George Washington & Death
Jonathan Rowe on Dec 21st 2007
George Mason University historian Peter Henriques has an article online about George Washington and death. Henriques by the way wrote an outstanding biography on Washington, Realistic Visionary, with a superb chapter on Washington’s religion.
As the article notes, Washington didn’t seem to die a “Christian” death, but a “Stoic” one. He clearly believed in an afterlife, but his view of it was arguably not Christian. The theistic rationalists of whom I count Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and Franklin as ones, thought, contra Christianity, that good people merit Heaven via works as opposed to faith, and as such non-Christians may be saved (the bad would be temporarily punished eventually redeemed).
Determining Washington’s exact religious beliefs from the historical record requires connecting some dots. But the record strongly points in this direction. For instance, when Washington’s niece died he stated: “She is now no more! But she must be happy, because her virtue has a claim to it.” No orthodox Christian would state that someone’s “virtue” or works gives them a “claim” to eternal happiness.
Filed in The Belfry
Quite so, Jon, altho “virtue” could carry a connotation of sinlessness. You can go to Hell for sins, according to most Christian schemes.
But the letter to Lafayette indicates not just an agnosticism but a skepticism toward orthodox Christianity:
[Washington writes about Christianity as if he were an outsider.] “Being no bigot myself to any mode or worship, I am disposed to indulge professors of Christianity…that road to Heaven, which to them shall seem the most direct plainest easiest and least liable to exception.”
That seems pretty definitive, even more so since Lafayette seemed to be so close to his heart and a trusted confidant.
And there seems a lot of Greek in him with deeds and virtues, as he eulogizes a brave man:
“…there is this consolation to be drawn, that while living, no man could be more esteemed - and since dead, none more lamented than Colo. Tilghman.”
And the Stoics’ afterlife, as much as they considered it, was neither happy nor sad, nor necessarily an immortal state, and that comports with a lot of what’s in Henriques’ essay.
This was interesting:
Thomas Jefferson comforted John Adams following the death of his beloved Abigail with the thought that Adams should look forward to that “ecstatic meeting with friends we have loved and lost and whom we shall still love and never lose again.”
Although we commonly think of Jefferson as the least religious of the Founders, he continues to surprise as little corners of his thought pop out through his letters. His views on dogma and cosmology and this and that were often idiosycratic, but what an ol’ softie.
[...] Tom Van Dyke noted Jefferson’s surprising softness when talking of death and the afterlife with John Adams. Peter Henriques’ article on Washington and the afterlife to which my original post discussed notes the following: Thomas Jefferson comforted John Adams following the death of his beloved Abigail with the thought that Adams should look forward to that “ecstatic meeting with friends we have loved and lost and whom we shall still love and never lose again.” [...]
[...] As Franklin noted above, all religion need teach to produce the needed virtue was the existence of an overriding Providence and future state of rewards and punishments. The theistic rationalists believed good people were rewarded immediately with Heaven, the bad temporarily punished eventually redeemed. As Washington put it, speaking of the death of a relative: “She is now no more! But she must be happy, because her virtue has a claim to it.” Finally, here is Washington praising a Universalist Church, one that in its official doctrines denied eternal damnation, as one that provided necessary supports for American civil institutions: GENTLEMEN, [...]
[...] As Franklin noted above, all religion need teach to produce the needed virtue was the existence of an overriding Providence and future state of rewards and punishments. The theistic rationalists believed good people were rewarded immediately with Heaven, the bad temporarily punished eventually redeemed. As Washington put it, speaking of the death of a relative: “She is now no more! But she must be happy, because her virtue has a claim to it.” Finally, here is Washington praising a Universalist Church, one that in its official doctrines denied eternal damnation, as one that provided necessary supports for American civil institutions: GENTLEMEN, [...]