Who Said I Cannot Tell a Lie

"Father, I Can Not Tell a Lie: I Cut the Tree," engraving by John C. McRae, 1867. The cherry tree myth is the well-nigh well-known and longest enduring legend about George Washington. In the original story, when Washington was six years old he received a hatchet as a gift and damaged his father's cherry tree. When his father discovered what he had done, he became angry and confronted him. Immature George bravely said, "I cannot tell a prevarication…I did cut it with my hatchet." Washington'due south father embraced him and rejoiced that his son's honesty was worth more than a grand trees.^ane

Ironically, this iconic story about the value of honesty was invented past one of Washington's first biographers, an afoot minister and bookseller named Mason Locke Weems. Afterward Washington'due south death in 1799 people were anxious to learn about him, and Weems was gear up to supply the need. Every bit he explained to a publisher in January 1800, "Washington you know is gone! Millions are gaping to read something nearly him…My plan! I give his history, sufficiently infinitesimal…I and so go on to bear witness that his unparalleled rise and elevation were due to his Great Virtues."² Weems' biography, The Life of Washington, was first published in 1800 and was an instant bestseller. However the cherry tree myth did non appear until the book's 5th edition was published in 1806.

Although there were other myths nigh Washington in Weems's volume, the red tree myth became the most popular. Weems had several motives when he wrote The Life of Washington and the reddish tree myth. Turn a profit was certainly ane of them; he rightly assumed that if he wrote a popular history book almost Washington it would sell. Weems was also able to counter the early tradition of deifying Washington past focusing on his private virtues, rather than his public accomplishments. A Federalist admirer of order and self-discipline, Weems wanted to present Washington as the perfect function model, especially for young Americans.

Cover page of the 1840 edition of Weem's Life of Washington. The book's subtitle shows how important Weems thought the anecdotes were to his book's central purpose to make Washington a role model for his "Young Countrymen."

The cherry tree myth and other stories showed readers that Washington'south public greatness was due to his private virtues. Washington's achievements every bit a full general and president were familiar to people in the early nineteenth century, just little was known about his human relationship with his male parent, who died when Washington was only eleven years old. Every bit one Pennsylvanian observed, "The facts and anecdotes nerveless past the author are well calculated to exhibit the graphic symbol of that illustrious man, and Christian hero."ⁱⁱⁱ Weems knew what the public wanted to read, and as a result of his success he is considered i of the fathers of pop history.

Weems wrote his version of the cherry tree myth to entreatment to a broad audition, but decades later on William Holmes McGuffey composed a series of grammar school textbooks that recast the chestnut as a children's story. McGuffey was a Mason Locke Weems, by an unidentified artist, c.1810. Number NPG.95.190, National Portrait Gallery. Presbyterian government minister and a college professor who was passionate about teaching morality and faith to children. His books, known as McGuffey's Readers, gave him the perfect opportunity. First published in 1836, the readers remained in impress for most a hundred years and sold over 120 million copies.

McGuffey'south version of the cherry tree myth appeared in his Eclectic 2d Reader for almost twenty years, including the German-linguistic communication edition from 1854. In McGuffey's version of the story, Washington's language was formalized, and he showed more than deference to his father'southward authority. For example, when Washington's father explains the sin of lying, McGuffey has young George reply tearfully, "Male parent, do I ever tell lies?"⁴

As ministers concerned with moral and religious reform, McGuffey and Weems had similar motives for writing. Both men also believed that the best fashion to improve the moral fiber of society was to educate children. Washington provided the perfect role model, and McGuffey turned the reddish tree myth into a story specifically aimed at children. Follow-upwardly questions at the end of McGuffey's cherry tree story reinforce its message: "How did his father feel toward him when he made his confession? What may we expect past confessing our faults?"⁵

By the 1830s, the cherry tree myth was firmly entrenched in American civilisation, equally the case of Joice Heth clearly shows. Heth was an elderly enslaved woman purchased by P.T. Barnum in 1835. He made her into a sideshow attraction, billing her as an enslaved woman who had raised George Washington. (If true, this would have fabricated her 161 years onetime.) Heth had many concrete characteristics of extreme old age. The stories she told virtually Washington--including the carmine tree myth--were correct out of Weems. Heth was seen as credible considering she was telling stories that people already knew.

The cherry tree myth has endured for more two hundred years probably because nosotros similar the story, which has go an of import part of Americans' cultural heritage. It has been featured in comic strips and cartoons, peculiarly political cartoons. Americans like to use the myth equally a standard for politicians; presidents from William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt to Richard Nixon, George W. Bush-league, and Barack Obama have been featured in crimson-tree themed cartoons. The longevity of the cerise tree myth is demonstrative of both American ideals and Washington's legacy.

Jay Richardson
George Mason University

Notes:

one Bricklayer Locke Weems, The Life of Washington the Groovy (Augusta, GA: George P. Randolph, 1806), 8-9.

2 Mason Locke Weems to Mathew Carey, January 12, 1800, in Paul Leicester Ford, Mason Locke Weems: His Works, His Ways: A Bibliography Left Unfinished, three vols. (New York: Plimpton Press, 1929), 2: 8-9.

3 Proposals of Mason L. Weems, Dumfries, for publishing by subscription, The Life of George Washington, with curious anecdotes, every bit honourable to himself and exemplary to his young countrymen (Philadelphia: Carey, 1809).

4 William Holmes McGuffey, The Eclectic 2d Reader (Cincinnati: Truman and Smith, 1836), 113-115.

5 Ibid.

Bibliography:

Harris, Christopher. "Mason Locke Weems'south Life of Washington: The Making of a Bestseller." Southern Literary Journal, 19 (1987): 92-102.

Lengel, Edward Thou. Inventing George Washington: America's Founder in Myth and Memory.New York: HarperCollins, 2010.

McGuffey, William H. The Eclectic Second Reader. Cincinnati: Truman and Smith, 1836.

Weems, Bricklayer L. The Life of Washington the Great: Enriched with a Number of Very Curious Anecdotes, Perfectly in Graphic symbol, and Equally Honorable to Himself, and Exemplary to his Young Countrymen. Augusta, GA: George P. Randolph, 1806.