George Washington
George Washington was commander of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War (1775-1783) and elected
first President of the United States of America (1789-1797). For his contributions to the formation of the United
States, he is often referred to as "the father of his country". Feiler notes that after he
died, two thirds of his eulogies referred to him as "America's Moses," one orator
concluding that "Washington has been the same to us as Moses was to the Children
of Israel."(Feiler, 102) The Reverend William Linn, President of Queen's College
(now Rutgers University), delivered one of Washington's eulogies, and likewise
spoke of him as an American Moses:
If we compare him with characters in the Sacred Records, he combined the
exploits of Moses and Joshua, not only by conducting us safely across the
Red Sea, and through the wilderness, but by bringing us into the promised
land; like David he conquered an insulting Goliath, and rose to the highest
honours from a humble station. . .(Hirschfeld)
Political leader Robert Hay wrote an article focused on the symbolic relationship
between Moses and Washington.(Hirschfeld) In addition, it has been noted that
among the "most frequently used texts for Washington eulogies were those verses
from Deuteronomy" which describe the death of Moses. In a letter, Thomas Jefferson described his own feelings: I
felt on his death, with my countrymen, that 'verily a great man hath fallen this day in Israel.(Brodie)
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin, one of America's leading politicians and statesman,
often described the difficulties that newly independent American states
had in forming a government. To the settlers of Connecticut, for instance,
he suggested that for their first form of government, until a code of laws
could be prepared and agreed to, they should be governed by "the law
laws of Moses," as contained in the Old Testament.(Franklin, 504) In
1788, Franklin described the philosophies he relied on when helping
create the United States Constitution, ratified only a year earlier:
The Supreme Being had been pleased to nourish up a single
family, by continued acts of his attentive providence, till it became a
great people; and having rescued them from bondage by many miracles, performed by his servant Moses,
he personally delivered to that chosen servant, in presence of the whole nation, a constitution and code of
laws for their observance.(Franklin, 211)
Franklin, recognizing the dangers awaiting the new country after independence, now needing to raise money for
survival and national defense, writes, "May the God of wisdom, strength, and power, and the Lord of the armies of
Israel, inspire us with prudence in this time of danger, take away from us all the seeds of contention and division,
and unite the hearts and counsels of all of us, . . . "(Franklin, 210)
John Adams
John Adams, America's 2nd president, compared Moses to the ancient Greeks in
explaining why he similarly
depended on the the laws of Moses when helping establish the American
Constitution:
As much as I love, esteem, and admire the Greeks, I believe the Hebrews
have done more to enlighten and civilize the world. Moses did more than
all their legislators and philosophers.(Meacham, 40)
As he undertook to help in forming the Declaration of Independence, he was
deeply and privately concerned that he was accepting a great responsibility for the
future of the country. In a personal letter to his wife Abigail, he tried to rationalize and
explain
his role:
Is it not a saying of Moses, 'Who am I, that I should go in and out before this great people?' When I consider the
great events which are passed, and the greater which are rapidly advancing, and that I may have been instrumental
in touching some springs and turning some small wheels, which have had and will have such effects, I feel an awe
upon my mind which is not easily described.(Ellis)
In a private letter written to a Dutch dignitary in 1809, Adams expressed his feelings about some of the sources for
democracy:
I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and
believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential
instrument for civilizing the nations. If I were an atheist of the other sect, who believe or pretend to believe
that all is ordered by chance, I should believe that chance had ordered the Jews to preserve and propagate
to all mankind the doctrine of a supreme, intelligent, wise, almighty sovereign of the universe, which I believe
to be the great essential principle of all morality, and consequently of all civilization. (Adams)
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was the third President of the United States
(1801-1809), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776),
and one of the most influential Founding Fathers. He wrote to the Secretary of
War:
I shall now enter on the duties to which my fellow citizens have again
called me, and shall proceed in the spirit of those principles which they
have approved. . . . I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose
hands we are, who led our forefathers, as Israel of old, from their
native land, and planted them in a country flowing with all the
necessaries and comforts of life. "(Jefferson)
The Founding Fathers
Moses in American History