Comments on: The Character of George Washington

By: mdeange3

mdeange3 — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 03:17:17 +0000

I visited the Mount Vernon Estate last summer, and recommend that everyone take the opportunity to make a pilgrimage. It was enlightening and refreshing. The Estate is not only a parcel of real estate, but has an “aura.” It’s a living testament to a man that shaped history. For many years I had revered Abraham Lincoln as the eminent statesman, and Lincoln is indeed a beloved man and President. Washington’s life and history should not be diminished. The informative cruise on the Potomac River, the museums and multi-media presentations bring Washington’s life in perspective. He was innovative, respectable, and a loving – devoted husband. Slaves worked extremely hard on the Estate. Auspiciously and within walking distance from Washington’s tomb, is the burial ground of slaves that toiled at Mt. Vernon. Something to realized and be grasped.

By: goral

goral — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 01:17:47 +0000

If one digs deep and long one can always find “salascious stuff” about men and their sexual inproprieties. The gov’t can always find fault in our tax reporting.
It’s that way by design. Toaday we celebrate the Chair of Peter, I suppose because it’s cleaner than Peter himself. King David also had a disappointing performance in this area. Not to excuse any of this but God looks beyond all of what our shameful eyes see and what our scandaleous hearts do and sees the true proclivity of the soul.

It’s encouraging that men like Peter and Washington and David and Wojtyla will always be the measure of men after God’s own heart.

By: Mary Kochan

Mary Kochan — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:43:25 +0000

Oh, don’t you know that it is all the rage now to make up salascious stuff about the founders. (Like the book that came out a few years ago claiming Lincoln was gay.) Both the speculation that Washington had a love interest in the wife of a friend and that he fathered children by a slave (a la Jefferson) are without evidence.

By: rborelli

rborelli — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:12:25 +0000

Can anyone explain what the author means when he says that scholars criticize Washington’s “personal ethics, sexual behavior, …”?

By: elkabrikir

elkabrikir — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 13:28:39 +0000

Dr Smith, I use the words the teen-aged George Washington wrote about moral behavior in raising my kids. Wasington’s focus in public situations was the comfort of others. Essentially, polite behavior respects the “other” as created in the Image and Likeness of God.

Also, Washington willed himself never to curse. And he put his foot over spittle on another’s garment until he could wipe it off unseen (so as not to embarrass the other.) He said one should never speak a foreign tongue in the presence of others who couldn’t speak it as well. He gave the best room in the house to guests, and was known to have hundreds of houseguests a year!

My husband is like Washington. Sometimes his public behavior comes off as, perhaps, aloof and uncharasmatic. However, in truth, these type of people repect the situation, know themselves, and don’t need the attention of others to prove their worth. In private, Washington was said to have had a good sense of humor.

I do wonder about this line from the article, however: “Although scholars criticize Washington’s personal ethics, sexual behavior, vanity, and ownership of slaves,” (the slave part I get) I’ve never heard any criticism of him on those other points.

Thanks for highlighting the excellent character of George Washington. He is a Christian man worth emulating in any age.