868 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. i, 1906. 
Washington as an Angler. 
.The late George H. Moore, librarian of the 
Lenox Library, of New York, an erudite scholar 
and an authority of high standing respecting 
scarce Americana, was also a devoted angler, 
and out of the rich stores of his knowledge of 
men and things in the early days of our coun¬ 
try’s history he prepared a monograph entitled 
“Washington as an Angler, with Extracts from 
His Diaries. 1787-89.” The study was dedicated 
to Grover Cleveland in 1887, in this neat way: 
To Grover Cleveland, President of the United States: 
It is known to me that there have been skillful fisher¬ 
men, more than one, among the Chief Magistrates of 
the nation. Your immediate predecessor has left an 
unsurpassed record among them, and it is with no 
ordinary pleasure that those of us who profess the faith 
and follow the precepts of “The Complete Angler” have 
been assured that you are inclined to indulge in similar 
recreation betimes. No good fisherman was ever a bad 
man, and history will bear out the assertion that the 
best Presidents have been the best fishermen. No one 
of the many biographers of the first President of the 
United States has done justice to the character of Wash¬ 
ington in this important feature, and the present publica¬ 
tion of extracts from his diaries is intended to be a 
timely tribute to his fame as a man among men, a 
fisherman among fishermen, in which it will be no dis¬ 
paragement to you to share. In the first century of 
this nation’s life he was the first and you have been 
called the last President. I trust that the beginning 
of the new era will find as good a fisherman as you 
are in office, and that the line may continue to stretch 
out, like that of the blood-boltered Banquo, till the crack 
of doom. George PI. Moore. 
Lenox Library, July, 1887. 
To which Mr. Cleveland made response: 
Executive Mansion, Washington, July 31, 1887.—Dr. 
Cecrge IT. Moore: My .Dear Sir—Please accept my 
thanks for the little book you sent me entitled “Wash¬ 
ington as an Angler.” 
I am much pleased to learn that the only element of 
greatness heretofore unnoticed in the life of Washington 
is thus supplied. 
I am a little curious to know whether the absence of 
details as to the result of his fishing is owing to bad 
luck, a lack of toleration of fish stories at that time 
among anglers, or to the fact that, even as to the num¬ 
ber of fish he caught, the Father of his Country could 
not tell a lie. Yours very truly, 
Grover Cleveland. 
With which by way of preface we give Dr. 
Moore’s presentation of George Washington 
in his character of angler: 
Mr. Sparks, in his life of Washington, has 
mentioned the report of tradition that he dis¬ 
played in his boyhood a passion for active sports 
and a fondness for athletic amusements which he 
did not relinquish in mature life. Other writers 
have repeated this general statement, but no one 
has pointed out his claim to be recognized as a 
“Brother of the Angle.” Among his man¬ 
uscripts hitherto unpublished he has left a very 
interesting record of his recreations at a period 
of his life when he was engaged in a service 
hardly less important to his country than that 
of his military career. Without him there would 
have been no United States to need a Consti¬ 
tution, and without him no Constitution would 
have been formed or established. He was the 
savior of his country in peace as well as in war. 
As President of the Federal Convention at Phil¬ 
adelphia. in the summer of 1787, he was punctu¬ 
ally in his place during the arduous deliberations 
of that renowned assembly. After a very close 
application to business for more than two 
months the convention appointed a committee 
of detail to whom they referred the results of 
their previous action, with orders to prepare and 
report them in the form of a constitution. The 
convention then adjourned on Thursday, the 
26th day of July, until Monday, the 6th day of 
August, 1787. 
It was duly reported in the newspapers of the 
day that on “Monday last [July 30, 1787] his 
Excellency General Washington set out for 
Moore Hall, in order to visit his old quarters 
at the Valley Forge.” 
Moore Hall was the ancient stone mansion, 
of William Moore, who has been characterized 
as “the most conspicuous and heroic figure in 
the county of Chester” in his day and gener¬ 
ation. The building is still standing, overlook¬ 
ing the Schuylkill and. three miles distant, the 
Valley Forge. Judge Moore, who was born in 
[699, died in 1783, leaving a widow who survived 
him several years. An advertisement in the 
Pennsylvania Gazette of Feb. 2, 1791, offered: 
“Moore Hall. To be rented. Mansion house, 
farm and mill, in the township of Charlestown, 
in the county of Chester, situated on the River 
Schuylkill, distant twenty-three miles from 
Philadelphia. Two hundred acres. Mill on a 
never-failing stream called Pickering. Feb. 1, 
1791 ■” ■ . 
This ancient homestead, known in 1787 as the 
Widow Moore’s,” was the objective point of 
Gen. Washington’s outing when he set out to 
visit his old quarters at the Valley Forge. 
What a flood of recollections must have over¬ 
whelmed him as he fulfilled this purpose and 
reviewed those scenes of past trials, sorrow and 
distress, in the great light of patriotic hope 
after the hours of triumph! The contrast must 
MONUMENT TO GEORGE CORYELL, I.AMBERTVILLE, N. J. 
Photo by John A. Anderson. 
have been more impressive than that presented 
in the suggestions of his visit to Lexington— 
neglected by historians-—when, in his first vaca¬ 
tion as President of the United States, he 
“viewed the spot on which the first blood was 
drawn in the late glorious war” where 
“Once the embattled farmers stood 
And fired the shot heard round the world.” 
But historic places and reminiscences were by 
no means the only thing in view upon the ex¬ 
cursion—perhaps not the main thing. What 
it all was cannot'be better told than in Gen. 
Washington’s own brief, sententious records of 
each day: 
“Monday, 30th July.—In company with Gov¬ 
ernor Morris went into the neighborhood of the 
Valley Forge to a Widow Moore’s a-fishing, at 
whose house we lodged. 
“Tuesday, 31st [July],—Before breakfast I 
rode to the Valley Forge and over the whole 
Cantonment & Works of the American Army 
in the Winter of 1777-8, and on my return to 
the Widow Moore’s found Mr. & Mrs. Rob. 
Morris. Spent the day there fishing, &c., & 
lodged at same place. 
"Wednesday, August 1.-—Returned abt 11 
o'clock with the above company to Philadelphia. 
“Friday, 3d Aug. 1787—Went up to Trenton 
on a Fishing Party with Mr. & Mrs. Robt. 
Morris & Mr. Govr. Morris. Dined and lodged 
at Colo Sam Ogden’s. In the evening fished. 
“Saturday, 4th [Aug., 1787].—In the morning 
and between breakfast and dinner fished. Dined 
at Gen. Dickinson’s and returned in the evening 
to Colo Ogden’s. 
“Sunday, 5th [Aug., 1787].—Dined at Colo 
Ogden’s and about 4 o’clock set out for Phila¬ 
delphia—halted an hour at Bristol and reached 
the city before 9 o’clock.” 
These were very notable fishing parties. The 
companions of Washington were old, tried and 
constant friends, always true and never found 
wanting. 
Gouverneur Morris, of New York, one of the 
noblest of her sons, a great man and a good 
citizen, who could truly say that the welfare of 
his country was his single object during a con¬ 
spicuous public career. He never sought, re¬ 
fused nor resigned an office, although there was 
no department of government in which he was 
not called to act; and it was the unvarying 
principle of his life that the interests of his 
country must be preferred to every other in¬ 
terest. Such a man was Gouverneur Morris, 
the inspired penman of the Federal Constitution. 
Robert Morris, of Pennsylvania, the great 
financier of the Revolution, whose services to 
his country have never been justly appreciated, 
for his biography has never been justly written. 
Mrs. Robert Morris, whose charming face, in 
the most beautiful and well-preserved portrait 
of a woman ever painted by Gilbert Stuart, 
smiles on the vain effort of the writer to tell 
what is the real secret of its winning grace and 
lasting impression on every visitor to the gallery 
of the Lenox Library which is now its perma¬ 
nent home, and of which it is one of the princi¬ 
pal ornaments. 
The Widow Moore, the loyalty and devotion 
of whose husband is the best testimony to her 
merits. He has left the record in his will— 
“happy woman, a pattern of her sex. and worthy 
the relationship she bea^s to the Right PTon- 
orable and noble family from whence she 
sprang.” 
Gen. Philemon Dickinson, a dis:in<?uished officer 
of the New Jersey line, a brother of that famous 
writer and patriot who was the author of the 
“Farmer’s Letters,” both “Petitions to the 
King,” and the “Declaration of the Continental 
Congress on taking up Arms in 1775." 
Col. Samuel Ogden, the brother-in-law of 
Gouverneur Morris, and. like Dickinson, a 
worthy representative of that grand army of 
the Revolution, whose practical lessons of d.s- 
interested patriotism are so full of wisdom and 
rich in instruction to every true-hearted 
American. 
Truly this was a goodly company for any place 
or pursuit, with much of profitable entertain¬ 
ment therein for all concerned. Indeed, it may 
well be doubted whether anything recorded in 
the annals of angling anywhere can challenge it 
for distinction, all things considered. Certainly 
no American fishing party hitherto described 
can vie with it, for a moment, in historical in¬ 
terest and importance. 
Another fishing excursion is mentioned in a 
later diary of Washington. When he made his 
great northern and western tour, already alluded 
to in 1789, Portsmouth, in New Hampshire, 
was the extreme point of his journey. While he 
was there he was taken out to view the harbor, 
and to try his skill and luck in salt water On 
Monday. Nov. 2, they went down to the outer 
harbor beyond the fort and the lighthouse, 
where, as he says himself: 
“Having lines, we proceeded to the Fishing 
