Historically, we are tempted to think that George Washington was nearly perfect and never had a complaint raised against him. After all, he is heralded as someone who could not tell a lie even in his youth. He was elected unanimously as the first president of the United States. He was unanimously reelected four years later. It was desired for him to run for a third term where he most assuredly would have gotten another unanimous vote, but he refused. At his funeral, he was eulogized as “First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”1
But this wasn’t always the case. Inspector General Thomas Cabal had an axe to grind against General George Washington – against the man who would become the Father of our nation.
It was 1777. Cabal was a brigadier general assigned to Major General John Sullivan. Washington was the leader of the Continental Army. Suffering several defeats, some in Congress were disapproving of Washington’s leadership. Cabal took the opportunity to advance himself over what he thought would be the dying career of Washington and played into the feelings of the disgruntled. Cabal started a letter campaign, writing to anyone who might join in to overthrow Washington.
General Washington got wind of what was going on and decided to write his own letter to Congress, exposing the dissention that was being sown and explaining what had happened during the military defeats. The letter was read in January of 1778 which brought embarrassment to Cabal and all who were following his divisive lead. Cabal wrote one more letter. It was his resignation/apology letter, submitted and accepted by Congress in March 1778. The fact that the letter was accepted was humiliating for Cabal.
Cabal returned to his homeland in France in 1800, dying in a self-imposed exile.2
It is so hard to deal with those who conspire against you. The feelings of hurt and betrayal are overwhelming. There is a temptation to lash out in anger, possibly retaliating against those who have wronged us. Washington handled things correctly. He recognized the chain of command, seeing Congress as his “boss.” He became accountable to them for their censure, if needed. Instead, truth prevailed and the wrong was righted.
Here’s a fact of life. People are going to talk about you. They are going to lie about you. They are going to rile others up against you. DEAL WITH IT!!!! That’s life. And we
were warned of this. 1 Peter 3:16 says, “Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.”
All we must concern ourselves with is doing the right things. We must have a “good conversation in Christ.” That’s it. And that’s enough to keep us busy without chasing every negative comment spoken against us.
The hardest thing for us to do is to let God do His thing. We feel passionately about the insult to our reputation. The slander cuts like a knife. We feel a need to defend ourselves. Scripture, though, seems to tell us that our best defense is to give our accusers nothing legitimate to use against us. Instead, just keep living right and doing good for the Lord. God will take care of the rest.
Just like Cabal, the Scriptures tell us that the wicked will be caught in their own snare. We have Haman in the Old Testament as an example of this. Remember the words of Proverbs 11:5 and let the Lord’s promises comfort you during the times of hurt. “The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way: but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness.”
1https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-u-s-president-elected
2https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/washington-learns-of-conway-cabal
Images are taken from https://pixabay.com/, https://www.pexels.com/, or https://unsplash.com/images or created in Windows Copilot. According to the websites, they are Royalty Free and free to be used for our purposes.
