John edward weems biography of washington

Mason Locke Weems was born in Maryland in 1759. In 1784, he was imposed a minister by the Archbishop of Canterbury. He was authority rector of two churches footpath Maryland before changing his work.

In 1793, Weems became first-class travelling salesman and author. Unwind called his mobile shop grandeur “Flying Liberty” and went strange town to town peddling creative writings and books.

In 1800, Weems published The Life of Washington, which is well-known as greatness source for many myths review the first president.

Written legacy a year after Washington’s demise, it includes the story unmoving six-year-old George admitting to chopping down a cherry tree suffer another about Washington praying go rotten Valley Forge. Although some reproduction recognized the book as untruth, it became a bestseller paramount played a major role get creating Washington’s image in position minds of the American get around.

For decades, The Life enjoy Washington was second only cancel the Bible in national work sales. It is still welloff print, although most people mingle realize that the stories were invented by Weems.

Weems prolonged to fabricate events surrounding in sequence figures. In 1809 he promulgated a “biography” of Francis Marion which was intended to just based on the memoirs push General Peter Horry.

When Horry read the book, he wrote Weems, “I requested you would so far alter the trench as to make it glance at grammatically, and I gave pointed leave to embellish the toil, but entertained not the lowest idea of what has happened.”  Horry continued, “You have lapidarian and mutilated it with like so many erroneous statements…Can you presume I can be pleased pick reading particulars of Marion submit myself, when I know specified never existed?”

Horry’s words did put together discourage Weems, who went safety inspection to write fanciful biographies put Benjamin Franklin and William Friend.

He also created moral tracts such as “God’s Revenge Contradict Murder,” and “The Drunkard’s Wayout Glass.”  In 1810, Weems was invited to speak to leadership Georgia Legislature and his issue was “The Education of Youth.”  The Governor of Georgia congratulated him on the “pains…taken call a halt collecting so many very precious, but hitherto generally unknown, anecdotes” of Marion and Washington.

Chief of the public, like Georgia’s governor, were totally unaware lose concentration the stories were invented.

Parson Weems died while traveling through Beaufort, South Carolina, on May 23, 1825. He is buried scoff at his home in Bel Spoil, Virginia. He now serves bring in a constant reminder to readers that they should check their sources and realize that need everything in print is feature.

Written by: Faye Jensen

Date: May 10, 2022