CHAPTER 35
1 PGW, Retirement Series, July 3, 1799, to Mason Locke Weems, Last Volume, pp. 173-74.
2 Weems. The Life of Washington. Ed. Marcus Cunliffe. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1962.
3 The account of the cherry tree was not included in Life and Memorable Actions of George Washington until the ninth edition in 1809.
4 Weems, The Life of Washington p. 22.n.1.
5 Ibid., pp. 7, 21
6 Ibid., p. 21.
7 Fitzpatrick, The Diaries of George Washington, vol. II., pp. 80, 81, 88, 89.
8 Ibid., I. 150, 352.
9 Weems, The Life of Washington, p. 9.
10 On the title page in the Cunliffe reprint.
11 Henry Cabot Lodge, George Washington (New Rochelle: Arlington House, 1898) p. 41, 48. Lodge continues his excoriation of Weems: “There has been in reality a good deal of needless confusion about Weems and his book, for he was not a complex character, and neither he nor his writings are difficult to value or understand. By profession a clergyman or preacher, by nature an adventurer, Weems loved notoriety, money, and a wandering life. So he wrote books which he correctly believed would be popular, and sold them not only through the regular channels, but by peddling them himself as he traveled about the country. In this way he gratified all his propensities, and no doubt derived from life a good deal of simple pleasure. Chance brought him near Washington in the closing days, and his commercial instinct told him that here was the subject of all others for his pen and his market. He accordingly produced the biography which had so much success. Judged solely as literature, the book is beneath contempt. The style is turgid, overloaded, and at times silly. The statements are loose, the mode of narration confused and incoherent, and the moralizing is flat and commonplace to the last degree. Yet there was a certain sincerity of feeling underneath all the bombast and platitudes, and this saved the book. The biography did not go, and was not intended to go, into the hands of the polite society of the great eastern towns. It was meant for the farmers, the pioneers, and the backwoodsmen of the country. It went into their homes, and passed with them beyond the Alleghenies and out to the plains and valleys of the great West. The very defects of the book helped it to success among the simple, hard-working, hard-fighting race engaged in the conquest of the American continent. To them its heavy and tawdry style, its staring morals, and its real patriotism all seemed eminently befitting the national hero and thus Weems created the Washington of the popular fancy. The idea grew up with the country, and became so ingrained in the popular thought that finally everybody was affected by it and even the most stately and solemn of the Washington biographers adopted the unsupported tales of the itinerant parson and book-peddler.
In regard to the public life of Washington, Weems took the facts known to every one, and drawn for the most part from the gazettes. He then dressed them up in his own peculiar fashion and gave them to the world. All this, forming of course nine tenths of his book, has passed despite its success, into oblivion. The remaining tenth described Washington’s boyhood until his fourteenth or fifteenth year, and this, which is the work of the author’s imagination, has lived. Weems, having set himself up as absolutely the only authority as to this period, has been implicitly followed, and has thus come to demand serious consideration. Until Weems is weighed and disposed of, we cannot even begin an attempt to get at the real Washington.
Weems was not a cold-blooded liar, a mere forger of anecdotes, He was simply a man destitute of historical sense, training, or morals, ready to take the slenderest fact and work it up for the purpose of the market until it became almost as impossible to reduce it to its original dimensions as it was for the fisherman to get the Afrit back into his jar. In a word, Weems was an approved myth-maker. No better example can be given than the way in which he described himself. It is believed that he preached once, and possibly oftener, to a congregation which numbered Washington among its members. Thereupon he published himself in his book as the rector of Mount Vernon parish. There was, to begin with, no such parish. There was Truro parish, in which was a church called indifferently Pohick or Mount Vernon Church. Of this church Washington was a vestryman until 1785, when he joined the church as Alexandria. The Reverend Lee Massey was the clergyman of the Mount Vernon church, and the church at Alexandria had nothing to do with Mount Vernon. There never was, moreover, such a person as the rector of Mount Vernon parish, but it was the Weems way of treating his appearance before the great man, and of deceiving the world with the notion of an intimacy which the title implied.
Weems, of course, had no difficulty with the public life, but in describing the boyhood he was thrown on his own resources, and out of them he evolved the cherry-tree, the refusal to fight or permit fighting among the boys at school, and the initials in the garden. This last story is to the effect that Augustine Washington planted seeds in such a manner that when they sprouted they formed on the earth the initials of his son’s name, and the boy being much delighted thereby, the father explained to him that it was the work of the Creator, and thus inculcated a profound belief in God. This tale is taken bodily from Dr. Beattie’s biographical sketch of his son, published in England in 1799, and may be dismissed at once. As to the other two more familiar anecdotes there is not a scintilla of evidence that they had any foundation and with them may be included the colt story, told by Mr. Custis, a simple variation of the cherry-tree theme, which is Washington’s early love of truth. Weems says that his stories were told him by a lady, and “a good old gentleman,” who remembered the incidents, while Mr. Custis gives no authority for his minute account of a trivial event over a century old when he wrote. To a writer who invented the rector of Mount Vernon, the further invention of a couple of Boswells would be a trifle. I say Boswells advisedly, for these stories are told with the utmost minuteness, and the conversations between Washington and his father are given as if from a stenographic report. How Mr. Custis, usually so accurate, came to be so far infected with the Weems myth as to tell the colt story after the Weems manner, cannot now be determined. There can be no doubt that Washington, like most healthy boys, got into a good deal of mischief, and it is not at all impossible that he injured fruit-trees and confessed that he had done so. It may be accepted as certain that he rode and mastered many unbroken thoroughbred colts, and it is possible that one of them burst a blood-vessel in the process and died, and that the boy promptly told his mother of the accident. But this is the utmost credit which these two anecdotes can claim. Even so much as this cannot be said of certain other improving tales of like nature. That Washington lectured his playmates on the wickedness of fighting, and in the year 1754 allowed himself to be knocked down in the presence of his soldiers, and thereupon begged his assailant’s pardon for having spoken roughly to him, are stories so silly and so foolishly impossible that they do not deserve an instant’s consideration.
There is nothing intrinsically impossible in either the cherry-tree or the colt incident, nor would there be in a hundred others which might be readily invented. The real point is that these stories, as told by Weems and Mr. Custis, are on their face hopelessly and ridiculously false. They are so, not merely because they have no vestige of evidence to support them, but because they are in every word and line the offspring of a period more than fifty years later. No English-speaking people, certainly no Virginians, ever thought or behaved or talked in 1740 like the personages in Weems’s stories, whatever they may have done in 1790, or at the beginning of the next century. These precise anecdotes belong to the age of Miss Edgeworth and Hannah More and Jane Taylor. They are engaging specimens of the “Harry and Lucy” and “Purple Jar” morality, and accurately reflect the pale didacticism which became fashionable in England at the close of the last century. They are as untrue to nature and to fact at the period to which they are assigned as would be efforts to depict Augustine Washington and his wife in the dress of the French revolution discussing the propriety of worshiping the Goddess of Reason.” Pp. 41-48.
12 PGW Diaries, vol. 5, p. 112.
13 Slaughter, The History of Truro Parish, pp. 101-02.
14 Ibid.
15 See www.loper.org/~george/archives/2000/Feb/39.html “George Washington’s Birthday: Mason Locke Weems and the Cherry Tree Legend,” Mason Weems (1760 - 1825). Clergyman, author, bookseller (Excerpts taken from “Footnote People in U.S. History”, People’s Almanac, David Wallechinsky, N.Y: Doubleday & Co, pp. 113-114).
16 GWP Diaries, 5:112. The note there directs to: 6 July 1792, PHi: Gratz Collection.
17 Fitzpatrick, The Diaries of George Washington, vol. III. p. 174.
18 Ibid. p. 112.
19 This volume was written by Hugh Blair, D.D., a minister of the “High Church” and a professor at the University of Edinburgh. It was originally published in London, but “Re-printed for the Reverend M. L. Weems” in Baltimore in 1792 by “Samuel and John Adams, Book-Printers, in Market-Street, between South and Gay-Streets.”
20 George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741-1799: Series 4. General Correspondence. 1697-1799 Mason L. Weems to George Washington, 1795, Image 745.
21 Washington had been included in the estate of Dr. Wilson, Prebendary of Westminster & Rector of S. Stephens Walbrook in London. He was Bishop Thomas Wilson’s son. The son of the Bishop also bequeathed his father’s study Bible as well as his father’s works to Washington. These were sent to Washington by Clement Cruttwell, the famous compiler of the Biblical Concordance that bears his name. (See Lane, Catalogue of the Washington Collection, pp. 63, 498, 501-02.) Washington in turn, in his own will, passed the Bible on to his dear friend, the Reverend Bryan Fairfax: “To the Reverend, now Bryan, Lord Fairfax, I give a Bible in three large folio volumes, with notes, presented to me by the Right reverend Thomas Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and Man.” [Actually it was the Bishop’s son who bequeathed them to Washington.]
22 Washington was interested in the subject of the evidences of Christianity. In Washington’s cash accounts, dated Sept. 12, 1787, we discover that he purchased Evidences of the Christian Religion Briefly and Plainly Stated (London, 1786) by James Beattie. See Lane, A Catalogue of the Washington Collection in the Boston Athenaeum, Boston: 1897, p. 502. The book was a great success: An 1804 publisher wrote, “Of the Evidences of Christianity, an Edition is generally sold every 12 to 18 months.” from the “Introduction” to the 1996 Routledge/Thoemmes Press reprint, p. xiv. The simple structure of Beattie’s work is, “Revelation is useful and necessary,” “The Gospel History is true,” and “Objections answered.”
23 The letter states: His Excellency Genl. Washington, Very Honored Sir: I was the other day in Norfolk where a very particular friend of mine Capt. James Tucker, a man of merit and money, begged me to ask a favor of you which we both concluded your goodness would readily grant. Capt. Tucker is a wealthy merchant of Norfolk, largely in the importing line. He has lately been applied to for a quantity of merchandise on credit by a gentleman who calls himself Major James Welch and who says moreover that he is the man who purchased your Excellency’s western lands of which a post says you sold so much some time ago. Capt. Tucker wishes to know whether a Major Welch did purchase your Excellency’s lands or a part of them, and whether he met your Excellency’s expectations in the way of payment. If your Excellency will condescend to honor me with a line on this subject it will be very gratefully acknowledged both by Capt. Tucker and your Excellency’s most obliged M. L. Weems.” See under March 26, 1799 in George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress.
24 Washington answered from Mount Vernon, “Sir: Your letter of the 26th instt came duly to hand. In answer thereto, I inform you that, my sale to Mr. James Welch, of the Lands I hold upon the Great Kanhawa, is conditional only. He has a Lease of them at a certain annual Rent, which if punctually paid, for Six years, and at the end thereof shall pay one fourth of the sum fixed on as the value of them; and the like sum by Instalments the three following years, and this without any let or hindrance that then, and in that case only, I am to convey them in Fee simple, not else. This is the nature of the agreemt. between Mr. Welch and Sir Your etc. PS. It may not be amiss to add that the first years Rent (due in Jan. last) is not yet paid.” See under on March 31, 1799, in George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress.
25 WGW, vol. 37, 8-29-1799.
26 Weems, The Immortal Mentor; or Man’s Unerring Guide to a Healthy, Wealthy and Happy Life. In Three Parts. By Lewis Cornaro, Dr. Franklin, and Dr. Scott. Philadelphia: Printed for the Reverend Mason L. Weems, by Francis and Robert Bailey, no. 116 High-Street, 1796.
27 This letter is not found in the Writings of George Washington, but it is in The Papers of George Washington, Retirement Series, July 3, 1799, to Mason Locke Weems, Last Volume, pp. 173-74.
28 Washington was careful to thank people when they dedicated their works to him. See for example WGW vol. 35, 1-21-1797 to Richard Peters; Ibid., vol. 36, 2-6-1798, to the Secretary of state; Ibid., vol. 36, 8-15-1798, to Reverend Jonathan Boucher. But he usually did not give permission to those who requested his permission to dedicate their works to him. See Ibid., vol. 28, 6-20-1786, to Nicholas Pike; Ibid., vol. 36, 7-4-1798, to Ferdinand Fairfax; Ibid., vol. 36, 10-14-1798, to Reverend Samuel Knox; and Ibid., vol. 29, 1-9-1787, to Dr. John Leigh. An example of an exception to this was for Reverend Timtothy Dwight, Jr., see Ibid., vol. 11, 3-18-1778.
Similarly, compare here his general unwillingness to give endorsements. See, for example, his silence with respect to Uzal Odgen’s request for an endorsement (Lane, Washington Collection, Boston Athenaeum, p. 154-155); His approbation (or approval of a work) was a high honor and rarely given. Examples include Reverend Jedidiah Morse, WGW, vol. 37, 2-18-1799; Nicholas Pike, Ibid., vol. 30, 6-20-1788; and Reverend Benjamin Stevens, Ibid., vol. 30, 12-23-1789. This makes Washington’s support for Weems’ work most exceptional.
29 For Washington’s consistent use of the word “peruse” or “perusal” in its sense of “examining with great care” or “to read intensively”, see WGW, vol. 1, 11-26-1753, Speech to Indians at Logstown; WGW, vol. 14, 4-14-1779, to John Jay; WGW, vol. 29, 9-30-1786, to Bushrod Washington; WGW, vol. 32, 6-20-1792, to Dr. James Anderson; WGW, vol.. 37, 4-23-1799, to the Secretary of War. For a clear example of this, consider Washington’s letter to Mercy Warren, WGW, 31, 11-4-1790, “Madam: My engagements, since the receipt of your letter of the 12th of September, with which I was honored two days ago, have prevented an attentive perusal of the book that accompanied it, but from the reputation of its author, from the parts I have read, and a general idea of the pieces, I am persuaded of its gracious and distinguished reception by the friends of virtue and science.”
30 Dr. Thomas Scott (1747-1821) was an Anglican clergyman and well-known biblical scholar from England. His conversion from Unitarianism to Calvinism was recorded in The Force of Truth (1779). His most notable work was a many times reissued commentary on the Bible in 4 volumes (1788-1792). He was also author of a work against Thomas Paine entitled A vindication of the Divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, and of the doctrines contained in them: being an answer to the two parts of Mr. T. Paine’s Age of Reason. By Thomas Scott, Chaplain to the Lock Hospital. ]([New York] London, printed: New-York, reprinted by G. Forman, for C. Davis, book-seller, no. 94, Water-Street., —1797.—)
31 Weems, The Immortal Mentor, pp. 57-60.
32 Ibid., p. 116.
33 Ibid., p. 123-24.
34 Ibid.
