106 
FOREST AND STREAM 
George Washington As An Angler 
The late George H. Moore, librarian of the 
old Lenox Library, of New York, an erudite 
scholar and an authority of high standing repect- 
ing 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, 1787-1789.” The study was dedi¬ 
cated 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 skill¬ 
ful fishermen, 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 a.- 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 biog¬ 
raphers of the first President of the United 
States has done justice to the character of Wash¬ 
ington in this important feature, and the pres¬ 
ent publication of extracts from his diaries is in¬ 
tended to be a timely tribute to his fame as a 
man among men, a fisherman among fishermen, 
in which it will be no disparagement 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 H. Moore. 
Lenox Library, July, 1887. 
To which Mr. Cleveland made response: 
Executive Mansion, Washington, July 31, 1887. 
Dr. George H. Moore: 
My Dear Sir—Please accept my thanks for the 
little book you sent me entitled “Washington as 
an Angler.” 
I am much pleased to learn that the only ele¬ 
ment 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 number 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 manuscripts 
hitherto unpublished, he has left a very interest¬ 
ing 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 Constitution, 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 Philadelphia, in the 
Summer of 1787, he was punctually in his place 
during the arduous deliberations of that renown¬ 
ed assembly. After a very close application to 
business for more than two months the conven¬ 
tion appointed a committee of detail to whom 
they referred the results of their previous action, 
with orders to prepare and report them m the 
form of a constitution. The convention then ad¬ 
journed 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 generation. The 
building is still standing, overlooking the Schuyl¬ 
kill and, three miles distant, the Valley Forge. 
Judge Moore, who was born in 1699, 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 Phila¬ 
delphia. 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 overwhelmed 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 have been more im¬ 
pressive than that presented in the suggestions of 
his visit to Lexington— neglected by historians— 
when, in his first vacation 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 this ex¬ 
cursion—perhaps not the main thing. What it all 
was cannot be better told than in Gen. Washing¬ 
ton’s own brief, sententious records of each day: 
Monday, 30th July.—In company with Mr. 
Governr Morris went into the neighborhood of 
the Valley Forge to a Widow Moore’s a-ffishing, 
at whose house we lodged. 
"Tuesday, 31st Ju.y—Before breakfast I rode 
to the Valley Forge and over the whole Canton¬ 
ment & 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, etc., & 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 conspicu¬ 
ous public career. He never sought, refused nor 
resigned an office, although there was no depart¬ 
ment 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 pre¬ 
ferred to every other interest. 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 women 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 permanent home, 
and of which it is one of the principal 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 bears to the Right Honorable 
and noble family from whence she sprang.” 
Gen. Philemon Dickinson, a distinguished offi¬ 
cer 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 
Iving, and the Declaration of the Continental 
Congress on taking up Arms in 1775.” 
Col. Samuel Ogden, the brother-in-law of 
Gouveneur Morris, and, like Dickinson, a worthy 
representative of that grand army of the Revolu¬ 
tion, whose practical lessons of disinterested 
patriotism are so full of wisdom and rich in in¬ 
struction to every true-hearted American. 
Truly this was a goodly company for any place 
or pursuit, with much of profitable entertainment 
therein for all concerned. Indeed, it may well be 
doubted whether anything recorded in the annals 
of angling anywhere can challenge it for distinc¬ 
tion, all things considered.' Certainly no Ameri¬ 
can fishing party hitherto described can vie with 
