George Washington and the Gentlemanly Ideal

By Matthew Longcore

He is the Father of His Country, the American Cincinnatus, the American Fabius, the Sage of Mount Vernon.

George Washington – commander of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and first President of the United States – was born on this day nearly three centuries ago – on February 22, 1732.

Washington is the namesake of our nation’s capital in the District of Columbia and also of an entire state in the Pacific Northwest. He is honored by having his likeness on the most widely used currency in international transactions as well as one a coin that can be used to feed a parking meter. Washington is omnipresent in American culture – a figure larger than life. All of which is ironic given his legendary modesty.

George Washington exemplified the code of the gentleman. The very definition of a country squire from the landed gentry, our first President was a member of one of the First Families of Virginia. Sociologist E. Digby Baltzell reminds readers that “Washington was one of the wealthiest men of his day.” Baltzell adds that Washington, who silently presided over meetings in Philadelphia to draft the United States Constitution, “was the very personification of aristocratic and class authority in this classic age of deferential democracy.”

Washington and Princeton

George Washington has an important historical connection to the Ivy League campus of Princeton University, known as the College of New Jersey in the 18th century.  Princeton became a battleground during the American Revolution. Nassau Hall, the oldest building on campus, was ravaged by the occupying troops of both armies. The Battle of Princeton on January 2, 1777 was a major turning point in the war. British troops occupying Nassau Hall surrendered to General Washington. From June to November of 1783, Nassau Hall served as the nation’s capitol, housing the Continental Congress. News of the peace treaty with Great Britain was first received in Nassau Hall.

Washington became a generous donor to Princeton and the university has celebrated his birthday regularly. A painting by Charles Willson Peale titled “George Washington at the Battle of Princeton” was commissioned by the Trustees. Washington wrote of Princeton, “no college has turned out better scholars or more estimable characters than Nassau.”

Rules of Civility

As a schoolboy in Virginia, Washington famously wrote out a copy of the 110 Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour In Company and Conversation. The rules originated with a manual for young gentlemen written by French Jesuits in 1595 titled Bienséance de la conversation entre les hommes. The rules were translated into English by Francis Hawkins and published in England around 1640.

These rules include some timeless wisdom which may resonate with Ivy Style readers today, particularly rules 51 and 52:

Rule No. 51

Wear not your Cloths, foul, unript or Dusty but See they be Brush’d once every day at least and take heed tha[t] you approach not to any Uncleaness.

Rule No. 52

In your Apparel be Modest and endeavour to accomodate Nature, rather than to procure Admiration keep to the Fashio[n] of your equals Such as are Civil and orderly with respect to Times and Places.

In his book titled Rules of Civility: The 110 Precepts That Guided Our First President in War and Peace, Richard Brookhiser (author of The Way of the WASP: How It Made America, and How It Can Save It, So to Speak) warns against being dismissive of these “rules” as nothing more than old fashioned etiquette.

“The rules address moral issues, but they address them indirectly,” according to Brookhiser. “They seek to form the inner man (or boy) by shaping the outer.”

Washington and Newport

Washington, the understated gentleman, appreciated fine clothing that was elegant but not flashy. He also liked to smell as good as he looked. His favorite fragrance was Number Six Eau de Perfume from Caswell-Massey. The scent profile is woodsy, like an 18^th century gentleman.

In the 1760s and 1770s, Caswell-Massey founder Dr. William Hunter created a uniquely American fragrance: Number Six Eau de Parfum. Combining the citrus freshness of Farina’s Eau de Cologne with the rugged, animalic warmth of musk, civet, and ambergris, Number Six debuted in 1772. The scent embodied a bold, masculine identity that resonated with the emerging American spirit.

After Dr. Hunter’s passing in 1777, Number Six gained legendary status when George Washington purchased it during a visit to Newport, Rhode Island in 1781. Washington famously gifted the fragrance to the Marquis de Lafayette and wore it himself throughout his presidency. This association elevated Number Six as a symbol of refinement and marked America’s transition from a frontier to a global presence.

Each year on February 22nd the Rhode Island Society Sons of the Revolution recognize Washington’s birthday with a ceremony at the Houdon Statue on the south raised patio of the Redwood Library on Bellevue Avenue in Newport.

As we celebrate the legacy of our first President, perhaps we should add another item to the Rules of Civility:

A gentleman should look dignified, and should have a refined fragrance to match.

SOURCES

Baltzell, E. Digby. Judgment and Sensibility: Religion and Stratification. United Kingdom: Routledge, 2018.

Brookhiser, Richard. Rules of Civility: The 110 Precepts That Guided Our First President in War and Peace. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2003.

Brookhiser, Richard. The Way of the WASP: How It Made America, and How It Can Save It, So to Speak. New York: The Free Press, 1991.

George Washington’s Mount Vernon: The Rules of Civility.

George Washington’s Rules of Civility: 110 Maxims Helped Shape and Guide America’s First President.

Princetoniana. Princeton History. The Early Years. George Washington. The Trustees of Princeton University (2025)

Rhode Island Society of the Sons of the Revolution. Washington’s Birthday (2025)