In honor of President’s Day this month, I wanted to write about the Philodemic’s association with U.S. Presidents in its early years, starting with George Washington. We have yet to graduate a president (there is no record of Bill Clinton attending a Philodemic meeting, although we cannot rule it out!), but several U.S. presidents have been elected to (and accepted) honorary membership in the Philodemic, and there are many other interesting connections.
A good place to start this month is with Philodemic’s relationship with George Washington. Although the society was founded some three decades after Washington’s death, he was always prominent in the mind of early Philodemicians in the first years of the society. As is well known, the society’s first debate in the fall of 1830, was “Whether Napoleon Bonaparte or General Washington was the greater man?” with the society voting – predictably – for the American founding father. This was actually one of the rare times the Philodemic actually had a debate about Washington in its early years, as Washington was already such a larger-than-life, saintly figure that there was not so much to debate about him. Rather, figures like Napoleon – who combined patriotism and military prowess with a questionable pursuit of self-centered glory -- were much more controversial (in the best sense). Indeed, Napoleon was the subject of 53 debates out of around ~1200 debated by the Philodemic between 1830 and 1875, a significantly large number not surpassed by any other individual topic, and one which does not even include debates on related topics, such as French Revolution!
Yet Washington still was prominent for Philodemcians, appearing in major orations and toasts given on public occasions by Philodemicians. Indeed, the Philodemic – which was originally founded on September 25, 1830, after a few years of activities attempted to change its “anniversary date” to February 22 – coincidentally, Washington’s Birthday. The February 22 celebration was one of the three major events on the 19th century Philodemic’s calendar, along with Independence Day celebration on July 4th and the annual college commencement. On Washington’s Birthday in its early years, the Philodemic would celebrate by having members read Washington’s famous “Farewell Address’ followed by student orations on related topics, and toasts of a patriotic nature. A February 22, 1843 celebration of this kind included several speeches lauding Washington to the skies as almost a saint, with Philodemician George Columbus Morgan suggesting that Washington’s name was the one most likely out of all to “hold the place where angels assigned in the archives of eternity.” His name was also first on the list of toasts from that celebration, with the following dedication:
[To] Washington—the furnace in which was kindled the first and brightest spark of American liberty: may her eagle ever bask in its warmth and tyrants shrink from its heat
Indeed, George Washington is still part of the constitution as one of the individuals required ot be toasted at the Merrick Dinner each spring, continuing a wonderful 19th century tradition!
To give you just a sense of some of the speeches that hyperbolically celebrated Washington (at great length), merely take this excerpt from the 1846 celebration of Washington:
He seems to have been sent by a happy destiny to be the instrument in the hand of Providence to accomplish the regeneration of millions. That omnipotent hand, which, in the regulation of all human affairs, makes the means adequate and proportionate to the end proposed, bestowed upon WASHINGTON every quality requisite to give a successful and glorious issue to his high and philanthropic mission. Genius, Virtue, and Freedom brought their choicest gifts to form that splendid combination of worth and greatness which, while they dazzled by the variety and brilliancy of their parts, astonished and delighted by the unison and harmony of their action. Called by the exigencies of the times to every sphere of useful action, by his fervor in the cause of Independence, and by his superior talents, he was pre-eminent in them all, and has received from his countrymen the enviable reward of holding the first place in their hearts and in their memories.
Although traditions would change, Washington’s birthday would still hold importance fo the Philodemic. In later decades, after the Merrick Debate was established in the 1870s, it was initially held every year on February 22. It's also worth noting that the Philodemic was by no means the only college debating society of its time to celebrate and adore Washington, a topic explored by another Philodemic alumnus, Daniel Rendleman (C’09) in his wonderful 2009 history thesis “From Revolution to Rebellion: George Washington as Seen by the Literary Societies of the Greater Chesapeake, 1813-1868” although our rivals at the University of Virginia have a slight preference for Jefferson, which makes sense as he founded the university and is, after all, their namesake (the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society).
As it happens, although Washington had passed away by the Philodemic’s founding, the early Philodemic did have an important connection to the Washington family! George Washington did not have any kids, but his stepson, George Washington Parke Custis (Martha Washington’s son from her first marriage), was an early friend of the Philodemic. A major public figure in the D.C. area as the closest descendant of Washington, Custis regularly attended Philodemic events and debates, and seemed to take a special interest in the Philodemic. He featured especially in an important inaugural 1842 celebration of an important event for Catholic Americans that the Philodemic Society. As I write about in my thesis, in the 1840s, the Philodemic began hosting a major Catholic American public event, commemorating the landing of the first (Catholic) settlers of Maryland, and the policy of religious liberty they pursued (which not all of the early American colonies did).
These public events (celebrated in 1842, 1849, 1852, and 1855) sought to bring national politicians, Maryland civic leaders, Catholic clergy, and Protestant representatives in pilgrimages to the site in Maryland where the original Catholic settlers arrived. Important visitors included Catholic archbishops and Supreme Court Justices, among others. In the 1842 celebration, George Washington Parke Custis joined the celebration and ended up concluding the celebration in St. Inigoes by contributing ode to the tune of “the Star-Spangled Banner” which he, Fr. George Fenwick S.J., and the granddaughter of Charles Caroll of Carrolton (the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence) sung together. This was a remarkable symbol of Catholic-Protestant unity and ecumenism in a time in American life when many saw Catholics as a threat to American values and democracy. But as I argued in my 2018 thesis on the Philodemic, it was precisely this kind of unity between Cathoilc and Protestants under the banner of ecumenical American patriotism that the Philodemic attempted to rhetorically fashion in its early years.
These were just a few interesting Philodemic connections to George Washington. When I write again about the Philodemic and U.S. Presidents, I’ll mention some of the presidents who accepted (and declined) honorary membership in the society, as well as a time when one almost attended a weekly Philodemic debate but was kept away at the last minute by a coachman who didn’t show up!
-Jonathan Marrow (COL’18)
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