The American Revolution was a victory of divine Providence—that’s according to the nation’s first president, George Washington, said Dr. Susan Hanssen, professor of history at the University of Dallas. Hanssen describes the first Commander-in-Chief not as the cold calculated deist that many believe the founders to be, but a man who believed that God was involved in history.

Providence was Washington’s preferred name for God, Hanssen told Drew Mariani. In fact, Hanssen notes that in Washington’s writings, the founder was often “shocked and horrified” by those who did not believe that God worked in history. “He constantly expresses surprise that anyone could have participated in the…years of the American Revolutionary War and not have noticed what he called ‘signal interventions’,” Hanssen said.

Critique

Hanssen stresses, however, that reason alone is not enough to see the hand of God.  “I think the American founders can be faulted for having too much confidence in reason’s ability…to discern the providential hand of God.”

On her view, the founders did not fully appreciate the role “grace and the Church” played in their own religious vision. “Christianity had been around for so long and had shaped cultural institutions,” she said, “they thought reason could do it without those helps.”

Washington and Catholicism

While Washington was an Anglican throughout his life, some have claimed that George Washington converted to Catholicism and had an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Hanssen isn’t convinced of the veracity of either claim. “Those stories appear after the large Irish Catholic immigration in the 19th century.”

Hanssen does note, however, that Washington was a supporter of religious liberty. In a letter to Catholics, Washington expresses hope that Americans remember the role that Catholics played in the Revolution and formation of new Government.

After his death, the first Archbishop of Baltimore, John Carroll, eulogized the first President. In his lengthy remarks, Carroll “refers to Providence in almost every paragraph,” said Dr. Jerome Foss, professor at Saint Vincent College. “For Carroll, Washington is evidence of a great God who cares for us.”