George Washington & The First Thanksgiving

Before adjourning in September, the First Congress of the United States had resolved that President George Washington should proclaim a national day of thanksgiving.  Thus, on October 3, George Washington issued a proclamation assigning November 26, 1789, as Thanksgiving Day.  This would be the first national day of thanksgiving to be celebrated in the United States.

The first presidential mansion, known as "The Palace"

At the time, the nation's capital was located in Lower Manhattan, and the first presidential mansion, was known by locals as "The Palace."  While opulent for its day, The Palace was nothing like today's White House. It was a three-story brick building, heated by 21 fireplaces;  it had no indoor plumbing (free standing wash basins and chamber pots were de regueur); lighting was by oil burning lamps. Painted yellow,The Palace was located on the corner of Cherry and Dover Street, near the East River.  It was one-third-of-a-mile from Federal Hall on Wall Street (where Congress conducted its business). It had spacious rooms on the first floor, suitable for entertaining; several offices (including an executive office). and a spacious room for dining with family and friends.  On the second and third floors were plenty of bedrooms for family, staff, and servants.  The kitchen, pantry, and ice house, were located in out-buildings. Adjacent were stables, coach house, and garden orchard. The streets outside were cobblestone, tree-lined, relatively free of commercial traffic, and quiet.

EARLY TO BED AND EARLY TO RISE

A typical day for President Washington went something like this: He rose before dawn, shaved by candlelight, dressed with the help of his valet, and while the house was quiet, he read several newspapers, and did correspondence work.  After two hours, he stopped for a breakfast of hoe cakes (made with corn meal) which he smothered in butter and honey, and chased with several cups of tea taken with milk.

After breakfast, he studied state papers, signed documents, met with staff and, as necessary, met with advisors, cabinet members, congressmen, and foreign ministers.  At two in the afternoon, he stopped for dinner.  Dinner consisted of various meat dishes: fish, fowl, ham, beef steak, accompanied with a variety of fruits and vegetables and rounded off with lavish deserts.  Washington usually dined on a single entree and afterward drank champagne or Madeira wine while conversing with guests, family and friends.  Later, he went for a walk, usually to the Battery and back (about two miles in all), or rode on horseback, or took a carriage ride with Mrs. Washington. When he could get away for an extended period--such as on weekends--he rode what locals called, "The Fourteen Miles Round" Manhattan island.

THE JOHN STREET THEATER

In the evenings, as often as he could, he attended the theater (which he loved).  There was one theater in New York City, the John Street Theater, where the President was often seen in the company of Congressmen, family and friends.  After the theater, and on most nights, Washington would eat a light supper and go to bed.  Most nights he was in bed by nine.

A MAN OF FEW WORDS

There are a number of things you need to know about our first president. He was fastidious about his appearance. He loved military attire and fine clothing, which he ordered from a London tailor. He looked great on horseback, and was not only the finest horseman in all of Virginia (where horsemanship meant everything), it's likely he was the finest horseman in the nation. He was graceful and athletic; he loved to dance and was good at it. Unlike most men of his day, he did not wear a wig. He rarely spoke his mind; indeed, he was a man of few words. He was, in fact, a man of deepest humilty, who, despite having never attended college, advanced his reading and writing skills by reading the Bible daily. While a very good writer himself, he relied on Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson to write his speeches and state papers. Without doubt, Washington's three closest advisors (Hamilton, Madison and Jefferson) comprised the brightest minds in North America.

SOULMATES

While much has been spectulated about his marriage to Martha Washington (as loveless and sexless), in fact, it was a marriage of equals, of two people people who enjoyed each others' company immensely. During the war with England, Martha was often seen in the military camps, darning socks, and sewing buttons on solder's clothing. After the war, she campaigned tirelessly for soldiers' pensions. Finally, Martha may not have been as dowdy and overweight as portrayed in her portraits. The latest scholarship portrays her as slim and attractive, who attracted Washington's attention, and kept it.

As the first president of the United States, George Washington wasn’t sure how the president ought to act.  Somehow, he had to embody the new government’s dignity and authority while at the same time not appear to be kingly.  Everything was new, and unknown. Washington would tread soflty. "I walk on untrodden ground," he wrote to a friend in 1789; indeed, he felt the eyes of the nation were upon his every move. For this reason, he wanted to set a dignified and exemplary example for all future presidents to follow.  Yes, he was uncomfortable as the leader of the new American Republic, as he didn't feel up to the task.  Pennsylvania Senator William Maclay, watching the president at one of the mansion functions, observed: “General George Washington stood on as difficult Ground, as he ever had done in his life.”  The mansion tea parties, called levees, hosted by Martha Washingon, and attended mostly by women, were more to his liking.  He enjoyed circulating among the ladies, who tended to swoon over him. Women literally waited in line to dance with him  Wrote Abigail Adams: “(The President) moved with a grace, and ease that leaves Royal George far behind.”

PUT IT IN WRITING

George Washington did not trust the spoken word.  He asked his aids to put their ideas in writing.  If Washington had learned anything in his 57 years, it was that he didn’t know everything.  His modesty dictated that he would need the advice of learned men.  He needed opinions that conflicted with his own.  Don’t tell me what I want to hear; tell me what you think in your gut.  By reading their reports, Washinton knew their thinking, and was able to direct his subordinates like chess pieces on a chess board.  That’s how Washington conducted a war; that's how he would conduct a presidency.

Washington's journal entry for Tuesday, November 24, 1789 reads: "A good deal of Company at the Levee to day.  Went to the Play in the Evening."  What did he see?  A comedy entitled, “The Toy; or A Trip to Hampton Court.”  A newspaper reporter observed: "On the appearance of The President, the audience rose, and received him with the warmest acclamations."  The play must have been very funny because this was said to have been the only pubic occasion at which George Washington was seen to laugh.

It was around this time Washington received word that North Caroline had ratified the Constitution, thus becoming the twelfth state to join the Union.  The only hold-out now was Rhode Island.  The first of the original 13 colonies to declare independence from British rule, Rhode Island would be the last of the original 13 to join the union, which it did on May 29, 1790.

Thanksgiving Day would be celebrated on November 26,1789.  In his journal Washington wrote: "Being the day appointed for a Thanksgiving I went to St. Paul’s Chapel though it was most inclement and stormy--but few people at the church." (note: to this day Washington's pew is roped off) In honor of the day, he contributed seven pounds, ten shillings out of his own pocket to purchase "provision & beer" for inmates at the City's debtor prison..

Having returned to the Palace, it would seem unlikely that that the president dined on Turkey; more likely he was served pheasant or ham, and most certainly spent the evening among friends and family as well as his two most-trusted friends: Secretary of War, Henry Knox, and Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton (and possibly James Madison, the architect of the new federal government, and Washington's key presidential advisor).

MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR

The First Congress would be the most productive in our nation's history. Legistlation that would become law. included passage of the nation's first federal tax (the failure to do so had been the principle downfall of the government under the Articles of Confederation); creation of the Supreme Court; creation of a national postal system, creation of the executive offices of State, Defense and Treasury, as well as the office of Attorney General; and Postmaster General, and, most important of all, passage of a Bill of Rights (something the public had demanded).  Defying the odds, the new government somehow had managed to hold itself together, rather than splinter into factions (as many had believed it would).  Indeed, the experiment of self-government was more than novel.  Across Europe, and in some parts of America, many believed it was dangerous, and destined to fail. Which means the first Thanksgiving Day had special meaning for the new nation, and its elected officers.

Around this time, the newly appointed Treasury Secretary (Alexander Hamililton) was busy gathering data on the nation's opppessive war debt, for a report he would present to Congress early in the new year. Indeed, Hamilton's financial policies would not only make provision for the Revolutionary war debt, but would jumpstart the nation's ailing economy in ways no one would have dared imagined, and launch American capitalism to boot. Without Washington's support, none of Hamiton's financial plans would ever have gotten off the ground. It's a tribute to Washington's intellect that he could absorb, comprehend, and support Hamilton's financial plans, as most of his cabinet officers did not, particularly Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Without Hamilton, the war debt would have been repudiated, and the new republic would have devolved into littler more than another banana republic. Not only that, but the Louisianna Purchase, could never had been consummated, without the funds, Hamiliton's financial polices had generated.

UNITER-IN-CHIEF

It should be noted that without George Washington none of the above would have been possible. George Washington was that important. While most Americans agreed on very little, they were united in their belief that General George Washington was the one man to lead them. Indeed, George Washignton alone was the glue that held the fragil federal republic together (one wouldn't be wrong in saying, George Washington was the nation's "Uniter-in-Chief"). This was illustrated when Washington became seriously ill in the early days of his admistratrion (historians now believe Washington had contracted anthrax poisoning from a farm, while on his 250-mile journey to take office). Had he died, the new republic surely would have collapsed in obscurity.

Everything the United States would become, can be traced back to "The Father of His Country." Indeed, the Washinton Administration set the gears of the American machine in motion.

HUMILITY AND GRACE DEFINED THE MAN

George Washington gave up power twice: once as Supreme Commander of the U.S army; and the second time as President of the United States (after eight years in office). Indeed, down through history, most leaders who have achieved great power, refuse to give it up. Which is another reason we should be thankful to George Washington, a man of humilty and grace; his kind is rare indeed.

THANKSGIVING, AS A NATIONAL HOLIDAY

Going forward, Thanksgiving would be celebrated irregularly.  For example, the next Thanksgiving Day was not proclaimed until 1795.  Washington’s successor, John Adams, would proclaim but two Thanksgiving Days; Thomas Jefferson none at all.  Thanksgiving would not become an annual National Holiday until 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln instituted Thanksgiving as a yearly event.

The hymn below seemed appropriate to the selfless career of George Washington, and the success and longevity of our Republic, despite the occasional setbacks. Without dought, God's grace has much to do with it, and to Him we have so much to be thankful for:

Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,

That saved a soul like me.

I once was lost, but now am found,

Was blind, but now I see.

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,

And grace my fears relieved;

How precious did that grace appear

The hour I first believed!

Through many dangers, toils, and snares,

I have already come;

’Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,

And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me,

His word my hope secures;

He will my shield and portion be

As long as life endures.

(Hymn. 438:1–4)

For more about President Washington's first four years in office, read my book "Washington in New York"

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