George Washington at Princeton

  George Washington made two memorable visits to Princeton. The first took place in 1777 when, ten days after crossing the Delaware on Christmas night and defeating the British at Trenton, he made the early morning surprise attack that drove the British from Nassau Hall and sent them in retreat from Princeton. The second visit occurred in 1783, in the closing days of the war, when he came here at the request of the Continental Congress which had fled from Philadelphia to avoid mutinous troops and was meeting in Nassau Hall.

  Since no suitable house could be found for Washington in the village of Princeton, ``Rockingham'' was rented for him at Rocky Hill, four miles distant. Here he arrived late in August and stayed until November. He became a familiar figure in Princeton and was a frequent visitor to Nassau Hall where he conferred with the committee of Congress on peace establishment.

  In August, at a formal audience of Congress in Nassau Hall, he received the thanks of his countrymen for his conduct of the war. That September he attended the College's Commencement in the First Presbyterian Church in company with the members of Congress who, as a compliment to the College, had adjourned their meetings so that they might attend. Ashbel Green (later president of the College), delivered the valedictory oration, observing that ``there had never been such an audience at a Commencement before, and perhaps, there never will be again.'' He concluded with this tribute to Washington:

  ``Some future bard . . . shall tell in all the majesty of epic song, of the man whose prudent conduct, and whose gallant sword, taught the tyrants of the earth to fear oppression, and opened an asylum for the virtuous and free to all the world.''

  The trustees met immediately after the Commencement exercises. Their only business was the adoption of the following resolution:

  ``The Board being desirous to give some testimony of their high respect for the character of his Excellency General Washington, who has so auspiciously conducted the armies of America,

  ``Resolved, That the Rev. Drs. Witherspoon, Rodgers, and Johnes be a committee to wait upon his Excellency to request him to sit for a picture, to be taken by Mr. Charles Wilson Peale, of Philadelphia. And that this portrait be placed in the Hall of the College, in the room of the picture of the late King of Great Britain [George the Second], which was torn away by a ball from the American artillery in the battle of Princeton.''

  At a meeting on the following day President Witherspoon reported to the board that ``his Excellency General Washington had delivered to him fifty guineas . . . as a testimony of his respect for the College.'' The board thereupon resolved to direct the committee it had appointed to solicit his portrait, to present to him at the same time ``the thanks of the Board for . . . his politeness and generosity.''

  Washington consented to the portrait, which was completed in time for presentation at Commencement the following year. It depicts Washington with uplifted sword at the battle of Princeton, at his side the mortally wounded General Hugh Mercer, a surgeon, and another officer bearing an American flag, with Nassau Hall in the distance. The portrait has escaped two fires and today hangs in the Faculty Room on the right side of the president's chair. It is one of the University's finest paintings and one of its proudest possessions.

  Washington continued to maintain his respect for Princeton, sending his ward, George Washington Parke Custis, to study here in 1796 under President S. Stanhope Smith. In a letter to Custis in 1797, Washington cautioned him against letting his former tutor, Zechariah Lewis, divert him from the course recommended by President Smith:

  ``Mr. Lewis [Washington wrote] was educated at Yale College, and, as is natural, may be prejudiced in favor of the mode pursued at that seminary; but no college has turned out better scholars or more estimable characters than Nassau.''

This is adapted from