George Washington: American Moses

Author(s): Robert P. Hay

Source: American Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 4 (Winter, 1969), pp. 780-791
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
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ROBERT P. HAY
Marquette University

George Washington:
American Moses

WHAT GEORGE WASHINGTON WAS REALLY LIKE WE WILL NEVER KNOW. LONG

before his death in 1799, he had become so enveloped in myth and legend
that not even his contemporaries could discern his true, unadorned visage.
Distressed by the extravagant praise heaped upon him by eulogists,
Abigail Adams declared: "Simple truth is his best, his greatest eulogy."'
But was the truth "simple"? And did Abigail Adams, or anyone else for
that matter, know what the "simple truth" was? The fact is that a nation
of bereaved children laid to rest a Father as much myth as man. Despite
the inability of diehard Republican foes to forget immediately the Mount
Vernon planter's alleged pandering to their Federalist archenemies,2 the
mythologizing and legend-making continued at a still more furious pace
after the venerated hero's demise.3

'Quoted in Bernard Mayo, Myths and Men: Patrick Henry, George Washington, Thomas
Jefferson (New York, 1963 [first published Athens, Ga., 1959]), p. 39.
2Mayo has concluded: "It was not until Jefferson defeated Adams in that bitter presidential
campaign of 1800, and the Hero of Monticello in his first inaugural had praised the Hero of
Mount Vernon ... that, at last Washington was transfigured into 'Freedom's myth' and 'more
than man.'" Myths and Men, p. 48. It is clear, however, that the transfiguration actually
came later for some Jeffersonians. As late as 1803, ardent Pennsylvania Republicans observ-
ing the Fourth of July were still insisting that Washington was "dear to patriots, ONLY as
the leader of the American armies." Oracle of Dauphin and Harrisburgh Advertiser, July
11, 1803.
3Though none of them develops the Washington-as-Moses theme, Daniel J. Boorstin,
Bernard Mayo and Dixon Wecter have described the process by which the American hero
was thoroughly mythologized. Boorstin, "The Mythologizing of George Washington,"
The Americans: The National Experience (New York, 1965), pp. 337-356; Mayo, "Washing-
ton: 'Freedom's Myth' and 'More Than Man,'" Myths and Men, pp. 37-60; and Wector,
"President Washington and Parson Weems," The Hero in America (Ann Arbor, Mich,
1963 [first published New York, 1941]), pp. 99-147. For an extended introduction to the
most famous legend-maker and his work, see Marcus Cunliffe's edition of Mason L.
Weems, The Life of Washington (Cambridge, 1962), pp. ix-lxii.

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 George Washington: American Moses 781

Assuming that it were possible at this late date to solve the riddle-to
see the man whole-that knowledge would not be so valuable as an under-
standing of the legendary Washington and the psychological reason for
his having been created. In thoroughly dissecting the man, we would
explain only one person, albeit an extremely important one. By dissecting
the popular images of Washington, we begin to see the hopes and fears,
dreams and aspirations of countless men.4 Theoretical considerations
apart though, when we actually attempt to separate what the old general
was from what his countrymen made him out to be, as Marcus Cunliffe
recently did, we find ourselves coming to the British scholar's conclusion
that the goal is now quite unattainable: "The man is the monument; the
monument is America."5 There is promise in this self-confessed failure.
By becoming less enamored of telling the Washington story wie es
eigentlich gewesen, we may move toward an adequate delineation of the
multitudinous aspects of the myth and toward an explanation of why they
were believed. A full treatment of the many nuances in the popular view of
Washington remains one of the most significant unwritten stories in the
intellectual history of the United States.6 Some men are symbols for an
age. Washington was far more: he was a mirror reflecting the beliefs of
generation after generation of Americans. Indeed in their remembrances
of the Father of his Country is registered in large measure the entire
ideological development of the American people. The purpose of the pres-
ent essay is to explore one nuance in the greater story of Washington
symbolism: the widely held idea that "As the deliverer and political
saviour of our nation, he has been the same to us, as Moses was to the
Children of Israel."7
Early in the Revolutionary War, patriots began to see that conflict as
their escape "from the worse than Egyptian bondage of Great Britain";8
and "deliverer of America"9 was one of Washington's many popular post-

4"In the twentieth century symbols have become instruments of power often consciously
manipulated by individuals, organizations, or governments to further definite ends. Early
American symbolism was a folk product. As such it is of prime importance in any investiga-
tion of popular thought. The symbols which had meaning for the people reveal, as nothing
else does, the ideas and attitudes of the inarticulate masses." Ralph Henry Gabriel, The
Course of American Democratic Thought (2nd ed.; New York, 1956), p. 104.
5George Washington: Man and Monument (Boston, 1958), p. 213.
6Two brilliant works which could serve as models for such a study are Merrill D. Peterson,
The Jefferson Image in the American Mind (New York, 1960) and John William Ward,
And rew Jackson: Symbolforan Age (New York, 1955).
7Thad[d]eus Fiske, A Sermon, Delivered Dec. 29, 1799. At the Second Parish in Cam-
bridge, Being the Lord's Day, Immediately Following the Melancholy Intelligence of the
Death of General George Washington, Late President of the United States of America
(Boston, 1800), p. 10.
8Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser, July 8, 1777.
9Pennsylvania Mercury and Universal Advertiser (Philadelphia), July 8, 1785.

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782 American Quarterly

war titles. Before the "deliverer's" death, it had become fairly common-
place for Americans to refer to the Revolution as "our miraculous
deliverance from a second Egypt-another house of bondage,"'0 to liken
the Fourth of July to the day the Hebrews "came up out of Egypt,"" and
to insist that "God [had] raised up a Washington" just as He had earlier
"qualified and raised up Moses. "12
The most serious and sustained effort to draw the parallels between the
lives of the American President and the ancient Jewish lawgiver occurred
in the ten weeks following Washington's death on December 14, 1799. In
eulogies delivered throughout the land, and especially by New England
clergymen,'3 Washington was compared favorably to all the outstanding
biblical, classical and modern heroes, but no analogy was so well
developed as the contention that the departed leader had truly been a
Moses for America.'4
Among the most frequently used texts for Washington eulogies were
those verses from the thirty-fourth and final chapter of Deuteronomy
which described the death of the Hebrew deliverer.'5 The children of
Israel had mourned their fallen leader on the plains of Moab for thirty
days, Holy Writ related. "Scarcely less sorrowful is the occasion, or less

10Elias Boudinot, An Oration, Delivered at Elizabeth-Town, New-Jersey, Agreeably to a

Resolution of the State Society of Cincinnati, on the Fourth of July, M. DCC. XCIII. Being
the Seventeenth Anniversary of the Independence of America (Elizabethtown, 1793), p. 7
"1Samuel Miller, A Sermon, Delivered in the New Presbyterian Church, New-York, July
Fourth, 1795 (New York, 1795), p. 6.
12Cyprian Strong, A Discourse, Delivered at Hebron, at the Celebration of the Anniversary
of American Independence,July4th, 1799 (Hartford, 1799), p. 6.
"3Some 440 eulogies are cited in Margaret B. Stillwell, "Checklist of Eulogies and
Funeral Orations on the Death of George Washington, December 1799-February, 1800,"
Bulletin of the New York Public Library, XX (May 1916), 403-41.
14 In his chapter "Roman Virtue," Howard Mumford Jones says of the Washington
eulogies that "always the parallel was antiquity." 0 Strange New World; American Culture:
The Formative Years (New York, 1964), p. 263. The statement is inaccurate, for page
for page, religious themes far outnumbered classical ones. Some contained no classical
allusions at all. See, for example, John Carroll, A Discourse on General Washington:
Delivered in the Catholic Church of St. Peter, in Baltimore-February 22d 1800. (Baltimore,
[1800]). A significant number have only one classical reference each, among them
John Brooks, An Eulogy on General Washington; Delivered before the Inhabitants of the
Town of Medford, Agreeably to Their Vote, and at the Request of Their Committee, on
the 13th of January, 1800 (Boston, 1800), pp. 12-13. Rarely, if ever, was an entire oration
given over to a comparison of Washington and Caesar or Alexander or Fabius or Cincinnatus
or Hannibal. Quite common, on the other hand, were such extended comparisons of Wash-
ington and Moses. A good example is David Barnes, Discourse Delivered at South Parish in
Scituate, February 22, 1800. The Day Assigned by Congress, to Mourn the Decease and
Venerate the Virtues of General George Washington (Boston, [1800]), pp. 3-16.
"Those who used that text included Barnes, Discourse, p. 3; and John Croes, A Discourse
Delivered at Woodbury, in New-Jersey, on the Twenty-second of February Eighteen
Hundred ... (Philadelphia, 1800), p. 3.

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 George Washington: American Moses 783

afflictive the death now felt and deplored by this American Israel,"
eulogists now declared. "The Children of Columbia now weep for Wash-
ington in the plains of America."'16 Parallels in the mourning scenes were
thus pointed out. But these were not the most arresting analogies. Ameri-
cans were enjoined to weep for Washington as the Hebrews of old had
wept for Moses precisely because the lives of the two men had seemed to
parallel each other so closely.
The most striking and general theme of each man's life was that God
had commissioned him to fulfill some great work in the divine plan. When-
ever God has a monumental task to be done, a physician knowledgeable
in the ways of the Almighty assured his audience, He raises up the man
of the hour and qualifies him for the mission at hand. So Moses, Joshua
and David had each been raised up in God's good time.17 So too had
Washington: "kind Heaven, pitying the abject and servile condition of our
American Israel, gave us a second Moses, who should, (under God) be our
future deliverer from the bondage and tyranny of haughty Britain."18
The spiritual origins of the two leaders were one.
Some could even find similarities in the physical circumstances sur-
rounding their births. Moses had been born in fertile Goshen, "one of
the best" provinces of Egypt. He was "from an honorable lineage." His
"Ancestors in a particular covenant with the Most High, [had] moved
thither by invitation and divine confirmation, to secure themselves against
the devastation of famine." Similarly, Washington had been born in
Virginia, a British colony "well known for its profusion and wealth."
He was "from a respectable parentage." His ancestors had emigrated from
Britain "from views to enjoy on this side [of] the Atlantic, greater ad-
vantages both civil and religious." By luring the forebears of Moses and
Washington to new lands, Providence had made preparation for the time
when their offspring would be needed. The fathers' lands of opportunity
would become the sons' lands of oppression: "both our Conductors drew
their first breath in countries, where their Ancestors first enjoyed perfect
rational liberty and every blessing connected therewith, in which coun-
tries tyranny and oppression did afterwards become to them insupport-
able."19 When tyranny came, God's instruments would be found in their
proper stations.

"Fiske, Sermon, p. 19.

"Jonathan Elmer, An Eulogium, on the Character of Gen. George Washington, Late
President of the United States: Delivered at Bridge-Town, Cumberland County, New-
Jersey, January 30th, 1800 (Trenton, 1800), p. 4.
"lIsaac Braman, An Eulogy on the Late General George Washington, Who Died,
Saturday, 14th December, 1799. Delivered at-Rowley, Second Parish, February 22, 1800.
(Haverhill, Mass., [1800]), p. 5.
"9John Frederic Ernst, Sermon, Delivered . . . at Fort Plain . . . (Cooperstown, N.Y.,
1800), pp. 5-6.

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 784 American Quarterly

Early in their lives both agents had been providentially rescued from
lesser fates. Through the actions of loving mothers, heaven had saved them
from ends that it had not intended. For three months Moses' mother had
hid her baby in order to spare him from the Egyptian sword. When this
was no longer feasible, she had put him in an ark of bulrushes, leaving
him "to the care of Providence: He was found and preserved by the hands
of Pharaoh's daughter." In like manner, "the future hero of AMERICA,"
fatherless since the age of ten, had been spared by God through the appeal
of a mother's love. At fifteen, it was said, Washington had become a mid-
shipman on a British man-of-war. "But fortunately for himself, and for
the world, he was soon released from that corrupting, hazardous employ-
ment, by the earnest solicitations of his affectionate mother." Had the
impressionable juvenile continued along the course which his natural
curiosity dictated, he would have hazarded his morals, his "future useful-
ness," perhaps even his life. But in God's plan it was not to be. "Providence
snatched him from the brink of ruin, in almost as singular a manner as he
did the Hebrew child."20
Preserving the deliverers from other, meaner fates was only one way
that God manifested his peculiar care. Throughout his youth, Washington
was being fitted "exactly" for the preordained purpose, just as Moses had
been before him.2' Both leaders were provided with the kind of education
later to be needed.22 Few of the details of this education were spelled out.
But even here the eulogists were patterning their remarks after the biblical
account, which gave little that was specific about Moses' earliest years.
Occasionally someone did note that "Like as was Moses, so was Washing-
ton, early instructed, both theoretically and practically, in the art of war."23
The end for which they were predestined was the most important part of
each deliverer's story. Mourners were thus preoccupied with the analogies
between the two heroes' successful efforts to free their people. Even
superficial similarities in the rebellions were dutifully pointed out. At the
opening of the Revolution, Washington was "nearly the age of Moses when
he entered upon his divine legation, to liberate the posterity of Jacob,

20Jonathan Huse, Discourse . . . Delivered in Warren (Wiscasset, Me., 1800), pp. 5-6.
Huse was partially in error here. Although a naval career was considered, Washington never
actually became a midshipman in the British navy. James Thomas Flexner, George Washing-
ton: The Forge of Experience (1732-1775) (Boston, 1965), pp. 30-31.
21Jonathan Bascom, An Oration, Delivered February 22, 1800. The Day of Public Mourn-
ingfor the Death of General George Washington (Boston, 1800), p. 13.
22Ernst, Sermon, pp. 6-7.
23Proceedings of the Town of Charlestown, in the County of Middlesex and Common-
wealth of Massachusetts; in Respectful Testimony of the Distinguished Talents and Pre-
eminent Virtues of the Late George Washington (January M,DCCC) (Charlestown, 1800),
p. 30. Jedidiah Morse delivered the sermon.

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 George Washington: American Moses 785

from the oppressions of the tyrant of Egypt."24 Moreover, it was thought

that the numbers of people whom each "conducted to liberty" were about
the same, three million.25
But profounder likenesses were stressed. The most obvious one was that
at the outset of resistance neither oppressed nation seemed to have much
hope of victory. "To human appearance there was as little prospect of
[our] success as to Israel when slaves in Egypt."26 Her desperate odds
only underlined Israel's need to rely on God. Even this was a part of the
divine plan. Whenever "the Great Governor of the Universe" was about
to confer "any special favor" upon any nation, he allowed their plight to
appear hopeless "that in raising up and inspiring some highly favored
character among them . . . they might be convinced they owed their de-
liverance to HIM, who sitteth upon the flood and ruleth King forever."27
The seeming futility of their cause would force oppressed Israels, ancient
or modern, to recognize that their deliverers were the agents of the Al-
mighty.
Having noted the similarity between the initial misgivings of ancient and
modern Israel, patriots turned to the many parallels they saw in the two
heroes' deliverances of God's people. Some summed it up succinctly:
"Moses led the Israelites through the red sea; has not Washington con-
ducted the Americans thro' seas of blood?"28 Yet, both Washington and
Moses, it was contended, had done more than lead armies; they had been
more than warriors. During the conflicts, both had largely conducted the
civilian as well as the military concerns of their nations. "It is abundantly
evident, from the sacred history, that Moses was, under God, almost the
sole director in both these departments, to the Israelites." In like manner,
Washington, while directing the military forces, had also "by epistolary
communication, afforded, unto Congress, much light and assistance, es-
pecially in cases of difficulty and perplexity; and in considerable measure
guided our councils while he led our armies."29

24Bascom, Oration, p. 14.

25John J. Carle, A Funeral Sermon, Preached at Rockaway, December 29, 1799, on the
Much Lamented Death of General George Washington, Who Departed this Life December
14, 1799, at Mount Vernon, in the Sixty-Eighth Year of His Age (Morristown, 1800), p. 10.
26Frederick W. Hotchkiss, An Oration Delivered at Saybrook on Saturday February 22d,
1800; the Day Set Apart by the Recommendation of Congress for the People of the United
States to Testify Their Grief for the Death of General George Washington; Who Died
December 14, 1799 (New London, Conn., 1800), p. 13.
27John Boddily, Sermon, Delivered at Newburyport (Newburyport, Mass., 1800), p. 3.
28Peter Folsom, IV, An Eulogy on Geo. Washington, Late Commander in Chief of the
Armies of the United States of America. Who Died December 14, A.D. 1799. Delivered in
the Academy, February 22d, A.D. 1800, before the Inhabitants of Gilmanton, Agreeably
to their Previous Request (Gilmanton, N.H., 1800), p. 6.
29Carle, Funeral Sermon, p. 10.

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 786 American Quarterly

Not only did the deliverers have to deal with the foe, they had also to
silence opposition among their domestic detractors. "The Israelites had
murmurers, who complained, and found fault with their commander-Had
not Washington the same difficulties to encounter? yea, worse, he had
tories and traitors- 30 Among the pettiest "murmurers" with whom
Washington had to contend were those jealous and impatient members of
Congress who made various attempts to replace him. Actually Washing-
ton's detractors had as little chance of success as Moses' had, for "Provi-
dence had designed him as the deliverer of his country, and the divine
purposes were not to be frustrated."3'
After having served their nations ably in both military and civilian
capacities, the two leaders in their old age left their people sage advice;
both bequeathed their wisdom to posterity in farewell addresses. The
whole book of Deuteronomy was Moses' "valedictory address." "And
Washington, not long since, bequeathed the American States, an invaluable
legacy, in his advice, on the resignation of the Presidency. An advice,
which if scrupulously observed, might, under the smiles of Providence,
ensure numerous blessings to this happy country for future ages."32
There were the final parallels. Both men, one eulogist declared, had
brought their nations within sight of permanent capitals. "A few steps more,
& the israelitish nation would have pitched their Government in Canaan.
A few steps more, and the American nation would have pitched their
Government in the City of Washington."33 And both men had died "at a
few hours warning, when their eyes were not dim nor their natural force
abated." Here, concluded one eulogist, was the analogy "to complete the
picture."34
But was the picture complete? The parallels in the outward events of
their lives did not exhaust the comparisons between the two leaders. Simi-
larities in their "personal virtues" seemed obvious to most. Both Washing-
ton and Moses ardently loved their countrymen "and served them with
equal zeal, fidelity and disinterestedness."35 Both, strangers to ambition,
30Folsom, Eulogy, p. 6.
31 Braman, Eulogy, p. 13.
32Huse, Discourse, p. 11. In a footnote one eulogist approvingly quoted the appraisal of the
Farewell Address which appeared in the British Analitical Review for January 1797: "There
is nothing in profane history to which this sublime address to the states can be compared.
In our Sacred Scriptures we find a parallel in that recapitulation of the divine instructions
and commands, which the legislator of the Jews made in the hearing of Israel, when they
were about to pass the Jordan." Thaddeus Mason Harris, A Discourse, Delivered at Dor-
chester, Dec. 29, 1799. Being the Lord's Day after Hearing the Distressing Intelligence of
the Death of General George Washington, Late President of the United States, and Com-
mander in Chief of the American Armies (Charlestown, 1800), p. 13n.
33Ebenezer Gay, Oration ... (Suffield, Conn., (1800), p. 14.
34Ibid., p. 15.
35Proceedings of the Town of Charlestown, p. 35. See also Huse, Discourse, pp. 7-9.

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 George Washington: American Moses 787

were diffident as they accepted the roles of leadership which their people
thrust upon them.36 In accepting these tasks, both demonstrated great
self-denial: Moses gave up the luxuries of the Egyptian court and Washing-
ton the agrarian bliss of Mount Vernon for a higher cause.37 In per-
forming their tasks well, both demonstrated their great self-discipline.
Although Moses had slain the Egyptian oppressor of his fellow Hebrew
and although Washington was said to be "naturally passionate," both had
learned to so govern their passions, "as very seldom to discover them at
all."38 Both had had their extraordinary patience severely tested by the
unfounded charges of their countrymen. Washington pursued "the wisest
measures that could have been adopted," and though reproached as
"traitorous, cowardly, and deficient in martial skill," he bore it all for,
like Moses, he seemed to know that the detractors would soon see that
his course was the most advantageous possible.39
Both deliverers were pre-eminently courageous. Encamped by the Red
Sea with the Egyptians pressing hard upon them, many of the Israelites
had been overcome by fear. Moses had stood firm. "In several instances,
during the war between Great Britain and America, there were seasons
as dark and gloomy as that of the Israelites, and the people were as sorely
afraid; but the American Moses hushed the murmurs of the people-dis-
pelled the gloom, and opened a passage through the waters."40 Both could
be calm though all about them wavered because both recognized the
superintendence of Providence.4' Both trusted in God; both knew the
importance of religion.42 Thus the outward behavior of the two had been
remarkably similar precisely because both men's inner selves were alike.
After all the analogies had been drawn, patriots admitted, there re-
mained two significant differences between the ancient and the modern
Moses. The Jewish lawgiver was directly inspired by God. He could rely
upon the aid of miracles and his own God-given "prophetic spirit."43
"His path was so plainly marked by Heaven, that it was nearly impossible
for him to mistake it."44 This was not the case with Washington, who was

36Carle, Funeral Sermon, p. 13.

37Ibid., p. 9. See also Huse, Discourse, p. 6.
38Carle, Funeral Sermon, pp. 8-9.
39Ibid., p. 12.
40Ibid., pp. 10-11. See also Hotchkiss, Oration, p. 13.
4'Hotchkiss, Oration, p. 7.
42Joseph Buckminster, Religion and Righteousness the Basis of National Honor and
Prosperity. A Sermon, Preached to the North and South Parishes in Portsmouth, Fra-
ternally United in Observance of the 22d February, 1800; the Day Appointed by Congress to
Pay Tributary Respect to the Memory-of Gen. Washington (Portsmouth, N.H., 1800),
pp. 8-10. See also Fiske, Sermon, pp. 10-1 1.
43Huse, Discourse, p. 5.
44 Barnes, Discourse, pp. 13-14.

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 788 American Quarterly

only "the first of uninspired Men."45 Having no direct assurance from

the Almighty that his cause would be successful, Washington had no
time for "relaxation and repose beyond what nature absolutely required."46
His mind and body had to be kept in a state of constant readiness. Relying
directly on his own inner strengths and only indirectly upon God, the
American hero had faced his many trials and tribulations. The second
great dissimilarity patriots pointed out also reflected favorably upon
Washington. The American Moses had completed his task, whereas the
Jewish lawgiver had died just short of his fulfillment.47 "Moses conducted
the Israelites in sight of the promised land; but, Washington has done
more, he has put the Americans in full possession "48 The Hebrew
general ascended Mount Nebo to die, beholding the Promised Land as
yet unpossessed. "The American Leader also ascended the mount [Mount
Vernon] to die, but while yielding his breath, he saw his country's glory
finished. The former dies on a mount of vision and hope, but the other on
a mount of possession and enjoyment."49
Clearly implicit in these final comparisons was the idea that, in a few
respects at least, Washington was Moses' superior. Not divinely inspired,
Washington had constantly had to depend primarily upon his own physical,
mental and spiritual resources. Moreover, he had entered the Promised
Land with his people. Some patriots seem to have decided that Washing-
ton was actually the greater man. One zealot, reversing the usual analogy,
hailed Moses as "the Washington of Israel."50 Certainly it seemed that
Washington, the greatest of uninspired men, was the more appropriate
model for uninspired Americans.
Were our concern verisimilitude, we would find little fascinating about
the idea that George Washington was America's Moses. The Mount
Vernon deist was hardly given to seeing God's hand in history, given not
at all to seeing himself as commissioned by the Almighty to be the Moses
of the modern world. But the Washington image in the mind of any
particular group was always a better reflection of the beliefs and interests
of that group than it was of Washington's objective likeness. At the time
of his death, as throughout American history, men saw Washington more
as they were and aspired to be than as he was.
45Gay, Oration, p. 3.
46 Barnes, Discourse, p. 14.
47Carle, Funeral Sermon, p. 14.
48Folsom, Eulogy, p. 6.
49Hotchkiss, Oration, p. 11.
50EHi Forbes, An Eulogy Moralized, on the Illustrious Character of the Late General
George Washington, Who Died on Saturday, the 14th Day of December, 1799. Delivered
at Gloucester, on the 22nd of February, 1800-in Compliance with the Recommendation
of Congress, the Legislature of this Commonwealth, and the Unanimous Vote of the Town
Aforesaid (Newburyport, 1800), p. 14.

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 George Washington: American Moses 789

The Washington-as-Moses analogy was developed most fully by those

New Englanders with a Puritan religious heritage and a Federalist political
tradition. In citing one by one the alleged similarities between Washing-
ton and Moses, these New Englanders were revealing that, even as the
enlightened 18th century drew to a close, they were still very much an Old
Testament people. In their careful development of the analogy can also
be seen a part of the enduring Puritan legacy for American nationalism.
Like their Puritan forebears, these New Englanders still thought that the
American people were the covenant people, that God had raised up his
American Israel to be the example to the rest of mankind. George Wash-
ington's life and death were meticulously fitted into the religious motif
which enabled these New England patriots with a Puritan heritage to
understand man and history.
The development of the theme reveals more than the New Englanders'
Puritan past, however. The concept also served their current political
interests. At the time of Washington's death, the United States was in-
volved in a naval war with France. Few Federalists doubted that Napoleon
intended the overthrow of the American Republic. Even more troublesome
were factious Jeffersonians at home. These turbulent spirits, Federalists
were inclined to think, were actually atheists and anarchists, veritable
fiends bent upon dissolving the social bonds developed through tradition
and returning man to his natural state of perfect freedom. Such an attempt,
the French Revolution instructed good Federalists, would only institute
the reign of chaos. In confronting the French and Jeffersonian challenges,
these Federalists found assurance in the idea that the Lord of Hosts would
take care of the American Israel they knew and loved and did not want to
lose. They found security in their faith that if God had called home their
American Moses, He would preserve the American Joshua, John Adams.
"May Adams as nearly equal Washington in the grand Council of our
Nation, as Joshua did Moses in the camp of Israel."951
If the Washington-as-Moses image discloses the religious and political
needs of end-of-the-century New England Federalism, it does far more.
The challenges facing the young Republic were not limited to New England;

51Ariel Kendrick, An Eulogy on General George Washington, Delivered at the West

Meeting-house in the Town of Boscawen, on the 22d of February, 1800, at a Meeting of
the Inhabitants, Agreeably to the Recommendation of Congress (Concord, N.H., 1800),
p. 16. Other expressions of the pro-Adams position commonly taken in the eulogies may be
found in Abiel Holmes, A Sermon, Preached at Cambridge, on the Lord's Day, December
29, 1799, Occasioned by the Death of George Washington, Commander in Chief of the
American Armies, and Late President of the United States (Boston, 1800), p. 19; and Joseph
Tuckerman, A Funeral Oration. Occasioned by the Death of General George Washington.
Written at the Request of the Boston Mechanic Association, and Delivered before Them,
on the 22d of Feb. 1800 (Boston, [ 1800]), p. 22.

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 790 American Quarterly

nor did they end in 1800. The nation was beset throughout the 19th
century by sectional and partisan squabbles which seemed to threaten the
very survival of the Union. Then, too, there was the awful challenge of
history: the ancient republics had fallen, and there was a clearly implied
danger in the frequent boast that America was the world's only republic.
Those who faced these challenges also found solace in the notion that
America was the modern Israel of the Lord. Always implicit and frequently
explicit in any reiteration of this old idea was the belief that Washington
had been America's counterpart of the Jewish lawgiver. Hence the
veneration of the American Moses continued to be a vital part of the
enduring legend of providential guidance of the nation.52
Decade after decade patriots returned to the theme. During the War of
1812, those New Englanders who felt threatened by a hostile administration
could look back nostalgically to the time when the Union had been
riveted by a new Constitution, acknowledging their "obligations to the
God of our fathers for his merciful interpositions in behalf of his American
Israel."53 Recalling a happier time when the Mount Vernon planter
instead of James Madison had ruled, they thanked God anew for having
ordained Washington for service to "his American Israel."54 During that
prelude to four decades of sectional crises, the Missouri controversy, a
South Carolinian remembered that unity which he imagined to have
existed in the Revolutionary era. "The only union of the states, was the
bond of their common suffering; their only trust in Him, who never
deserts the faithful, who as he once led his chosen people from the task-
masters of Egypt, was able to carry his American Israel through the waves
and wilderness of revolution and to place them in the Canaan of peace
and independence."55 As the nation was being buffeted by the bitter

52For a general discussion of the Providence legend, 1776-1876, see Robert P. Hay,
"Providence and the American Past," Indiana Magazine of History, LXV (June 1969),
79-101. The patterns in the popular response to two instances of "providential intervention"
in early 19th century America are developed by the same author: "The Glorious Departure
of the American Patriarchs: Contemporary Reactions to the Deaths of Jefferson and
Adams" (scheduled for publication in the November 1969 issue of Journal of Southern
History) and "The Meaning of Monroe's Death: The Contemporary Response," West
Virginia History, XXX (Jan. 1969), 427-35.
53Samuel M. Burnside, Oration, Delivered at Worcester, on the Thirteenth of April, A.D.
1813, before the Washington Benevolent Society of the County of Worcester, in Commemo-
ration of the First Inauguration of General Washington as President of the United States.
(Worcester, 1813), p. 8.
54Henry Bigelow, A Sermon, Delivered at Castleton, on the 22 of February 1814, before
the W. B. Society, of the County of Rutland, in Commemoration of the Birth of Washington
(Middlebury, Vt., 1814), p. 12.
55Francis D. Quash, An Oration Delivered on the Fourth of July, 1820, before the Cin-
cinnati and Revolution Societies (Charleston, 1820), p. 8. Developing the American Israel
theme in the same year, a Kentucky lawyer said of Washington: "he was to us 'a pillar of
cloud by day & a pillar of fire by night.'" Western Citizen (Paris, Ky.), Aug. 15, 1820.

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 George Washington: American Moses 791

political storm of 1828, a Mississippi orator's audience found "peculiarly

happy" his comparison "continued at some length, of Moses and Wash-
ington."56 The political storms were far from over nine years later when
John Tyler reaffirmed for a Yorktown assembly the patriotic contention
that Washington excelled Moses since the American actually conducted
his people into the Promised Land of freedom.57 Repudiating in 1847
the charge that the Mexican War was a slaveholders' plot which might
actually presage the fall of the republic, a Kentuckian cried that such an
opinion was "an insult to the age, and outrages common sense." Had not
the "Heaven-commissioned Washington" been "the modern Moses"?
Had not God through him raised up America to give example to the
politically-depraved Old World?58 Even though many in the post-Civil
War nation found new heroes in the martyred Lincoln and the defeated
Lee, Americans were again urged to recall their common heritage North
and South, to remember that God had foreordained Washington to lead
his countrymen into the Canaan of liberty.59
Thus until the scientific innovations and growing secularism of the late
19th century made providential intervention a less and less plausible ex-
planation of historical causation, Americans continued to declare that
God had once raised up a Washington to be their Moses. The theme had
been developed most fully by New England Federalists. It had done much
to satisfy their psychological needs during their critical period at the
close of the 18th century. But the analogy, at least in its bolder outline,
continued to be popular with patriots all over the land who faced their
own periods of crisis and uncertainty from decade to decade. In their
continuing remembrance of Washington these patriots revealed clearly
their own fears and aspirations. In the nation's hour of greatest need, God
had blessed his chosen people with the American Moses. Would he not,
therefore, in other perilous times, continue to safeguard his American
Israel? There was psychological assurance in that remembrance-and in
that hope.

56Ariel (Natchez, Miss.), July 26, 1828.

57 Boorstin, The A mericans: The National Experience, p. 351.
58Frankfort Commonwealth, July 20, 1847.
59John Davidson, Oration Delivered at Plainfield, N.J., February 22nd, 1867, before the
Washington Monument and Historical Association (Plainfield, 1867), p. 17.

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