From George Washington to George Washington Parke Custis, 15 November 1796
To George Washington Parke Custis
Philadelphia, 15th November 1796.
Dear Washington:
Yesterday’s mail brought me your letter of the 12th instant,1 and under cover of this letter you will receive a ten-dollar bill, to purchase a gown, &c., if proper. But as the classes may be distinguished by a different insignia, I advise you not to provide these without first obtaining the approbation of your tutors; otherwise you may be distinguished more by folly, than by the dress.2
It affords me pleasure to hear that you are agreeably fixed; and I receive still more from the assurance you give of attending closely to your studies. It is you yourself who is to derive immediate benefit from these. Your country may do it hereafter. The more knowledge you acquire, the greater will be the probability of your succeeding in both, and the greater will be your thirst for more.
I rejoice to hear you went through your examination with propriety, and have no doubt but that the president has placed you in the class which he conceived best adapted to the present state of your improvement.3 The more there are above you, the greater your exertions should be to ascend; but let your promotion result from your own application, and from intrinsic merit, not from the labors of others. The last would prove fallacious, and expose you to the reproach of the daw in borrowed feathers.4 This would be inexcusable in you, because there is no occasion for it; forasmuch, as you need nothing but the exertion of the talents you possess, with proper directions, to acquire all that is necessary; and the hours allotted for study, if properly improved, will enable you to do this. Although the confinement may feel irksome at first, the advantages resulting from it, to a reflecting mind, will soon overcome it.
Endeavor to conciliate the good will of all your fellow-students, rendering them every act of kindness in your power. Be particularly obliging and attentive to your chamber-mate, Mr. Forsyth; who, from the account I have of him, is an admirable young man, and strongly impressed with the importance of a liberal and finished education.5 But above all, be obedient to your tutors, and in a particular manner respect the president of the seminary, who is both learned and good.
For any particular advantages you may derive from the attention and aid of Mr. Forsyth, I shall have a disposition to reward. One thing more and I will close this letter. Never let an indigent person ask, without receiving something, if you have the means; always recollecting in what light the widow’s mite was viewed.6
Your grandmother, sister,7 and all here are well, and feeling a strong interest in your welfare, join most cordially with me in every good wish for it. Affectionately, I am your sincere friend,
G. Washington.
, 73–75.
This is the first in a series of letters to Custis that document GW’s fatherly advice to his step-grandson as the young man began his studies at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in early November.
1. Custis’s letter to GW of 12 Nov. has not been found.
2. GW’s household account book under 9 Nov. shows a payment of $13.50 to Custis and Bartholomew Dandridge, Jr., for “Expenses to Princeton &c.” (). GW’s accounts for 7 and 13 Nov. show that he had given Custis a total of seven guineas for “Pocket Money” ().
3. The president of the College of New Jersey was Samuel Stanhope Smith. A native of Lancaster County, Pa., Smith was a graduate of the College of New Jersey (1769) and a licensed Presbyterian minister. In 1774 he went to Virginia as a missionary and later served as rector of what later became Hampden-Sydney College. Having taken a great interest in natural science, Smith became a professor of moral philosophy at Princeton in 1779, and in 1783 he added theology to the list of subjects he taught. He continued to teach during his tenure as the president of Princeton from 1795 to 1812. Prior to officially assuming the latter post, Smith had helped carry out many of the administrative duties of the institution. He made improvements to the college by raising funds for scientific instruments, affording opportunities to students interested in the sciences, and expanding the faculty.
4. GW alludes to the story “A Daw in Borrowed Feathers” and its variants, which were based on the fable attributed to Aesop entitled “The Vain Jackdaw.” The fable centers on a jackdaw who disguises himself as a peacock and dresses in that bird’s feathers in an effort to appear more beautiful than his fellow jackdaws. The story ends with the jackdaw exposed and shunned as an imposter.
5. GW probably refers to John Forsyth (1780–1841), who had entered the College of New Jersey in 1795. A son of Revolutionary War officer and commissary Robert Forsyth, John graduated in 1799, returned to Georgia, and became an attorney in 1802. Forsyth later held numerous political offices, including Georgia attorney general and governor, minister to Spain, and member in both houses of Congress. Presidents Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren both appointed him secretary of state, in which office he served from 1834 to 1841. Forsyth died in Washington, D.C. His brother Robert Moriah Forsyth had graduated from Princeton in September 1796 with his bachelor of arts degree and was a tutor there until his death in 1797.
6. GW’s biblical reference to the “widow’s mite” is from Mark 12:42–44 and Luke 21:2–4, which related the story of a poor widow who cast “two mites” into the treasury at the Temple at Jerusalem. Jesus valued her donation over the contributions given by the wealthy. The axiom “widow’s mite” usually refers to a “small sum which is all that one can afford to give to some charitable or public object” ().
GW’s account books and ledgers reflect various donations for the poor, victims of tragic events, and churches and academies, showing that GW followed his advice to Custis to help the needy. For instance, on 7 Oct. 1796, GW’s secretary Dandridge recorded a payment of $2 to “a distressed beggar.” Payments of $4 “to a beggar” were made on 9 and 14 Nov. 1796. On 20 Dec. 1796, $10 was given to “a poor widow whose daughter was blind,” and on the following day, Dandridge recorded a payment of $5 for “a distressed negro sailor.” On 30 Dec. 1796, Dandridge gave U.S. postmaster general Joseph Habersham $250 “by order of the President to be transmitted to Savanna Towards the relief of sufferers by fire” (all in ; see also , 230; , 223, 242, 276–77; and , 6, 27, 46).
7. GW refers to Eleanor Parke “Nelly” Custis.