there is no discharge in that war.”

When the power of the king of terrors is exercised over those who, like Josiah, where highly esteemed and fondly beloved; when it levels, with its fatal wand, the men who stood high above their fellow mortals, and removes to their long home those whose services and suffering had purchased the freedom and happiness of a nation, we cannot be surprised that uncommon grief should possess the heart, and uncommon tokens of mourning should be displayed.

The people of Judah, not content with simply committing their hero to the tomb, and bedewing his hearse with the tears which a recent loss occasions, resolved to manifest their grief by long an uncommon mourning. All Judah and Jerusalem we are told, mourned for Josiah. They attended his remains to the sepulcher of his fathers, with deep and solemn grief. But they did not cease the expressions of it, when the clods of the valley covered him, and the grave concealed him from their view. But, “led by Jeremiah, the prophet of the Lord, they lamented for Josiah.” Determined to perpetuate their gratitude, “the singing men and women (the poets and historians of that age) spake of Josiah in their lamentations to the very day” in which the chronicles were written. This was many years after the death of Josiah; probably after the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, when the sacred cannon was completed, under the auspices of heaven, by Ezra the high priest of the Lord.

When we lose those who are peculiarly dear to us, and those whom we highly honor, we cannon endure the idea of their being forgotten. We determine that they shall live in our remembrance, and that their names shall be transmitted with honor and respect to the “generations which are yet to be born.” It is a sentiment similar to these which led our civil fathers to institute the religious solemnities in which we are now engaged. Some weeks have elapsed since we were deprived of the great and good man who was so long the pride and the father of his country. Everything which gratitude could dictate, affection inspire and eloquence express has already been said and done on this occasion. The service before me is therefore a difficult one.

But, this solemnity is of a religious nature. The humble worship of the Deity is our object, and a moral improvement of a death so affecting, our design in the exercise before us. My duty is not that of the eulogists, whose classic elegance and glowing description have drawn the character of the illustrious dead, and richly emblazoned his fame. No; it belongs to the present discourse to lead our thoughts from earth to heaven; to adore the divine sovereignty; to acknowledge his gracious hand in all that the departed was himself and did for us; and to point out the lessons of wisdom, from earth to heaven; to adore the divine sovereignty; to acknowledge his gracious hand in all that the departed was himself and did for us; and to point out the lessons of wisdom, civil and religious, which we may learn from the affecting event!

The sovereignty of God, like the thunders and lightnings and thick cloud which surrounded him on Mount Sinai, veils from our eyes many of the motives which influence the divine conduct, and operate in the government of the world. Without control or restraint he does his pleasure in heaven above and on earth beneath. God is absolute and unlimited in hi will and purposes., himself the first cause, the source, the fountain of all existence and energy, he has communicated to his creatures whatever they possess, and the highest archangel in heaven is as entirely subjected to the divine sovereignty as the meanest reptile on earth. “God is a rock, and his work is perfect.” The plan of his government is fixed beyond alteration, and all creatures are in his hands as the “clay is in the hands of the potter.”

The divine sovereignty would be a doctrine f terror and distress to us, did we not know that it resided in a being perfectly wise and essentially good. It is not the exercise of power, prompted by caprice, actuated by resentment, or dictated by folly. It is the result of infinite wisdom which beholds the past, the present and the future at one view, which beholds the past, the present and the future at one view, which knows the nature and the consequences of all events, and will bring them to pass in the time and by the means which are most honorary to him, and the most beneficial to his creatures. Viewed in this light, the sovereignty of God should calm our hearts, engage our trust, command our obedience, and elevate our affections. With the inhabitants of heaven we should in humble devotion and grateful rapture, exclaim “Alleluia, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!”

In all the circumstances which relate to the world and to man, from the revolution of a kingdom to the lighting of a sparrow, we view and should acknowledge this sovereign providence of the most HIGH. “In him we live and move and have our being.” We are supported by his bounty, defended by his power, pardoned by his grace and sanctified by his spirit. Surrounded by his immensity, we are always before his eyes. He upholds us in life. His “visitation preserves our spirits.” And he has determined the bounds of our habitations which we cannot pass.”

Death is an interesting period to us all, and for wise purposes we are made to dread its approaches. When its icy hand is laid upon us, or when its fatal vortex swallows up those who are dear to us as ourselves, then we should realize the sovereignty of God. “Behold, he taketh away, who can hinder him? There is no man who hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit in the day of death.” When the decree goes forth from the eternal throne, when the “time, the set time” is come, then the grim tyrant performs his fatal office. The prayers and tears of an assembled nation; the fondest affection of immediate friends; the most brilliant virtues; the most illustrious character; the esteem and honor and veneration of a world cannot for a moment arrest the progress of prevent the approach of death! The great and the small; the high and the low, the rich and the poor, bow their heads and die!

But under the exercise of this act of sovereignty, at a day of lamentation like the present, let us contemplate the wisdom and goodness and righteousness of God “He is in heaven and we are upon earth, and therefore it becomes us that our words should be few.” Our understandings, darkened by sin and clogged with the ways of God. But submission to his will becomes us who “are of yesterday, and know nothing.” We are as certain as he exists that God cannot do wrong. When therefore we mourn a loss like that which now covers America with sadness, we are to submit without a murmur to those dispensations which we cannot comprehend, and keep “our hearts fixed, trusting in the Lord.”

But when, in our lamentations, we speak of the friends, the patrons whom we have lost, we cannot fail to recollect their amiable characters and their excellent virtues.

Let us constantly remember that God is the source of all virtue and of all excellency; that mortals are good in themselves and useful to us as he makes them to be so. We may meditate with pleasure on their virtues. We may remember them with the warmest esteem and tenderest affection; but we should never be unmindful, that to every talent of nature, of reason and of art, descends from him who is “the father of our spirits, the former of our bodies, and the author of all our mercies.”

We mourn this day “a prince and a great man fallen in our Israel;” a man more truly elevated in the esteem of the world than any monarch who wields a scepter, or any hero who commands an army! The people of America have borne witness to his numerous virtues; and now, we will summon his illustrious shade to aid us in support of the religion which he honored, and to make those men virtuous and good whom he was instrumental of making free and happy.

Too often the public virtues of great character are clouded by private views. Sometimes those who are most useful to the world, and whose solid services and brilliant talents, compel our respect and admiration, prove themselves in the more retired walks of life to be “weak like other men.” It is happy for America, now she mourns her darling son, that not even the envenomed tongue of malice, battening on the faults of its neighbours, nor the rageful voice of party, more cruel than the grave itself, can assail the fair fame of the man whom she laments! In the domestic relations; in his private dealings; in his daily department, you always beheld him discreet, amiable dignified! He shone, not with the lustre which dazzles courts and armies, but with the purer, the more honorable rays of private virtue.

Was it not a sense of religion which led out late excellent friend to acknowledge, when at the head of our armies, and more lately when he presided in the nation, our absolute dependence upon the God of providence, ascribing the honor of his victories and our deliverance to him who “setteth up one and putteth down another!” In his public instruments; in his last precious legacy to his country and in his private conversation he expressed the deepest reverence for the infinite and eternal being who is “in all and over all, and by whom all things consist.” His constant attendance on the Christian church, is reverend observation of the Lord’s Day, as well as his whole behavior, demonstrated his belief in the religion of the Cross.

“He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.” Never does a man appear so truly great as when he subdues those passions which infuriate others, and hurry them to the most fatal excesses. And here our beloved chief discovered true greatness, and placed before our eyes and illustrious example. His mildness, his patience, his impartial benignity enabled him to control the passions of others, and reconcile contending interests. His self command enabled him to rule those who did not possess their own minds. A reserve, partly the gift of nature and partly the effect of prudent habit, prevented him from betraying his own purposes or expressing sudden and unfruitable feelings. His patient endurance of wrong from the envious and the mistake, made him their superior, and converted his enemies into friends. The enemies of his country I mean; personal enemies he had none.

“He that walketh uprightly, walketh surely.” The blessing of God, the favor of men, and the testimony of a good conscience are the consequences of an honest and faithful discharge of our duty. These consequences of his integrity did our late excellent President enjoy. Neither wealth nor flattery nor clamour nor violence could corrupt his heart, or detach him from his duty. Honestly did he exert his whole power and influence to serve his country, nor can an instance be produced of his having neglected its concern, or betrayed its interests.

It is recorded of Naaman that “by him God gave deliverance to Syria.” And him whom we mention in our lamentations this day, God made the principal agent in giving freedom and deliverance to America. A soldier in early life, when he was highly useful to his native province, he possessed a cool judgment and a determined courage. Without the ardent impetuosity, the furious valour which some times give success to folly and prosperity to injustice, he was intrepidly brave. His love of liberty, his well known military talents, led the venerable band of patriots who, at the commencement of the revolution, conducted our councils, to consign to him the chief command of the American forces. Many of us remember this period, when at the hazard of his life and fortune, he first headed our feeble armies — “Gallant mortal” — how did our souls love him when first we beheld him on yonder plains flying to the relief of the oppressed, and defending the freedom of his country! How anxiously did we watch his footsteps through the dangers of our revolution, and how did our hearts warm with gratitude to heaven to him, when we found that the soldier had not destroyed the citizen; that the lust of power which led so many generals, the Caesars of old and the Cromwells of later days, to destroy their country and advance themselves, had no existence in his noble bosom; but that he could cheerfully resign his brilliant and flattering command, and seek the shades of private life! — Tither did he modestly retire from the applauses of his country and the world, and shook from his venerable brow the laurels which oppressed him!

To such a man it was self denial to leave the happiness and the security of private life, and again to enter on the fatigues and hazards of elevated station. — But the call of his country General WASHINGTON never declined. The unanimous suffrages of his fellow citizens (an election without a parallel in the history of the world) selected him to administer the free and excellent constitution of government which he had assisted in forming. In the cabinet he shone equally as in the field. The interests of the Union and of several States he guarded with tenderest care. Our foreign relations he conducted with a temperate firmness which defeated the designs of faction, crushed the efforts of rebellion, and prevented us from being fatally affected with the convulsions which have shaken Europe to its centre, and agitated the whole world!

Like Joshua, the brave leader of Israel to independence and Canaan; like David, the intrepid defender of his country; our late illustrious chief, when manly dignity and patriotic affection he retired from the chair of government, left a legacy the most valuable and important to his country. While we are governed by the moral and religious principles, and preserve the policy with respect to our internal and external affairs which he recommends, we shall be free and happy. When we leave them to adopt other principles and maxims, we shall deserve any consequences which may take place.

No man’s character is fully ascertained till his death. And happy is he who dies as he has lived in the exercise of firmness of spirit and benevolence of heart. So died our beloved friend! Without the sickness long debility which sometimes precede death; in the full exercise of reason, of humanity and patriotism, he suddenly encountered the universal conqueror. He submitted, for resistance was vain! — But nobly, and like a hero he submitted! — Great in his last moments, with his own hands he closed his own eyes, and gave up the Ghost!! — Happy man! Useful and beloved in live, calm and composed in death, embalmed with the tears of thy friends and thy country, God did bless thee above other mortals!

And now, let us make a solemn pause in our lamentation, and amidst our grief acknowledge the goodness of God in raising up this great man, in qualifying him so essentially for the service of his county, and continuing him to us for so many years. On this day when we used to celebrate his birth with warm and grateful pleasure, we feel his loss most deeply. But, now much more deeply should we have felt it, had he been taken away from us at any period of our revolutionary war; or when the whole weight of his influence and character was necessary to preserve us from being involved in the confusions of the European world, or when insurrection reared its hydra head, and threatened the most fatal of consequences?

But that God who has always been kind to America in raising up from among her own sons those who “naturally care for her state” and watchfully guard her interests, continued his life till a period when our excellent constitution is firmly established, and the prospects of disuniting and destroying us are greatly weakened. While we mention WASHINGTON in our lamentations this day, let us be thankful that so many great and good men in our Federal and State Governments are still spared to us; men whom God has qualified for eminent service, and called to fill the most important stations. Let us be thankful for the inestimable life, the un corrupted integrity, the superior wisdom, and the pure patriotism of Adams, the wise and the good who now presides over these states! May the Almighty continue him for many years, to be the father of his country, and the friend of mankind!

Let us be deeply humbled before God, this day, under the frowns of his providence in taking away men so great, so good, so useful as those whom we have lately been called to deplore.

When God removed from his ancient Israel “the stay and the staff, the mighty man and the man of war, the prudent and the ancient, the honorable man and the counsellor,” it was considered a token of the divine displeasure, and called not only for grief but humiliation. Great and good men are instruments in the hands of God to effect his purposes. They accomplish his will, and by them he does good to us. When they are taken away therefore, we ought to humble ourselves in his sight. When those by whom God has been used to do good to us are removed by death, have we not reason to fear that he means to deprive us of the good itself?

God is, we trust and hope, the guardian and friend of America, and his gracious favor is the palladium of our country. Its existence and prosperity do not depend upon any one man, or any number of men, let them be ever so wise or good. “The Lord is our defence, and the holy one of Israel is our king.” It is true that when we sustain the loss of such men as a WASHINGTON and a SUMNER, we are constrained to say, “Help Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, the faithful fail from among the children of men.” When those who “seemed to be pillars” are removed, we feel the goodly fabric of our government shaken. But, “the residue of the spirit is with God.” He gave us these excellent men. He continued them to us as long as he saw to be best. And not what he has taken them away, we will submit to the will of Heaven, and rely on him who has never forsaken us nor our fathers.

But surely when we mention the virtuous and the good in our lamentations, we should be stimulated to emulate their virtues, and be studious to follow their advices, founded on experience, wisdom and love of their country.

It is not to the parade of mourning, nor to the dictates of affectionate feeling only that we should this day attend. We ought to be made wiser and better by an event so affecting, and services so solemn as we are now performing. Our civil rulers have called us to celebrate the days of mourning for our beloved friend, in order to fix deeply in our minds a reverence for his character, and a respect to the principles which he practiced himself, and in his dying legacy recommended to us. You, especially, venerable fathers, who compose the executive and legislative powers of the commonwealth: You who so lately solemnized the obsequies of our own beloved Chief Magistrate, will suitably meditate on the uncertainty of human live, and the vanity of human greatness. You will feel the importance of faithfully discharging your whole duty, both public and private, so that you may be approved of God, and “accepted of the multitude of your brethren.” Go ye and imitate the self-command, the disinterestedness, the cool wisdom and warm patriotism of the man whom a nation this day laments. Go ye and serve God and your generation according to his will!” Go ye, continue in your uprightness, and still preserve the usefulness which gives us security and prosperity! — This is an awful and solemn scene! Here the supreme executive power and the high legislative authority of the Commonwealth, assemble in religious worship, to acknowledge and adore the governor of the universe under one of the most distressing events in his providence, and to condole each other on this melancholy dispensation. All the people of the Commonwealth unit this day in the expressions of their grief, and sympathize with their civil rulers on the great and universal bereavement! May our mourning be useful, and may we be “taught to profit by the things which we suffer.”

On imbibing the principles recommended by our late illustrious chief, equally distant from tyranny and licentiousness, depends the safety of our country. If we wish to be great among the nations abroad, and to be peaceful and happy at home, we must preserve inviolably our union. We must guard against improper foreign connections. We must maintain a spirit of mutual forbearance and good will, and must cultivate especially those principles of religion and morality which are the only solid cement of society, and the only firm foundation of liberty. Where God is neglected; where the religion of Christ is denied; where men are governed not by reason or religion, but by party views and furious passions, there may be the name of liberty, but the thing never can exist. If we are careful to preserve and to foster the universities the schools we now maintain : If we honor and respect the day and the ordinances of God: If we despise and neglect vice, and honor and support virtue : If we embrace the doctrines, and submit to the precepts of the Gospel, we shall be a happy people, and transmit our civil and religious liberties, a fair and large inheritance, to the latest posterity.

But while we sympathize with a nation in their afflictions, let us not forget the private distresses which this solemn event has occasioned. We mourn with the desolate widow, who is deprived of the “guide of her youth,” the friend of her riper years, and the most valuable of her earthly blessings! Calmly and with composure may she submit to this afflictive event; and sincer her attachments to earth are diminished, may she prepare to join the “desire of her eyes” in a better world! May his friends, his relatives, his domestics, while they mourn his loss, imitate his virtues, and may non who bear his illustrious name, tarnish its lustre, or bring disgrace upon it.

And now, friends and fellow-citizens, let us “cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils, for where is he to be accounted of!” If those who are the delights of their country and the veneration of the world : If men of the purest characters : I f those for whom prayers are continually ascending, that they may be spared and blessed: If they are taken away : If they are laid low in the dust, how shall we escape this common lot of humanity! If these cedars of Lebanon, “the height whereof reacheth up to heaven, and the fight thereof unto the ends of the earth:” If they bow and break what shall become of the “hyssop which springeth out of the wall!” — Surely we are hastening to the silent tomb, “the house appointed for all living!” We shall soon follow the friends whom we deplore, the wise and the good, whom we honor, through “the dark valley of the shadow of death!” — Let it be therefor our most earnest solicitude, to partake of the grace of the Gospel, to do our whole duty, and promote the welfare and happiness of our fellowmen, so that when we fall asleep, we may be “found of our judge in peace” and be “received into everlasting habitations!”

And now unto him, who is “prince of the kings of the earth,” “before whom” all nations are as the drop of the bucket, and the dust of the balance,” to the infinite, perfect and eternal mind, “the same yesterday, today, and forever,” be glory and honor, dominion and power, both now and forever.

AMEN.

The Death of General Braddock

Edward Braddock, the commander of the British forces who was killed in the Battle of Monongahela was hastily buried as the British retreated before the French and Indian army. George Washington, having been General Braddock’s Aid-De-Camp, filled in for the wounded chaplain and read the funeral prayers over General Braddock’s body.

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The litter on which he lay was set down, and his remaining officers gathered sadly around it. As a last token of gratitude to his young volunteer aid, for his noble devotion and heroism, he gave him a splendid charger and his own body servant. A brief farewell—a faint gasp—a weak struggle—and Braddock lay a corpse in the forest. A grave was hastily dug in the center of the road, to conceal it from the Indians, into which, with his sword lain across his breast, he was lowered. Young Washington read the funeral service by torchlight over him, the deep tones of his voice interrupted only by the solemn ‘amen’ of the surrounding officers—the open grave, and beside it the pale face of the sleeper, combined to form a scene at once picturesque and most solemn. A mark was left to designate the spot, and the army again defiled though the wilderness.1

For additional information about the Battle of Monongahela, check out The Bulletproof George Washington

Endnotes

1 Hon. J. T. Headley, The Illustrated Life of Washington (New York: G. & F. Bill, 1859), 60. See also, Washington Irving, Life of George Washington (New York: G. P. Putnam & Co., 1856), I:201.

Washington Reading Prayers in His Camp

The title of this picture is “Washington Reading Prayers in His Camp.” Even though the picture below may not be of a specific instance, there is documentation (located below the picture) to show that George Washington encouraged prayer amongst the troops and friendly Indian tribes.

 washington-reading-prayers-in-his-camp-1

William Fairfax, Washington’s paternal adviser, had recently counseled him by letter, to have public prayers in his camp;1 especially when there were Indian families there; this was accordingly done at the encampment in the Great Meadows and it certainly was not one of the least striking pictures presented in this wild campaign—the youthful commander, presiding with calm seriousness of a motley assemblage of half-equipped soldiery leather-clad hunters and woodsmen, and painted savages with their wives and children, and uniting them all in solemn devotion by his own example and demeanor.2

The first decisive indication of his principles on this subject, with which we are acquainted, appeared during the encampment at the Great Meadows, in the year 1754. While occupying Fort Necessity, it was his practice to have the troops assembled for public worship. This we learn from the following note, by the publisher of his writings. “While Washington was encamped at the Great Meadows, Mr. Fairfax wrote to him; ‘I will not doubt your having public prayers in the camp, especially when the Indian families are your guests, that they, seeing your plain manner of worship, may have their curiosity excited to be informed why we do not use the ceremonies of the French, which being well explained to their understandings, will more and more dispose them to receive our baptism, and unite in strict bonds of cordial friendship.’”
“It may be added, that it was Washington’s custom to have prayers in the camp while he was at Fort Necessity.”3

Endnotes

1 William Fairfax to George Washington, July 10, 1754, National Archives.
2 Washington Irving, Life of George Washington (New York: G. P. Putnam & Co., 1856), I:116.
3 E. C. M’Guire, The Religious Opinions and Character of Washington (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1836), 136, quoting: Jared Sparks, The Writings of George Washington (Boston: Russell, Odiorne, & Metcalf, 1834), 2:54.

Richard Henry Lee Copy of John Adams Letter

While serving as President of the Continental Congress in 1785, Richard Henry Lee wrote to John Adams, who was serving as ambassador to England, urging him to assure the Archbishop of Canterbury that Episcopalian Americans were not resistant to bishops appointed from England. This letter was enclosed with a letter sent by John Jay on November 1, 1785. On January 4, 1786, John Adams replied to John Jay with the account of his meeting with the Archbishop.

WallBuilders has Richard Henry Lee’s handwritten copy of John Adams’ January 4, 1786 letter. The below transcript has paragraph breaks added in for easier readability.

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Grosvenor Square Januy. 4 1786

Dear Sir,

A day or two after the receipt of your letter of Novb. 1, and that of Mr. Lee’s which came with it, I wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury, by Col. Smith, for an hour; when I might have the honor to pay my respects to his Grace – and was answered very politely that he would be glad to have the honor of seeing me, next day, between eleven and twelve. Accordingly, I went yesterday, and was very agreeably received by a venerable and a candid Prelate with whom I had before only exchanged visits of ceremony.

I told his Grace that at the desire of two very respectable characters in America, the late President of Congress and the present secretary of State for the department of foreign affairs, I had the honor to be the bearer to his Grace of a letter from a convention of delegates from the Episcopal Churches in most of the southern States; which had been transmitted to me open that I might be acquainted with its contents. – That in this business however, I acted in no official character, having no instructions from Congress nor indeed from the convention; but I thought it most respectful to them, as well as to his Grace, to present the letter in person. The Archbishop answered that all that he could say at present was, that he was himself very well disposed to give the satisfaction desired – for that he was by no means one of those who wished that contention should be kept up between the two countries or between one party and another in America – but on the contrary was desirous of doing every thing in his power to promote harmony and good humour.

I then said, that if his Grace would take the trouble of reading two letters, from Mr. Lee, and Mr. Jay; he would perceive the motives of those gentlemen in sending the letter to my care. – I gave him the letters, which he read attentively and returned, and added that it was a great satisfaction to him, to see that gentlemen of character and reputation interested themselves in it – for that the Episcopalians in the United States could not have the full and complete enjoyment of their religious liberties without it – and he subjoined, that it was also a great satisfaction to him to have received this visit from me upon this occasion and he would take the liberty to ask me, if it were not an improper question, whether the interposition of the English Bishops, would not give uneasiness and dissatisfaction in America. – I replied that my answer could be only that of a private citizen and in that capacity I had no scruple to say, that the people of the United States, in general, were for a liberal and generous toleration. I might indeed employ a stronger word, and call it a right, and the first right of mankind, to worship God according to their consciences – and therefore that I could not see any reasonable ground for dissatisfaction, and that I hoped and believed that there would be none of any consequence. His Grace was then pleased to say, that religion in all countries, especially a young one, ought to be attended to, as it was the foundation of government. – He hoped the characters which should be recommended would be good ones. – I replied that there were in the churches in America, able men of characters altogether irreproachable, and that such and such only, I presumed would be recommended.

I then rose to take my leave, and his Grace then asked me, if he might be at liberty to mention that I had made him this visit upon this occasion. I answered, certainly, if his Grace should judge it proper.

Thus, sir, I have fulfilled my commission, and remain as usual – your sincere friend and most obed servt.

John Adams.

A true copy
Richard Henry Lee.

Battle of Trenton

Below is a picture depicting George Washington in the Battle of Trenton. George Washington’s horse was wounded during the battle.1 The Battle of Trenton marked a significant victory for the American Army. They carried that momentum into another victory a few days later at the Battle of Princeton. Below is an account of God’s Divine protection of Washington.

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Historical Account

The heroism of Washington on the field of Princeton is matter of history. We have often enjoyed a touching reminiscence of that ever-memorable event from the late Colonel Fitzgerald. Who was aid to the chief, and who never related the story of his general’s danger and almost miraculous preservation, without adding to his tale the homage of a tear

The aid-de-camp had been ordered to bring up the troops from the rear of the column, when the band under General Mercer became engaged. Upon returning to the spot where he had left the commander-in-chief, he was no longer there. And, upon looking around, the aid discovered him endeavoring to rally the line which had been thrown into disorder by a rapid on-set of the foe.

Washington, after several ineffectual efforts to restore the fortunes of the fight, is seen to rein up his horse, with his head to the enemy, and in that position to become immovable. It was a last appeal to his soldiers, and seemed to say, Will you give up your general to the foe? Such an appeal was not made in vain. The discomfitted Americans rally on the instant, and form into line. The enemy halt, and dress their line.

The American chief is between the adverse posts, as though he had been placed there, a target for both. The arms of both lines are levelled. Can escape from death be possible? Fitzgerald, horror-struck at the danger of his beloved commander, dropped the reins upon his horse’s neck, and drew his hat over his face, that he might not see him die. A roar of musketry succeeds, and then a shout. It is the shout of victory.

The aid-de-camp ventures to raise his eyes, and 0, glorious sight! The enemy are broken and flying, while dimly amidst the glimpses of the smoke is seen the chief. “Alive, unharmed, and without a wound,” waving his hat, and cheering his comrades to the pursuit.

Colonel Fitzgerald, celebrated as one of the finest horsemen in the American army, now dashed his rowels in his charger’s flanks, and, heedless of the dead and dying in his way, flew to the side of his chief, exclaiming, “Thank God! your excellency is safe!” The favorite aid, a gallant and warm-hearted son of Erin, a man of thews and sinews, and “albeit unused to the melting mood,” now gave loose rein to his feelings, and wept like a child, for joy.

Washington, ever calm amid scenes of the greatest excitement, affectionately grasped the hand of his aid and friend, and then ordered—”Away, my dear colonel, and bring up the troops—the day is our own!”2

Endnotes

1 Bulletin of Information for Cavalry Officers (Washington: October 1920), 510.
2 George Washington Parke Custis, Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington, by His Adopted Son (New York: Derby & Jackson, 1860), 190-192.

Abraham Lincoln General Order

The following General Order was issued by President Abraham Lincoln on July 30, 1863. See an interesting print of the Emancipation Proclamation from the WallBuilders collection.

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GENERAL ORDERS,                              WAR DEPARTMENT,
No. 252.                                                           Adjutant General’s Office,
                                                                              Washington, July 31, 1863.

The following order of the President, is published for the information and government of all concerned:

Executive Mansion,
Washington, July 30, 1863.

It is the duty of every Government to give protection to its citizens, of whatever class, color, or condition, and especially to those who are duly organized as soldiers in the public service. The law of nations, and the usages and customs of war, as carried on by civilized powers, permit no distinction as to color in the treatment of prisoners of war as public enemies. To sell or enslave any captured person, on account of his color, and for no offence against the laws of war, is a relapse into barbarism, and a crime against the civilization of the age.

The Government of the United States will give the same protection to all its solders; and if the enemy shall sell or enslave any one because of his color, the offence shall be punished by retaliation upon the enemy’s prisoners in our possession.

It is therefore ordered, that for every solder of the United States killed in violation of the laws of war, a rebel soldier shall be executed; and for every one enslaved by the enemy or sold into slavery, a rebel soldier shall be placed at hard labor on the public works, and continued at such labor until the other shall be released and receive the treatment due to a prisoner of war.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By Order of the Secretary of War:

E. D. TOWNSED,
Assistant Adjutant General.

James Garfield Letter

James A. Garfield (1831-81) was an attorney, minister, educator, soldier, and the twentieth President of the United States. He experienced a dramatic conversion to Christianity in his youth while working on the Ohio canal and was later licensed as a minister in the Christian Church. He studied at Geauga Seminary in Ohio (1849); graduated from Williams College (1856); became a Professor of Ancient Languages and Literature in Hiram College, Ohio (1856); was President of Hiram College (1857-61); elected Ohio State Senator (1859); admitted to the bar (1860); entered the Union side in the Civil War as Lieutenant-Colonel (1861); won a victory at Middle Creek and gained the rank of Brigadier-General (1862); promoted to Major-General (1863) and then resigned; member of the U. S. House of Representatives (1863-80); elected the twentieth President of the United States (1880). Garfield was shot by an assassin at the Washington railroad station en route for a northern trip (1881) and died 81 days later.

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Hiram, Feb. 16th 1858

Dear Bro. Wallace

We have just closed our meeting with happy results. There were 34 addition[s]. 31 by immersion. I was sorry I could not be in Newburgh last Sunday, but it seemed to be my duty to stay here. Bro Dave Shu[?] tells me that the Brethren want me to hold a meeting in vacation. I have spoken 19 discourses in our meeting here – and this with all our work in the school has worn me down very much. I would not think of holding a meeting alone. And don’t know as I ought to help hold one. I will be in your place sometime next week and talk with you in reference to the matter of your letter. Which would have been answered sooner but for the meeting. I shall hope to visit Bedford also. Love to your family & believe me your brother,

J. A. Garfield

Andrew Carnegie Letter

Andrew Carnegie was known as a great businessman and entrepreneur. He was also well known for his philanthropic efforts. Below is a letter (and transcript) that Mr. Carnegie wrote after his receipt of Jefferson’s Life and Morals of Jesus Christ, which is sometimes referred to as the “Jefferson Bible.” (For more information about this letter, see The Jefferson Lies by David Barton.)

 

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July 18, 1907

Dr. Mr. Graham.

I was greatly pleased to receive the Jeffersonian Bible. He was only in advance of his time. Men will come to a selective Book free from the doors of ages past. Matthew Arnold favored this. Indeed the Chinese have already the “collects” of Confucius, perhaps you know it, translated by Prof. Legge of Cambridge.

With renewed thanks
Truly Yours
Andrew Carnegie
P.S. I think I acknowledged your kindness before last note may have miscarried.

Woodrow Wilson on the Christian Men’s Association

Woodrow Wilson on the Christian Men’s Association

This is the text of a speech Woodrow Wilson gave on October 24, 1914 at Pittsburg. The title of the speech is “The Power of Christian Young Men.” The speech can be found in Selected Addresses and Papers of Woodrow Wilson (New York: Boni and Liverlight, Inc, 1918) pp. 49-55.

Mr. President, Mr. Porter, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I feel almost as if I were a truant, being away from Washington to-day, but I thought that perhaps if I were absent the Congress would have the more leisure to adjourn. I do not ordinarily open my office at Washington on Saturday. Being a schoolmaster, I am accustomed to a Saturday holiday, and I thought I could not better spend a holiday than by showing at least something of the true direction of my affections; for by long association with the men who have worked for this organization I can say that it has enlisted my deep affection.

I am interested in [this organization] for various reasons. First of all, because it is an association of young men. I have had a good deal to do with young men in my time, and I have formed an impression of them which I believe to be contrary to the general impression. They are generally thought to be arch radicals. As a matter of fact, they are the most conservative people I have ever dealt with. Go to a college community and try to change the least custom of that little world and find how the conservatives will rush at you. Moreover, young men are embarrassed by having inherited their father’s opinions. I have often said that the use of a university is to make young gentlemen as unlike their fathers as possible. I do not say that with the least disrespect for the fathers; but every man who is old enough to have a son in college is old enough to have become very seriously immersed in some particular business and is almost certain to have caught the point of view of that particular business. And it is very useful to his son to be taken out of that narrow circle, conducted to some high place where he may see the general map of the world and of the interests of mankind, and there shown how big the world is and how much of it his father may happen to have forgotten. It would be worth while for men, middle-aged and old, to detach them selves more frequently from the things that command their daily attention and to think of the sweeping tides of humanity.

Therefore I am interested in this association, because it is intended to bring young men together before any crust has formed over them, before they have been hardened to any particular occupation, before they have caught an inveterate point of view; while they still have a searchlight that they can swing and see what it reveals of all the circumstances of the hidden world.

I am the more interested in it because it is an association of young men who are Christians. I wonder if we attach sufficient importance to Christianity as a mere instrumentality in the life of mankind. For one, I am not fond of thinking of Christianity as the means of saving individual souls. I have always been very impatient of processes and institutions which said that their purpose was to put every man in the way of developing his character. My advice is: Do not think about your character. If you will think about what you ought to do for other people, your character will take care of itself. Character is a by-product, and any man who devotes himself to its cultivation in his own case will become a selfish prig. The only way your powers can become great is by exerting them outside the circle of your own narrow, special, selfish interests. And that is the reason of Christianity. Christ came into the world to save others, not to save himself; and no man is a true Christian who does not think constantly of how he can lift his brother, how he can assist his friend, how he can enlighten mankind, how he can make virtue the rule of conduct in the circle in which he lives. An association merely of young men might be an association that had its energies put forth in every direction, but an association of Christian young men is an association meant to put its shoulders under the world and lift it, so that other men may feel that they have companions in bearing the weight and heat of the day; that other men may know that there are those who care for them, who would go into places of difficulty and danger to rescue them, who regard them selves as their brother’s keeper.

And, then, I am glad that it is an association. Every word of its title means an element of strength. Young men are strong. Christian young men are the strongest kind of young men, and when they associate themselves together they have the incomparable strength of organization. The Young Men’s Christian Association once excited, perhaps it is not too much to say, the hostility of the organized churches of the Christian world, because the movement looked as if it were so nonsectarian, as if it were so outside the ecclesiastical field, that perhaps it was an effort to draw young men away from the churches and to substitute this organization for the great bodies of Christian people who joined themselves in the Christian denominations. But after a while it appeared that it [the YMCA] was a great instrumentality that belonged to all the churches; that it was a common instrument for sending the light of Christianity out into the world in its most practical form, drawing young men who were strangers into places where they could have companionship that stimulated them and suggestions that kept them straight and occupations that amused them without vicious practice; and then, by surrounding themselves with an atmosphere of purity and of simplicity of life, catch something of a glimpse of the great ideal which Christ lifted when He was elevated upon the cross.

I remember hearing a very wise man say once, a man grown old in the service of a great church, that he had never taught his son religion dogmatically at any time; that he and the boy’s mother had agreed that if the atmosphere of that home did not make a Christian of the boy, nothing that they could say would make a Christian of him. They knew that Christianity was catching, and if they did not have it, it would not be communicated. If they did have it, it would penetrate while the boy slept, almost; while he was unconscious of the sweet influences that were about him, while he reckoned nothing of instruction, but merely breathed into his lungs the wholesome air of a Christian home. That is the principle of the Young Men’s Christian Association to make a place where the atmosphere makes great ideals contagious. That is the reason that I said, though I had forgotten that I said it, what is quoted on the outer page of the program that you can test a modern community by the degree of its interest in its Young Men’s Christian Association. You can test whether it knows what road it wants to travel or not. You can test whether it is deeply interested in the spiritual and essential prosperity of its rising generation. I know of no test that can be more conclusively put to a community than that.

I want to suggest to the young men of this association that it is the duty of young men not only to combine for the things that are good, but to combine in a militant spirit. There is a fine passage in one of Milton’s prose writings which I am sorry to say I can not quote, but the meaning of which I can give you, and it is worth hearing. He says that he has no patience with a cloistered virtue that does not go out and seek its adversary. Ah, how tired I am of the men who are merely on the defensive, who hedge themselves in, who perhaps enlarge the hedge enough to include their little family circle and ward off all the evil influences of the world from that loved and hallowed group. How tired I am of the men whose virtue is selfish because it is merely self-protective! How much I wish that men by the hundred might volunteer to go out and seek an adversary and subdue him!

I have had the fortune to take part in affairs of a considerable variety of s us, and I have tried to hate, as few persons as possible but there is an exquisite combination of contempt and hate that I have for a particular kind of person, and that is the moral coward. I wish we could give all our cowards a perpetual vacation. Let them go off and sit on the side lines and see us play the game; and put them oft the field if they interfere with the game They do nothing but harm, and they do it by that most subtle and fatal thing of all, that of taking the momentum and the spirit and the forward dash out of things. A man who is virtuous and a coward has no marketable virtue about him. The virtue, I repeat, which is merely self-defensive is not serviceable even, I suspect, to himself For how a man can swallow and not taste bad when he is a coward and thinking only of himself I can not imagine.

Be militant! Be an organization that is going to do things! If you can find older men who will give you countenance and acceptable leadership, follow them: but if you can not, organize separately and dispense with them. There are only two sorts of men worth associating with when something is to be done. Those are young men and men who never grow old. Now, if you find men who have grown old, about whom the crust has hardened, whose hinges are stiff, whose minds always have their eye over the shoulder thinking of things as they were done, do not have anything to do with them. It would not be Christian to exclude them from your organization, but merely used them to pad the roll. If you can find older men who will lead you acceptably and keep you in countenance, I am bound as an older man to advise you to follow them. But suit yourselves. Do not follow people that stand still. Just remind them that this is not a statical proposition; it is a movement, and if they can not get a move on them they are not serviceable.

Life, gentlemen – the life of society, the life of the world – has constantly to be fed from the bottom. It has to be fed by those great sources of strength which are constantly rising in new generations. Red blood has to be pumped into it. New fiber has to be supplied. That is the reason I have always said that I believed in popular institution. If you can guess beforehand whom your rulers are going to be, you can guess with a very great certainty that most of them will not be fit to rule. The beauty of popular institutions is that you do not know where the man is going to come from, and you do not care so he is the right man. You do not know whether he will come from the avenue or from the alley. You do not know whether he will come from the city or the farm. / You do not know whether you will ever have heard that name before or not. Therefore you do not limit at any point your supply of new strength. You do not say it has got to come through the blood of a particular family or through the processes of a particular training, or by anything except the native impulses and genius of the man himself. /The humblest hovel, therefore, may produce you your greatest man. A very humble hovel did produce you one of your greatest men. That is the process of life, this constant surging up of the new strength of unnamed, unrecognized, uncatalogued men who are just getting into the running, who are just coming up from the masses of the unrecognized multitude. You do not know when you will see above the level masses of the crowd some great stature lifted head and shoulders above the rest, shouldering its way, not violently but gently, to the front and saying, “Here am I; follow me.” And his voice will be your voice, his thought will be your thought, and you will follow him as if you were following the best things in yourselves.

When I think of an association of Christian young men I wonder that it has not already turned the world upside down. I wonder, not that it has done so much, for it has done a great deal, but that it has done so little; and I can only conjecture that it does not realize its own strength. I can only imagine that it has not yet got its pace. I wish I could believe, and I do believe, that at 70 it is just reaching its majority, and that from this time on a dream greater even than George Williams ever dreamed will be realized in the great accumulating momentum of Christian men throughout the world. For, gentlemen, this is an age in which the principles of men who utter public opinion dominate the world. It makes no difference what is done for the time being. After the struggle is over the jury will sit, and nobody can corrupt that jury.

At one time I tried to write history. I did not know enough to write it, but I knew from experience how hard it was to find an historian out, and I trusted I would not be found out. I used to have this comfortable thought as I saw men struggling in the public arena. I used to think to myself, “This is all very well and very interesting. You probably assess yourself in such and such a way. Those who are your partisans assess you thus and so. Those who are your opponents urge a different verdict. But it does not make very much difference, because after you are dead and gone some quiet historian will sit in a secluded room and tell mankind for the rest of time just what to think about you, and his verdict, not the verdict of your partisans and not the verdict of your opponents, will be the verdict of posterity.” I say that I used to say that to myself. It very largely was not so. And yet it was true in this sense: If the historian really speaks the judgment of the succeeding generation, then he really speaks the judgment also of the generations that succeed it, and his assessment, made without the passion of the time, made without partisan feeling in the matter—in other circumstances, when the air is cool—is the judgment of mankind upon your actions.

Now, is it not very important that we who shall constitute a portion of the jury should get our best judgments to work and base them upon Christian forbearance and Christian principles, upon the idea that it is impossible by sophistication to establish that a thing that is wrong is right? And yet, while we are going to judge with the absolute standard of righteousness, we are going to judge with Christian feeling, being men of a like sort ourselves, suffering the same temptations, having the same weaknesses, knowing the same passions; and while we do not condemn, we are going to seek to say and to live the truth. What I am hoping for is that these seventy years have just been a running start, and that now there will be a great rush of Christian principle upon the strongholds of evil and of wrong in the world. Those strongholds are not as strong as they look. Almost every vicious man is afraid of society, and if you once open the door where he is, he will run. All you have to do is to fight, not with cannon but with light.

May I illustrate it in this way? The Government of the United States has just succeeded in concluding a large number of treaties with the leading nations of the world, the sum and substance of which is this, that whenever any trouble arises the light shall shine on it for a year before anything is done; and my prediction is that after the light has shone on it for a year it will not be necessary to do anything; that after we know what happened, then we will know who was right and who was wrong. I believe that light is the greatest sanitary influence in the world. That, I suppose, is scientific commonplace, because if you want to make a place wholesome the best instrument you can use is the sun; to let his rays in, let him search out all the miasma that may lurk there. So with moral light: It is the most wholesome and rectifying, as well as the most revealing, thing in the world, provided it be genuine moral light; not the light of inquisitiveness, not the light of the man who likes to turn up ugly things, not the light of the man who disturbs what is corrupt for the mere sake of the sensation that he creates by disturbing it, but the moral light, the light of the man who discloses it in order that all the sweet influences of the world may go in and make it better.

That, in my judgment, is what the Young Men’s Christian Association can do. It can point out to its members the things that are wrong. It can guide the feet of those who are going astray; and when its members have realized the power of the Christian principle, then they will not be men if they do not unite to see that the rest of the world experiences the same emancipation and reaches the same happiness of release.

I believe in the Young Men’s Christian Association because I believe in the progress of moral ideas in the world; and I do not know that I am sure of anything else. When you are after something and have formulated it and have done the very best thing you know how to do you have got to be sure for the time being that that is the thing to do. But you are a fool if in the back of your head you do not know it is possible that you are mistaken. All that you can claim is that that is the thing as you see it now and that you cannot stand still; that you must push forward the things that are right. It may turn out that you made mistakes, but what you do know is your direction, and you are sure you are moving in that way. I was once a college reformer, until discouraged, and I remember a classmate of mine saying, “Why, man, can’t you let anything alone?” I said, “I let everything alone that you can show me is not itself moving in the wrong direction, but I am not going to let those things alone that I see are going downhill”; and I borrowed this illustration from an ingenious writer. He says, “If you have a post that is painted white and want to keep it white, you cannot let it alone; and if anybody says to you, ‘Why don’t you let that post alone,’ you will say, ‘Because I want it to stay white, and therefore I have got to paint it at least every second year.'” There isn’t anything in this world that will not change if you absolutely let it alone, and therefore you have constantly to be attending to it to see that it is being taken care of in the right way and that, if it is part of the motive force of the world, it is moving in the right direction.

That means that eternal vigilance is the price, not only of liberty, but of a great many other things. It is the price of everything that is good. It is the price of one’s own soul. It is the price of the souls of the people you love; and when it comes down to the final reckoning you have a standard that is immutable. What shall a man give in exchange for his own soul? Will he sell that? Will he consent to see another man sell his soul? Will he consent to see the conditions of his community such that men’s souls are debauched and trodden under foot in the mire? What shall he give in exchange for his own soul, or any other man’s soul? And since the world, the world of affairs, the world of society, is nothing less and nothing more than all of us put together, it is a great enterprise for the salvation of the soul in this world as well as in the next. There is a text in Scripture that has always interested me profoundly. It says godliness is profitable in this life as well as in the life that is to come; and if you do not start it in this life, it will not reach the life that is to come. Your measurements, your directions, your whole momentum, have to be established before you reach the next world. This world is intended as the place in which we shall show that we know how to grow in the stature of manliness and of righteousness.

I have come here to bid Godspeed to the great work of the Young Men’s Christian Association. I love to think of the gathering force of such things as this in the generations to come. If a man had to measure the accomplishments of society, the progress of reform, the speed of the world’s betterment, by the few little things that happened in his own life, by the trifling things that he can contribute to accomplish, he would indeed feel that the cost was much greater than the result. But no man can look at the past of the history of this world without seeing a vision of the future of the history of this world; and when you think of the accumulated moral forces that have made one age better than another age in the progress of mankind, then you can open your eyes to the vision. You can see that age by age, though with a blind struggle in the dust of the road, though often mistaking the path and losing its way in the mire, mankind is yet sometimes with bloody hands and battered knees nevertheless struggling step after step up the slow stages to the day when he shall live in the full light which shines upon the uplands, where all the light that illumines mankind shines direct from the face of God.