George Washington’s Church Says Plaque Honoring First President Must Come Down (Video)

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In a unanimous vote, the board of Episcopalian Christ Church in Alexandra decided to rip out two historic plaques from the pews where Confederate General Robert E. Lee and George Washington, the first president of the United States sat – where both men were parishioners.

The church came to the conclusion that the plaques were not acceptable to all worshipers.

“The plaques in our sanctuary make some in our presence feel unsafe or unwelcome,” leaders said, a reference to the fact that Washington was a slaveholder.

“Some visitors and guests who worship with us choose not to return because they receive an unintended message from the prominent presence of the plaques.”

“Many in our congregation feel a strong need for the church to stand clearly on the side of ‘all are welcome – no exceptions,'” they concluded.

The decision comes in the wake of renewed controversy over whether statues honoring Civil War figures should be no longer honored. The debate broke out again over the summer after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia killed one and injured others, Fox News reported.

President Trump expressed concern that the censoring of Confederate generals would lead to dishonoring Thomas Jefferson and George Washington as well.

President Trump argued the “history and culture of our great country” is “being ripped apart” by the removal of “beautiful” statutes. He referenced efforts to remove monuments to Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson because of their fighting against the United States for slave-owning states in the Civil War.

The president predicted it would not stop with Confederate status, “So, this week it’s Robert E. Lee,” he said. “I noticed that Stonewall Jackson’s coming down. I wonder, ‘is it George Washington next week and is it Thomas Jefferson the week after?’ You really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?”

He continued: “You’re changing history. You’re changing culture.”

A little history about President George Washington that they should have considered before voting to remove his plaque.

George Washington on the abolition of slavery, 1786

Of the nine presidents who were slaveholders, only George Washington freed all his own slaves upon his death. Before the Revolution, Washington, like most white Americans, took slavery for granted. At the time of the Revolution, one-fifth of the colonies’ population lived in bondage. Although most slaves were in the South, slavery was a legal institution in each of the thirteen colonies. Fourteen percent of the state of New York’s population was enslaved, for example, and New York City had more slaves than any other city in the colonies except Charleston, South Carolina.

Washington gradually came to realize that slavery was immoral and contrary to the Revolutionary ideals of liberty and equality. In 1774 he endorsed a document, known as the Fairfax Resolves, which condemned the slave trade as “unnatural” and recommended that no more slaves be imported into the British colonies. Five years later, he approved a plan to grant slaves their freedom in exchange for service in the Continental Army. (Source)

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