"The old site is the proper one," said Mr. George Mason, whose residence was near the house of worship.
"Not at all central," replied another.
"Yet not so far aside as to discommode any one," responded Mason.
"I beg leave to dissent from Mr. Mason," added a third. "The location is inconvenient for my family."
"The sacred associations of the spot alone ought to keep the church there," urged Mr. Mason. "For generations our house of worship has stood there, and the place is hallowed by the sepulchres of our fathers around it."
The subject was discussed, pro and con, when Washington's opinion was asked. Without reserve he remarked:
"I cannot agree with my friend Mason that the location does not sensibly inconvenience some members of the parish. I think it does, and that a more central locality can be found. Neither can I see the force of his argument derived from the contiguity of the grave-yard. Churches are erected for the living, and not for the dead. The ashes of the dead can be sacredly protected by a suitable enclosure."
The vestry adjourned without deciding upon the location, and before the next meeting, Washington carefully surveyed the parish, and made a neat plan of the same, showing that the old location was far from the centre. Mr. Mason urged with more earnestness than before the claims of the old site. But when Washington took his plan of survey from his pocket, and gave ocular demonstration that the old location was at one side of the parish, the new location was adopted at once.
Rev. Lee Massey was rector of the church at that time, and he said of Washington:
"I never knew so constant an attendant on church as Washington. And his behavior in the house of God was ever so deeply reverential that it produced the happiest effects on my congregation, and greatly assisted me in my pulpit labors. No company ever kept him from church. I have often been at Mount Vernon on the Sabbath morning when his breakfast-table was filled with guests; but to him they furnished no pretext for neglecting his God and losing the satisfaction of setting a good example. For, instead of staying at home out of false complaisance to them, he used constantly to invite them to accompany him."