You may have never heard of Parson Weems — in fact, there’s a good chance that you haven’t — but I can practically guarantee that you’re familiar with at least one of his stories. It was Weems who concocted the famous story of George Washington cutting down his father’s favorite cherry tree. When confronted by his father, little George quickly admits his guilt. “I cannot tell a lie. I did it with my little hatchet.”
Mason Lock Weems was born in Arundel County, Maryland, the 19th child of a Scottish farmer. When he was 14, Mason was sent to London to study medicine, and by some reports, he may have later served as a surgeon in the British Navy at the beginning of the American Revolution. By 1779 he was back in Maryland, however, and in 1781 he was sent back to England, this time studying for the ministry. After ordination by the Archbishop of Canterbury, he returned to Maryland, and began serving as a pastor in a series of Episcopal Churches.
The ministry didn’t pay very well, however, and before long Weems had begun to augment his income by selling books. Although still a minister, he traveled up and down the Atlantic coast by horseback with his saddle bags full of books. Whenever he heard of a public gathering or a fair he rushed to attend it, and soon gathered a crowd around him. He was apparently an entertaining speaker, interspersing his recommendations of reading material with humorous anecdotes and jests. He was also a skilled fiddle player, and would frequently play for young people, who danced, much to the consternation of their elders.
Weems married Frances Ewell in 1795, and eventually the couple produced 10 children. Before long Weems was bookselling full-time, and began writing books as well. He opened a small bookstore in Dumfries, Virginia, but continued to spend much of his time on the road. The building that once housed his bookstore is now the Weems-Botts Museum.
Weems learned a great deal about the reading tastes of the public in his travels, and he put his knowledge to good use. One of his publications was a temperance tract entitled The Drunkard’s Looking Glass. On his travels, Weems would frequently enter taverns and begin aping the mannerisms of the inebriated, to the amusement and delight of an audience that soon became eager to purchase his book. The Looking Glass was considered by religious leaders to be excellent in intention and effect, although its anecdotes and examples were somewhat tainted by their inauthenticity. It was a charge that was levied against most of Weem’s writing.
Weems’s most famous works were his biographies: the Life of Washington; Life of General Francis Marion; Life of Benjamin Franklin, with Essays; and Life of William Penn. His biography of Francis Marion was begun with the help of General Peter Horry, who had served with the “Swamp Fox” during the war. When Horry realized that Weems intended to completely fabricate anecdotes to illustrate Marion’s character, he completely separated himself from the project.
Weems pursued the same artistic license in his other biographies, with the possible exception of the life of Benjamin Franklin, where he was able to lift many tales directly from Franklin’s own autobiography. His romantic flourishes were not always the result of his own imagination, though; sometimes he incorporated hearsay and faulty or fabricated memories from others that he had heard in his travels. His story of George Washington and the cherry tree appears to have been fabricated by Weems, however, along with the tale of Washington throwing a coin across the Rappahannock (or Potomac) River, and the story of Washington’s prayer at Valley Forge.
Weems’s stories may not have been accurate biography, but they did make a valuable contribution to the emerging American character. America was looking for heroes, and Weems supplied them. George Washington, our first President, had been a dependable, honorable, and modest man — and consequently a little dull. Treatment such as Weems’s biography raised the man almost to the point of deification. In fact, Weems — after calling Washington “the greatest man that ever lived” — specifically referred to Washington as “the HERO, and the Demigod,” and called him “Jupiter, Conservator of the Empire,” and “Jupiter, Savior of the World.”
This public worship of the character of Washington would continue for years to come. One startling expression of it can be seen in the ceiling fresco of the Capitol rotunda in Washington D.C. The allegorical fresco, called Apotheosis of Washington, depicts Washington in the process of becoming a god. Draped in purple, Washington is depicted with a rainbow at his feet. On his left is the goddess Victory. One his right is Liberty. Completing a circle with Washington and the two goddesses are 13 maidens, representing the original 13 states. Surrounding them are six allegorical scenes depicting War, Science, Marine, Commerce, Mechanics, and Agriculture.
Sources: Chase’s Calendar of Events, 2011 Edition: The Ultimate Go-To Guide for Special Days, Weeks, and Months, Editors of Chase’s Calendar of Events; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October 11; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parson_Weems; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apotheosis_of_Washington ; http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Appletons%27_Cyclop%C3%A6dia_of_American_Biography/Weems,_Mason_Locke; http://www.bookrags.com/biography/mason-locke-weems-dlb2/; http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/gw/gwmoral.html; http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001089.html; http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/gw/gwmain.html.