Weems, the book peddler, who was not a New England man, wrote for his
own ends, one of the most popular books in his so-called “Life of
Washington.” It is said to have gone through some forty editions,
Washington declined, and very naturally, to give him access to his
papers; hence Weems was thrown entirely upon the resources of his
imagination for the material which he needed. It was natural, therefore,
and not difficult with so free a hand, to make up a good story. Hence
the origin of the incident of the Cherry Tree and little hatchet, and
other like truthful and popular anecdotes, which have become almost
_historical_ in our day.
Excuse may be found for Weems on the score of his commercial instinct,
the inaccessibility of facts and of his irresponsibility; but what can
be said in mitigation of the offence of those New England historians,
who have distorted facts, although they had access to all the material
necessary to have enabled them to do full justice to others as well as
to their own people? These men assumed, and upon them rested, the solemn
responsibility of teachers and defenders of historical Truth!
The author here disclaims all prejudice and has no other motive than an
earnest desire to establish the truth. This issue is made with the
writers of the past and not with the country nor with the people of the
present day.
The _true_ history of New England is sufficiently great to enable her to
look fearlessly into the mirror of Truth, and she can well afford to
cast off the meretricious glamour which has been thrown about her by
those sons who “loved her not not wisely, but too well.”