Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-07-16

pendence; but their necks were stiff
fened against a cobweb for a yoke
from the first gunshot Of their rebel
lion. The beautiful picture Of their
loyalty and their sufferings. of their
moderation and virtues. Of their sue
cesses and constancy, as painted by
Britain's foremost writer's in the An
nual Register, not only flattered the
for some years the only readily avail
able record of revolutionary events to
be obtained. So 1t happened that the
first histories of the Revolution were
drawn entirely from that British source
and were infinitely more conductive to
American complacence than II they
had been compiled from the genuine
records here.
The crowning myths, however, were
supplied by Rev. Mr.. Weems, born
genius In superlatives, an utterly con-
scienceless old fraud as historian, a
dime novelist mislaid by luck in the
popular hunger for something really
satisfying and glorious about
the heroisms Of the Revolution. AS q
popular historian Prescott, Motley and
Parkman have proved mere hewers Of
wood and drawers Of water beside his
Phoebus soarings.
Parson Weems had church in Vir-
ginia, near Mt. Vernon. He was a
country book agent for Matthew Carey,
of Philadelphia. He was a stump speak
er whose talents were exercised from
wagon, like an Indian medicine IA
ker. He was q fine fiddler, who could
make the country lads and lasses
shake leg till two in the morning. He
had big family, and he needed the
money. So he wrote the lives Of Wash
ington, Franklin and Marion, which
Carey published, and he sold to the mu-
tual profit and the eternal misguidance
Of the whole American people. The
life Of Washington ran through forty
editions. He made Of Washington, the
social, genial, card-playing gentleman,
q sanorimonious wooden image, Sun
day-school lay figure that will never
escape the fraud Of unreality the I'D
ding parson put upon him. OF the
Revolution itself he made Homeric
and Biblical combat Of giants, Titans
and mammoths arrayed against the
unfathomable corruption and wicked
ness of dozen dragons and flends who
called themselves the king and minis
try of England. He didn't care hang
about facts; he never did a stroke OF
research; he simply took the Whig An
nual Register and whooped its biased
records up about 500 degrees and cut
loose for heroisms in style mixed up
of Scripture, Homer, Virgil and the
vigorous backwoods Of his native land.
He was, Mr.. Fisher thinks, the great
est mythmaker who ever lived, and he
has old Homer and gentle Virgil push
ed down among the kindergartners.
In Parson Weemis' histories every
thing RACES and storms, slashes and
tears. In his battles the Americans
and the English plunge their bayonets
into each others breasts and fall for
ward together, faint, shrieking in
death and lnGa ling their smoking
blood"
why was this cruel war made?"
the parson asks in dealing with Its
cause. Simply because the king
wanted money for his hungry relations
and his minister's stakes for gaming
tables or diamond nc:IllceJ for their
mistresses."
TT was the most popular, short,
easy, practical explanation that could
have been DEVISED Me. Fisher conl=
ments. "It reveals nothing Of the real
issue at stake; nothing a. =. ion
Of the supremacy OF parliament or the
other great principles involved. But
1t pleased vast numbers Of the people;
they could grasp It instantly. 1t ap-
pealed to their suspicious Of what the
effete monarchies across the Atlantic
really WERE"
1t has stuck to this day, and in spite
of Mr.. Fishers concluding appeal to
his compatriots to see their revolution
in its real dignity and its true human
perspective 1t seems likely to stick for
North American.
S-b~b-