Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1899-12-18

| Sucn great services Tor his country,
had been so clear in the high stations
| he had held that criticism and en-
nifty ceased at the tomb and he was
at once elevated among the demigods
Of myth and fable. Not only his
contrymen, but the whole world,
joined in his praise, and he was
| idealized into an image that had lit
tie humanity about it save the outward
form. Never in all history has q
soldier or statesman in any nation
been so suddenly apotheosized as was
| George Washington. This was largely
due to his early biographers, who were
men without critical skill, and no
sponsibility. They were without
ability to weigh the value of docu-
ments and other papers, where they
used any, and had no hesitation what
ever in inventing any pleasing fable
that would illustrate the abstract per-
| lection of their hero. The most re-
markable of these biographers was
Rev. Mason Locke Weems, who was
the first of Washington's American
biographers and the creator of the
ideal Washington.
| Weems was a native of Maryland
where he was born in 1850. He was
educated for the ministry and was or
dained in the Episcopal church. He
preached occasionally at least in Pow
hich church, which Washington at
| tended, and on the strength Of this
| I,
Vernon parish, but Bishop Meade, the
| historian of the church in Virginia,
| says he never was the rector of that
parish or of any other in that state,
though in his travels through the state
as an itinerate book peddler he some
times occupied a vacant pulpit and
sometimes read prayers to the servants
in the houses at which he was enter
tanned. He was, in fact, book agent
for Matthew Carey, the Philadelphia
publisher, and being man Of educa-
ton, occasionally wrote books for his
employer. In his travels through Vir-
ginia he heard many anecdotes of the
early life of Washington, and when
Washington died he Immediately in
WI
his own invention into a biography,
which was published on the 22d of
| February, 1900, but little more than
two months after Washingtin's death.
The title of this volume is impressive
enough. "a History of the Life and
| Death, Virtues and Exploits of Gen
eral Washington, Dedicated to Mrs.
| Washington and containing great
many curious and valuable Anecdotes
tending to throw much light on the
private as we'll as public life and char
acter of that Very Extraordinary Man,
| the whole happily calculated to furnish
Feast of true Washington Entertain
nent and Improvement both to our
| selves and our children Printed for the
Rev. NJ. L. Weems."
1t is to the imagination of this
writer we owe the far-famed Ratchet
story and the kindred tales of Wash
| ington's childhood and boyhood, none
of which has the least foundation else
where. Edition after edition of this
book has been sold since it first ap-
peared and it has been published year
after year. No subsequent life of
| Washington has had half the circula-
ton of Parson Weems' lying little
volume. The children of the United
brought up on it.
The next culprit to Weems in OBJ
securing the human side of Washington
was DR.. Jared Sparks, at one time
president of Harvard college and a
distinguished educator in the early
days of the republic. He edited and
published the writings of Washington
and wrote his biography. He had,
however, so little sense of responsible
ity that he undertook to smooth and
amend such letters of Washington's
as he thought were not quite credit
able to a perfect man, going to the ex-
tent often of changing their meaning
thus destroying their value altogether.
But it made Washington from his
youth up appear very perfect. Nor
were Marshall, Irving and Everett re-
luctant to keep their hero on the
pedestal to which he had been exalted
They did not, of course, relate the silly
stories of Weems, but they were loath
to see any imperfection in Washing
toms acts or character and in a meas
ure confirmed the dedication which
had been accredited to him by the
earlier biographers
For number of years past the crit
ical students of American history have
revolted at this false and unscientific
method or writing the biography of
one who was the foremost man of his
day but no god. McMaster in the
first volume of his history of the
United States, published fifteen years
ago, said: General Washington is
known to us, and President Wash
ington. But George Washington is
an unknown man."
Other writer's and critics have said
the same thing and some attempts
have been made to unwrap these gar
ments of indiscriminate eulogy which
have so long concealed the man George
Washington and find out, if possible,