Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-12-21

know the man. He had per formed
such great services for his country
had been so clear in the high station!
he had held that criticism and en-
nifty ceased at the tomb and he wa:
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 {
soldier or statesman in any nation
been so suddenly apotheosized as was
George Washington. This was largely
due 20 his early biographers, who were
men without critical skill, and nc
sense whatever of a biographer's re-
s3onsibility. 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 inyenting 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 native of Maryland,
where he was born in 1860. 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
signed himself the rector of Mount
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, a book agent
for Matthew Carey, the Philadelphia
publisher, and, being a man of educa-
ton, occasionally wrote books for his
employer. In his travels through Vir-
GINA he heard many anecdotes of the
early life of Washington, and when
Washington died he Immediately in
cOrpOrated these and some others of
mis- 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
q IN ita ptD Tod 10
Washington and containing a 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
ment and Improvement both to our
selves and our children Printed for the
Rev, NJ. l.. Weems.'
II is TO the imagination of this
writer we owe the far-famed "hatchet
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-
tion of Parson Weems lying little
volume. The children of the United
States for three generations have been
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 mis- 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
Chus 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
10 see any imperfectiOn in Washing
tons acts or character and in a meas
IRE confirmed the dedication which
had been accredited to him by the
earlier biographers.
For a number of years past the crit
zeal students of American history have
revolted at this false and unscientifc
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 sai(
the same thing and some attempts
have been made to unwrap these gar
ments of indiscriminate eulogy which
have so long concealed the man Georg,
Washington and find out, if possible
what manner of person he really was
The three latest biographers, Henri.
Cabot Lodge, Edward Everett Hal
and Paul Leicester Ford have en-
deavored to do this, and in a measur
have succeeded in revealing to u
the human side of Washington. An
in so doing they have shown his rea
greatness. What man can accom-
plish limited by the infirmities @
human nature is a far greater exampl
TO his countrymen than if he possesse
no such infirmities and was fashione