Parson Weems : a biographical and critical study

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THE REV MASON L WEEMS
Died -1825

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PARSON WEEMS

A Biographical and Critical Study

BY

LAWRENCE C. WROTH

The Eichelberger Book Company
baltimore, md.
1911

Copyright, 1911, by
LAWRENCE C. WROTH

BALTIMORE, MD., V. B. A.

/ dedicate this hook

to the memory of

my brother

Thomas Page Wroth

PREFACE

There needs no apology for writing as fully
as the material available will allow the life of
that American author whose works for the
first half of the nineteenth century were more
frequently reprinted and more widely distrib-
uted and read than those of any other native
writer during the same period. Mason Locke
Weems published his first pamphlet in 1792,
and in 1800 he brought out his Life of Wash-
ington, his best known contribution to the lit-
erature of his period. From this date until
the Civil War, his works were published and
republished with a frequency that has a paral-
lel only in the many issues of the modern best
sellers, a marked divergence, however, lying
in the circumstance that in the case of the lat-
ter the necessity for republication generally
dies with the same year that sees their first issue.
Duyckinck ' calls Weems the " Livy of the

^ Duyckinck, G. L., Cyclopaedia of American Literature.
2V. N. Y. 1855.

6 PREFACE

common people," but this designation errs in
its exclusiveness, for he was nearly as much
appreciated by the upper classes of society as
by the mechanic and the ploughboy. Per-
haps the most obvious, although not the most
important, claim that he has to our attention
is the fact that upon his authority rests the
best known of American hero tales — the story
of George Washington and the Cherry Tree.
His life has never been written with any re-
gard for accuracy and fullness, and this is an
attempt to do so within the limits imposed by
a seemingly impenetrable veil which covers
many of the years of his life and many of his
actions and motives.

The absence of the vagabond element from
the lives of the masters of American literature
distresses many most properly brought up per-
sons. Whitman allowed his natural bent in
that direction to become an artificial cult of
the unconventional, with the result that he be-
came in a fashion the most conventional of
men. Poe had it almost alone of those whose
feet are on the summits. The rest of them

PREFACE 7

have been for the greater part quiet, scholarly
men in whom the high lights are dulled or
quite obscured by the library dust which en-
velopes them. The heart that thrills at the
thought of Marlowe brawling in a London
tavern, or of Villon raking the streets of
Paris with his " score of loyal cut-throats,"
i*esents the absence of the vagabond, or even
the merely unconventional, element from the
American Parnassus. On the lower slopes of
the classic mount, however, there are found
certain ones of this less formal type, and
Mason Locke Weems is of the company.

For thirty years there was no more familiar
figure on the roads of the Southern States
than this book peddler and author who, pro-
vided gipsy-like with horse and wagon, his
wares and his fiddle, travelled his long route
year after year, sleeping in wayside inn, farm-
house or forest, fiddling, writing, selling
books, living in the open and learning some
new road lore, field lore or wisdom of the
woods with each day that passed. He makes a
bit of color in an oftentimes dreary landscape.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

It would be difficult for the author to men-
tion by name all of those who have been of
service to him In the preparation of this book.
It must be sufficient that he acknowledge with
gratitude help from many persons In different
parts of this country and England, naming
only those three whose assistance was of such
a nature that It could not pass unmarked.
These are Miss Elizabeth Chew Williams, of
Baltimore, a great-great niece of Parson
Weems; Mr. Walter B. Norrls, of the teach-
ing staff at the United States Naval Academy,
and the late Mr. Richard D. Fisher, of Balti-
more, whose contribution was none the less
valuable In that It consisted chiefly of en-
couragement when that was most needed.

PARSON WEEMS

I
EARLY LIFE

Mason Locke Weems was born October i ,
1759, at Marshes Seat/" the family home-
stead near Herring Creek In Anne Arundel
County, Maryland. He was one of the
younger of the nineteen children of David
Weems, the chief progenitor of the family In
America. This David, his brother James and
his sister WUlIamlna, were the children of a
younger brother of David,' third Earl of
Wemyss, the representative of a family which

*" In the will of David Weems, the name of the plantation
is given as above, " Marshes Seat." In the Rent Rolls of
Anne Arundel County it is likewise so called. It is prob-
able that as time went on the name came to be carelessly
rendered as " Marshall Seat," for this is how the later gen-
erations of the family pronounce and spell it.

'As is the case with many early American families
there is some uncertainty in the identification of the emi-
grant ancestor, but the relationship as given in the text is
said to be correct by H. H. Bellas, Esq., in his MSS. notes
on the Weems or Wemyss family, in possession of Miss
Harriet Reynolds, Bradshaw, Md.

12 PARSON WEEMS

traced its ancestry to the Macduff whom
Shakespeare has made memorable in his great
tragedy. Williamina Wemyss ^ married Will-
iam Moore, Esq., of Moore Hall, Pennsyl-
vania, and became the mother of a long line
of Moores, Cadwaladers, Goldsboroughs,
Ridgeleys and Smiths. Her daughter, Re-
becca Moore, married Dr. William Smith, a
" father " of the Episcopal Church in Amer-
ica, and as Provost of the College of Philadel-
phia, eminent among the learned men of his
day.

David Weems (the Maryland branch of
the family soon dropped the ancient spelling
of the name) was resident in Maryland cer-
tainly as early as 1729, for in that year the
farm upon which he is living is bequeathed
him in the will of his uncle. Dr. WiUiam
Locke,* a familiar name in the local annals

^See Life of Rev. V^illiam Smith, D. D. By Horace
Wemyss Smith.

*Dr. William Locke is said to have been the maternal
uncle of the Weems children for whom he provided. His
will, in which he speaks of them as " cousins," is to be
found in Book 20, Liber CC3, Folio 480, Office Registrar
of Wills, Anne Arundel County, Annapolis, Md.

EARLY LIFE 13

of Anne Arundel County. Family tradition
says that Dr. Locke brought David, James
and Williamina to America in their childhood
and brought them up in his house. However
this may be it is certain that he was exceed-
ingly generous to them in the distribution of
his property at his death in 1732.

In 1742/ ten years after the death of Dr.
Locke, the Registrar of St. James' Parish,
Anne Arundel County, records in bad spelling
and worse English that the rector of All
Saints' Parish, Calvert County, married by
license David Weems and '' Mrs. Easter
Hill." ' One finds this lady to be Hester,
daughter of Abell and Susannah Hill, born in
St. James' Parish in 17 17. It is from the
nineteen children of David and Hester Weems
that are descended the greater part of those
who to-day bear the name in all parts of the
country.

° Parish Register of St. James Parish, Anne Arundel
County, in Maryland Diocesan Library, Baltimore, or copy
in Maryland Historical Society Library, Baltimore.

® It was David, the son of these two, who married Mar-
garet Harrison, not the elder, as is often stated.
2

14 PARSON WEEMS

There is a scant supply of facts relating to
the boyhood of Mason Locke Weems, for,
with the exception of one or two incidents
of doubtful authenticity, the whole of his
early life is an unknown period in his history.
We know, however, from that delightful
storehouse of gossip about people, places and
things. Bishop Meade's Old Churches, Min-
isters and Families of Virginia,^ that he was
at one time an inmate of the house of a Mr.
Jenifer of Charles County, and it is likely that
this was the well-known Daniel of St. Thomas
Jenifer, one of that group of sturdy states-
men and patriots which the Revolution
brought out in Maryland. If this surmise is
correct, the source of the glowing patriotism
of the author of the Life of Washington is
clear. Weems, indeed, was one of the ear-
liest of those whom we have come in later
years to designate as " Jingoes.''

Happily enough, the single incident of his
boyhood which rests upon good traditional

' Meade, William, Old churches, ministers and families
of Virginia. 2 v. Phila., 1857. Vol. 2, p. 234 et supra.

EARLY LIFE 15

authority is one that bears witness to the early
formation of a benevolence of character
which marked him throughout his later years.
Curious as to the meaning of a series of
nightly absences, members of the Jenifer fam-
ily followed him upon one of his regular ex-
cursions into the surrounding forest. Coming
after some time to a tumble-down shanty,
they were astonished to find him within, the
center of a group of poor children of the
neighborhood to whom he was imparting the
rudiments of common learning. Weems'
sympathy and patience with the poor and ig-
norant is always a beautiful trait in his char-
acter.

With a few more to his credit, this anec-
dote is told of him by Bishop Meade in order
to offset the impression made by the further
account which he gives of this lad grown to
manhood. Bishop Meade was an austere,
outspoken man, and the picture of orthodoxy
in manners and religion. Influenced by the
absence of a saving elasticity in the manners
of his times, he was unable to allow the good

1 6 PARSON WE EMS

side of Parson Weems to make atonement
for those of his qualities which he felt to be
bad. In estimating Weems' character, he was
compelled to put In the balance every ounce
of Christian charity which he possessed, and
In spite of his obvious effort for fair judg-
ment, or perhaps because of It, he succeeds
only In leaving us a negatively damning char-
acterization of one whom he was certain to
misunderstand. A generation less In bonds
to conventionality and seeing events In a longer
perspective, studies the life of Weems with
a more generous appreciation.

At an early age,^ probably sometime In his
fourteenth year, Weems went abroad to study
medicine, and for three years this purpose
held him In London and at the University of
Edinburgh. What use he made In later life
of his acquirements In medicine Is absolutely
unknown. He Is spoken of " as Dr. Mason

* Allen, the Rev. Ethan, MSS. history of the church in
Maryland. 4 v. in the Maryland Diocesan Library, Balti-
more. (Hereafter referred to as the Allen MSS.)

" Calendar of Franklin papers, No. XXXVIII, 96, Vol. II,
p. 460.

EARLY LIFE 17

Weems many years afterwards, and In certain
notes ^" which the writer has examined, It Is
stated that he served for some months as
surgeon on a British ship of war. If this be
so It was doubtless his aversion to service
against the struggling colonies which brought
him home to America In 1776, for It Is gen-
erally believed and stated that he spent the
period of the Revolution In this country. The
absence of all clue to his movements, how-
ever, during the years of war Is the despair of
those who have tried to bring the events of
his life Into orderly sequence. A plausible as-
sumption Is that he was engaged In the prac-
tice of his profession during these years, but
It Is an assumption only.

He next appears to view In the year 1782,
at which time he returned to England to ob-
tain Holy Orders from the Anglican bishops.
Probably because peace had not been de-
clared between England and America, he was
forced to travel by way of France, for In
March, 1782, the consul at Nantes writes to

'"Allen MSS.

1 8 PARSON WE EMS

Franklin " for a passport for Dr. Mason
Weems ""^ and Mr. Manifold, who go to Eng-
land on business.

" Calendar of Franklin papers. See note 9, above.

"° It is this use of the title " Doctor " which makes it seem
probable that Weems, during the past few years, had been
in a sufficiently active practise of medicine to become gen-
erally known as a physician. Of course, the term would
not have been applied for any other reason. Even if his
intention of taking Holy Orders had been declared, he
would not have been called " Doctor " before ordination.

II

HIS ORDINATION

The story '' of Weems' efforts to obtain
ordination in England forms an interesting
chapter in the history of the American Epis-
copal Church. At the close of the Revolu-
tion, the idea of the English Church existing
abroad other than as a mission conducted by
Englishmen was unthought of in Britain save
as a theory which was of doubtful practica-
bility. There were no bishops in America,
and it was clearly seen there that if the Ameri-
can Church was ever to be anything but a
mission dependent upon the Church of Eng-
land, it was necessary that it should be al-
lowed a separate episcopate and an individual
corporate existence. Recognizing this fact,

" Bishop White, Memoirs of the church ; Hawkins, Mis-
sions of the Church of England ; Cross^ Anglican episcopate
and the American colonies; McMaster, History of the
people of the U. S. ; Foster, Century of American diplo-
macy; Franklin correspondence; Adams correspondence,
etc.

20 PARSON WEEMS

the clergy in America in the colonial era had
appealed more than once for a bishop of their
own, and while Weems at this later day was
striving for the lower orders of the ministry,
the Rev. Samuel Seabury of Connecticut was
in England begging for consecration to the
episcopate. Both of them were met by the
unanswerable reply that the law of the realm
permitted ordination only to those who could
take the Oath of Allegiance to the Crown of
England. It was necessary to wait, but in
the meantime there were divers agencies work-
ing in the interests of the struggling church
in America.

Associated with Weems in his appeal for
ordination was Edward Gantt, Jr., a young
Marylander who afterwards became prom-
inent in the church of his native State. Not
daunted by the refusal of the bishops to admit
them to orders, they petitioned Benjamin
Franklin," then at the French court, for ad-
vice in their extremity, but that usually saga-
cious man was unable to help them. Indeed,

" Franklin correspondence, any edition.

HIS ORDINATION 21

his letter of reply contained distinctly poor
counsel, and showed that he held a very super-
ficial conception of the requirements of the
situation. He suggested that the candidates
should make shift to do without regular ordi-
nation as they should be forced to do anyhow
if the British Isles were to be swept away
by the waves of the Atlantic. For a man of
his greatness, this letter " seems peculiarly in-
ept, although it is written in his usual shrewd
and entertaining fashion. It is evident that
Apostolic Succession and Historic Episcopate
were mere scholastic terms to the great Frank-
lin, churchman though he was.

" Here follows an abbreviated form of the last part of
Franklin's letter: "If the British Isles were sunk in the
Sea (and the Surface of this Globe has suffered greater
changes), you would probably take some such method as
this; and if they persist in denying you ordination, 'tis the
same thing. An hundred years hence, when people are
more enlightened, it will be wondered at, that Men in
America, qualified by their Learning and Piety to pray for
and instruct their Neighbors, should not be permitted to do
it till they had made a Voyage of six thousand Miles out
and home, to ask leave of a cross old Gentleman at Canter-
bury; who seems by your Account to have as little Regard
for the Souls of the People of Maryland, as King W^illiam's

2a PARSON WEEMS

A more practical view of the situation was
taken by John Adams '' at The Hague, for
he spoke of the dilemma of his young country-
men to the Danish minister in Holland with
the result that in April, 1784, an offer was
made by the Bishops of the Danish Church
to ordain them by their rite. Adams com-
municated this offer to Congress and copies
of the correspondence were sent to the gov-
ernors of all the States. Neither in the case
of Weems nor of any other American candi-
date, however, was the offer accepted. It is
probable that uncertainty as to how the Eng-
lish Church would pronounce upon the valid-
Attorney-General, Seymour, had for those of Virginia.
The Reverend Commissary Blair (applied to Seymour to
draw up the charter of a college which by the Queen's
grace was to be built in Virginia. Seymour opposed the
money grant, and in the argument that ensued between him
and Blair, the latter said) that the People of Virginia had
souls to be saved as well as the People of England." (The
Attorney-General thus replied) "Souls!" says he, "damn
your Souls. Make Tobacco."

This letter is dated Passy, July i8, 1784, and it is written
in reply to one from Weems and Gantt received two days
before.

^^ Bishop White, Memoirs of the church, p. 327 et supra.

HIS ORDINATION 23

Ity of Danish orders made the candidates
wary of the substitute proposed by Adams,
and, moreover, It was felt that ultimately their
disabilities would be removed by act of Par-
liament.

In the hope of liberal action by Parliament,
the American candidates were not disap-
pointed, for on August 13, 1784, an Enabling
Act " was passed which made possible the
omission of the '' Oath " In the ordination of
persons Intending to serve In foreign lands.
And, finally, after a residence abroad for the
purpose, of two years and a half, Weems,
on September 5, 1784, was ordained to the
diaconate by the Bishop of Chester, acting
under the Bishop of London, In the Duke
Street Chapel, Westminster, and one week
later, the Archbishop of Canterbury admitted
him to the priesthood." Among those or-
dained with him was his compatriot, Edward
Gantt, Jr. The companion measure, provld-

" Statutes at Large, 24 George III, Cap. XXXV.

" Certificates in the Maryland Diocesan Library, Balti-
more, in keeping of the Records Committee of the Diocese
of Maryland.

24 PARSON WEEMS

ing for the consecration of bishops under the
same conditions, failed of passage through
Parliament, and it was nearly three years be-
fore Bishop White of Pennsylvania was con-
secrated by the English prelates. In the
meantime, Dr. Seabury had gone to Scotland,
where in November, 1784, he was elevated
to the higher office by bishops of the Episco-
pal Church in that country.

In November, 1784, was chartered the
" Corporation for the Relief of the Widows
and Children of the Clergy of the Protestant
Episcopal Church in Maryland," '' and in the
list of incorporators appear the names of
Mason Locke Weems and Edward Gantt, Jr.,
their first appearance in any list of clergy of
the Diocese. Sometime in the same year,
Weems became rector of All Hallows' Parish
in Anne Arundel County.

The most difficult part in the preparation
of the life of Parson Weems has been the
determination of the date and circumstances

^^Acts of Maryland Assembly. November, 1784.

HIS ORDINATION 25

of his ordination. In 1857, Bishop Meade"
wrote these words: "... a doubt has been
entertained whether he ever was ordained a
minister of our Church, yet we will take that
for granted, and ascribe to him all that is
justly due." In the second issue of 1872, he
changes the two latter clauses of his sentence
to read simply, " yet I have ascertained that
to be a fact." Unfortunately, the aspersion
of the first Issue was only too readily taken
up, and that by persons not willing to " ascribe
... all that Is justly due," for since that time
there have appeared numerous articles In
which either a similar tone was evident or In
which the author denied flatly the fact of
Weems' ordination, making him out a rogue
of the first order. The only reason ever
given by the writers for their remarkable po-
sition Is that his name does not appear in any
list of clergy ordained by the Bishop of Lon-
don. The possibility of his having derived
his orders from another bishop seems never

" Meade, Old churches, etc.

26 PARSON WEEMS

to have been taken into account. After cor-
respondence and research in this country and
Europe, covering a period of nearly two years,
the writer learned from a letter in the South-
ern Churchman^'' written in reply to one of
his own, that a descendant of Edward Gantt,
Jr., had in his possession the ordination cer-
tificates given to his ancestor by the Bishop
of Chester and the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Communication was entered into with the
proper authorities in England with the result
that the certificates of Weems' ordination
were secured and placed on record in the
Maryland Diocesan Library. It has been a
particular pleasure to determine finally the
circumstances of Weems' ordination, for al-
though one must allow him faults, yet it is
diflicult to believe him capable of infamy as
gross as would have been the false repre-
sentation of himself as a priest in the Church
of God.

^ Southern Churchman, Richmond, Va. May 21, 1910,
p. 20.

Ill

THE PARISH PRIEST

For the eight years following upon the re-
turn of Parson Weems '^ to Maryland after
securing ordination, he was one of the most
active clergymen in the diocese. He was rec-
tor of All Hallows' Parish from 1784 until
1789, and during this incumbency he con-
ducted in the neighborhood a school for girls.
He seems to have held no charge during part
of the year 1790, although his name con-
tinues on the clergy list of the Diocese. He
was rector of Westminster Parish in the same
county for the two years 1791 and 1792, and
he was several times elected to membership
on the Superintending Committee for the
Western Shore, a committee which in the
lack of a bishop exercised a general super-
vision of the parishes west of the Chesapeake.
It is clear from this that he made his person-

^ Journals of Convention of the Diocese of Maryland,
Allen MSS., etc.

28 PARSON WEEMS

allty felt to some degree by his brethren of
the clergy.

Fortunately for those who are Interested in
Weems, we are able to know more of his
life as a parish priest in the Maryland of
1785 than the bare outline of the years and
places of his service. His neighbor in Prince
George County, the Rev. William Duke,''' was
one of those persons who in spite of the com-
parative obscurity of their lives and the un-
importance of their goings and comings, yet
deem it desirable to keep a record of the
events of each day as it passes. Early in life
Duke had been a Methodist preacher, and
inspired perhaps, as many of his brethren

^William Duke, born 1757, Baltimore County; died
1843, Elkton, Md. Rector of six Maryland parishes. Pro-
fessor of Languages in St. John's College, Annapolis;
Principal of Charlotte Hall School; Academy in Elkton;
Convention Preacher ; member of Standing Committee of
Diocese; published Hymns, an excellent apologetic, a valu-
able treatise on Maryland religious history and contributed
to several religious periodicals. For full accounts of his
interesting life, see a sketch by Dr. Ethan Allen in Sprague's
Annals of the American pulpit (Episcopal), and an article
by the present writer in the Church Standard for June 20,
1908.

THE PARISH PRIEST 29

were, by the example of John Wesley, he kept
for fifty years a diary of his doings and
thinkings. The Duke Diary has been saved
from the usual mischances of time and care-
lessness to be accorded an honored old age
in the Maryland Diocesan Library. It is a
rarely interesting document, both from a hu-
man and an historical standpoint, and it has
been the fortune of the present writer to find
in the course of its badly written, yellowed
pages sixty-five places in which Is mentioned
the name of Parson Weems. Many of the
references to him are of neither Interest nor
Importance, but an equal number of them are
valuable in that they bring us into touch with
the sometime rector of All Hallows' and
Westminster parishes during one of the pe-
riods of his life about which the least is
known.

The first mention of Weems found In the
Duke " Diary " Is this that follows: '' Jan.
5, 1787. Crossed South River with difficulty
the wind blowing very hard and as I passed
Mr. W 's Church met him coming out.

JO PARSON WEEMS

It seems he preaches every other Friday night
for the Benefit of the Negroes. A charitable
Attempt. I hope it will be successful. At
his Request I promised to preach for him on
the Sunday following."

It is to be feared that in this day the Chris-
tian bodies were generally careless of the ne-
groes, and it is a gem in the crown of Parson
Weems that here and always he had the spir-
itual welfare of the neglected race at heart.
Ten years after this the garrulous John Davis
records in his Travels in America a conversa-
tion which he held with Weems on this very
subject of his ministry to the blacks. He
gives this sentence as from the lips of Weems :
" Oh, it is sweet preaching, when people are
desirous of hearing. Sweet feeding the flock
of Christ, when they have so good an appe-
tite." Somewhere, somehow, and in such a
degree as fully to atone for other and less
pleasing characteristics, Weems had acquired
affection for and interest in the poor and
ignorant of all races, taking always the re-
jected of other men to his heart and laboring

THE PARISH PRIEST ^r

for their uplift with large patience and char-
ity. Even William Duke, godly and untiring
In good works though he was, described the
holding of a special service for negroes as a
" charitable Attempt," and Implied In the
next sentence a doubt as to Its success.

According to promise, Duke came on the
following Sunday to preach at All Hallows',
one of the ancient parishes of Maryland. He
stayed for several days thereafter with Its
rector, and In the course of his visit they rode
from house to house In the neighborhood pay-
ing social calls on the parishioners. Duke,
nursed In religion by Wesley, Coke and Straw-
bridge, was averse to the point of crabbed-
ness to the card playing, wine drinking and
dancing which went on. Innocently enough
generally. In the Maryland country houses, but
we gather that Weems was either more liberal
In his views or that he was more adaptable to
circumstances. When the former on one oc-
casion condemns even the friendly game of
cards, he writes In the " Diary " that night:
" I was so unfortunate as to be singular in

32 PARSON WEEMS

that Sentiment/' and on the following morn-
ing he '' had some serious conversation with

Mr. W on the Subject of Amusement —

We agreed in general. But I could not yield
to the maxim of assuming the Complexion
and entering into the Spirit of whatever Com-
pany you happen in — y

These few days which Duke spent with
Weems are in all, save details, the type of
many later visits of one to the other of them.
They were unmarried and nearly of the same
age, and in spite of a wide difference in tem-
perament, they had in common many tastes
besides the interests of their profession. We
find them on sufficiently friendly terms for
Duke to reprove Weems for " a fault which
he observed in his character," and for any-
thing that is said to the contrary Weems took
the reproof in good part. Throughout the
" Diary " are entries of this sort: " A good
deal of talk with Weems. He drives Jehu-
like," or, " Mr. Weems called on me. I took
a long and agreeable walk with him." Duke
was strict in life and doctrine, a self-taught

THE PARISH PRIEST 33

scholar, and withal a man of great good sense.
In later years he attained a position of no
little influence in the Diocese, and although
he never had a parish of any especial Im-
portance, he was the familiar friend and cor-
respondent of two bishops and of the leading
clergy in the Maryland Church. That he
could number William Duke among his
friends is no small thing for Weems to
boast of.

It is something of a surprise to learn that
Weems was not popular with the people of
the county, and probably even of his own par-
ish of All Hallows\ for about the time of his
giving up his rectorship there, we find Duke
writing of a visit to some friends in the course
of which the conversation turned, he says,
upon " the duties of ministers and the diffi-
culties of reforming the people. The Rev'd
M. Weems was mentioned and the dislike
and disapprobation that he meets with. As
he is chiefly remarkable for his zeal and in-
dustry I could not help attributing the oppo-

34 PARSON JVEEMS

sitlon generally to that diabolical spirit which
Is enmity against God."

One of the characteristics which Weems re-
tained for long years after he had given up
the ministry was his eagerness to preach or
pray anywhere and at any time. Deeply ear-
nest in his desire to spread the gospel truth,
he was for thirty years of his later wandering
life a sort of unofficial itinerant, an occasional
missionary. This was his lifelong habit. One
day we catch a glimpse of him riding into
Upper Marlboro with William Duke, who
that night entered in his " Diary" the fact that
^* Mr. W — — preached in the Ball room."
This was twenty years before there was an
Episcopal church in Upper Marlboro, but
Weems never waited for churches ; inn parlor,
court house steps, ball room, village green or
cottager's kitchen were his churches as often
as the buildings regularly consecrated to pub-
lic worship. An entry from the *' Diary "
illustrates his perseverance in labors of this
sort and his anxiety to serve. He and Duke
are speaking and praying in a poor woman's

THE PARISH PRIEST 35

cottage. The latter thus describes the ser-
vice: " The old woman's son Eli interrupted
us several times. I was sorry that Mr. Weems
took so much trouble to satisfy him as it only
made him more petulant."

Once, as we learn in a letter from Dr. Clag-
gett to William Duke, his ardor in the propa-
gation of the Faith brought upon him some
criticism from his brother clergy. Dr. Clag-
gett complains, almost tearfully that after
having asked his advice in the matter, Weems
had acted contrary to it and preached to a
Methodist congregation in his neighborhood.
He proceeds with his plaint: " I have a re-
gard for Weems, his zeal & attention to ye
Duties of his sacred office merit esteem; but
in proportion as this Zeal & Diligence are
applied to the Methodist Interest it weakens
us." ""^ There was no rigidity in the church-
manship of Weems. To-day he would be
classed with the " low " churchmen, or, as
he was not unaffected by the critical thought

'^ In collection of MSS. letters in the Maryland Diocesan
Library, Baltimore.

36 PARSON WEEMS

of his time, It might be nearer the mark to
say that he was one of the first of American
'' broad " churchmen.

It is generally said that Weems gave up the
active ministry for the bookselling business
about the year 1800, but it was eight years be-
fore this that he first went upon the road as
a book peddler. He attended the Conven-
tion'* held in Annapolis in June, 1792, as
rector of Westminster Parish, and we learn
from the '' Diary " that its writer and Weems
lodged together during the sessions, and that
Weems obtained his and many other subscrip-
tions to a tract which he had lately published.
By September of 1792, he had given up his
parish in Maryland, and as far as is known
he never after this held a regular charge. The
authority for the latter date is the " Diary,"
for Duke, who has just become rector of
North Elk Parish, Cecil County, and lives in
Elkton, writes as follows: " Went to Church
and preached — the Rev'd Mr. Weems came
in the mean time. . . . Was sorry to see

^* Journal of Convention, Diocese of Maryland, 1792.

THE PARISH PRIEST 37

Weem's pedling way of life, but God knows
best by what methods we can most directly
answer the designations of his Providence."
This can have but one meaning, and that is
that Weems had given up his parish and taken
to the road as a means of livelihood.

The town of Elkton, where William Duke
was now domiciled, lay not far from Wil-
mington on the highroad from Baltimore to
Philadelphia, and at this period of his life
Weems appears to have had a great deal of
business in these three cities. The conse-
quence was that he passed through Elkton
with frequency and regularity, and always in
his visits he stopped for a night or a day at
the Duke house, either to take advantage of
its hospitality, or to discuss one of the many
business deals which he continued to have with
its master. In this way we are able to meet
him in the flesh until the year 1808. Doubt-
less he had business or expectations of it in
Philadelphia, but in connection with his many
visits there, it should be remembered that in
and near that city lived his first cousins, the

38 PARSON WEEMS

children of his aunt, Williamina Moore. Tra-
dition has It that he was a frequent visitor at
Moore Hall, and it may have been through
the Influence of his relatives that he was finally
brought into the employment of Matthew
Carey, the active Philadelphia publisher.

In the last eight years of the century, how-
ever, he seems to have been much at a loose
end, for he Is here and everywhere, planning
publishing ventures, selling books of his own
and others' publishing, and making tentative
efforts towards authorship on his own account.
He is feeling his way to the successful busi-
ness and literary activities of his later life.
In 1794, Samuel and John Adams of Wil-
mington printed for him Wilson's Account of
the Pelew Islands, a book which three years
before he had heard William Duke read aloud
at the " Wood Yard," the West estate in
Prince George County. In the same year he
turns up in New York, and on his return he
bears a letter from the Rev. Abram Beach,'''
assistant at Trinity Church, to Dr. Claggett,

^''MSS. letters in Maryland Diocesan Library, Baltimore.

THE PARISH PRIEST 39

now Bishop of the Diocese of Maryland. In
the letter, among other matters of Interest to
Its writer, there occurs this sentence: '' Mr.
Weems Informs me that he Intends to publish
a volume of Sermons under the Title of the
American Proft Episcopal Preacher the Plan
which he will have an opportunity to present
to you In person. Is, I think, a good one — and
cannot but wish him success." There Is no
record of this book ever having been pub-
lished. In 1796 he brought out the third of
his publications of w^hlch there Is any record,
an edition of Franklin's pamphlet. The Way
to Wealth. Decidedly of the upper class by
birth, Weems was nevertheless of the middle
class In temperament and sympathy, and one
of the many ways that this democracy shows
In his life and writings Is his almost weari-
some admiration of Franklin and his trinity
of bourgeois virtues, Industry, Temperance
and Frugality.

Weems' efforts during these years could not
have been especially remunerative In the gear
of this world, for In November, 1795, Duke

40 PARSON WEEMS

writes In his " Diary " after one of his
friend's visits: "I wonder at Weems to
travel afoot," and now and for some time
afterwards, on these occasions, he writes of
" walking " a bit on his way with him. Until
sometime later in the decade, when he became
Matthew Carey's agent for the Southern
States, it is probable that he led a poorly re-
warded life of labor. On the second day of
July, 1795,'" he married Miss Fanny Ewell,
the daughter of Col. Jesse Ewell of " Belle
Air," Prince William County, Virginia, and
soon afterwards he settled in the then flour-
ishing town of Dumfries in the same county,
where he established a sort of base of sup-
plies in the way of a book store. For the rest
of his life, Dumfries, and later " Belle Air,"
were the havens of rest to which he looked
forward as the reward of his journeys' ends.
He had a large family of children, and it is
said that their home life was peculiarly happy.
Certainly he was a tender and loving father
and husband.

^Historian of the Cherry Tree," Walter B. Norris in
National Magazine, February, 1910.

IV
THE BOOK PEDDLER

The Episcopal Church In Virginia fell into
popular disfavor after the Revolutionary
War. Its glebes and endowments were taken
away, and the popular voice cried down its
every defence. It was the Church of Eng-
land, and therefore despicable as were all
things English. The consequence was that
its membership fell away, its clergy became
few and disheartened, and in some places the
churches were closed for lack either of priest
or people, or sometimes of both. Pohick, one
of the four churches of Truro, sometimes
called Mt. Vernon Parish, had no minister-
in-charge for the last fifteen years of the cen-
tury. It became the custom to contract with
a visiting or a travelling clergyman to hold
services here for a month or two, or longer,
as the case might be, and the present His-
toriographer of the Diocese of Virginia ^^ has

" The Rev. E. L. Goodwin, Fairfax, Va.

42 PARSON fVEEMS

seen a copy of one of these contracts whereby
a certain clergyman was to serve as locum
tenens of Pohick Church.

It Is most probable that It was through an
arrangement of this sort that Weems min-
istered In Pohick Church at different times for
more than two decades, and this Is his only
ground for styling himself In after years as
" Formerly rector of Mt. Vernon Parish."
Pohick, before the Revolution, had been the
chosen place of worship of George Washing-
ton, and doubtless Weems considered It no
small advertisement for his Life of Washing-
ton that its author should describe himself on
its title page as having been at one time the
hero's rector, with all that such a title im-
plied. He was rather in the habit of putting
his best foot forward where the sale of his
books was in question, and this is one of the
two instances in which the boot upon the said
foot was a borrowed one. In the absence,
however, of a full knowledge of the circum-
stances entering Into the matter. It Is well to
regard with charity this apparent perversion

THE BOOK PEDDLER 43

of truth. It is not the least improbable that
during his various tenures of Pohick, he was
locally regarded as the Rector of Mt. Vernon
Parish. As late as the year 1817,^' Weems
in a letter to Mr. Allen, a student of divinity
in Alexandria, speaks of not being able to
keep his appointment to preach on the follow-
ing Sunday in Pohick Church, so that his as-
sumption of the title of rector had evidently
not aroused a great amount of resentment
against him in the parish.

There is evidence in plenty of a local sort
that Weems preached at various periods in
Pohick Church, and certain passages in John
Davis' Travels in America show him there in
1 801 preaching, and apparently acceptably,
to a crowded church. I give some extracts
from the pages of the lively Englishman :

" Hither I rode on Sundays and joined the
congregation of Parson Weems, a minister of
the Episcopal persuasion, who was cheerful
in his mien that he might win men to religion.
A Virginian churchyard on Sunday resembles

^Southern Churchman, June 11, 1910.

44 PARSON WEEMS

rather a race course than a sepulchral ground.
The ladies come to It In carriages and the men
after dismounting make fast their horses to
the trees. I was astounded on entering the
yard to hear ' steed threaten steed with high
and boastful neigh.' Nor was I less stunned
by the rattling of carriage wheels and the
cracking of whips and the vociferations of the
gentry to the negroes who accompanied them.
But the discourse of Mr. Weems calmed every
perturbation, for he preached the great doc-
trine of salvation as one who had felt Its
power. It was easy to discover that he felt
what he said; and, indeed, so uniform was his
piety that he might have applied to himself
the words of the prophet : ' My mouth shall
be telling of the righteousness and salvation
of Christ all the day long: for I know no end
thereof.' "

" ' How, Sir, did you like my preaching? '
' Sir,' cried I, ' It was a sermon to pull down
the proud, and humble the haughty. I have
reason to believe that many of your congre-

THE BOOK PEDDLER 45

gatlon were under spiritual and scriptural con-
viction of their sins. Sir, you spoke home to
sinners. You knocked at the door of their
hearts.' "

" ' I grant that,' said Parson Weems. ' But
I doubt (shaking his head) whether the
hearts of many were not both barred and
bolted against me.' "

Weems was an admirer of the preaching
of John Wesley, and if one may judge from
the words of this witness and from the testi-
mony of his pamphlets which are but ser-
mons enlarged, it is safe to say that his ser-
mons were permeated with that evangelical
spirit which set flowing the tears of repent-
ance wherever the early Methodists held their
meetings.

In the above extract from Travels in Amer-
ica, there appears a hint of something in
Weems' conduct which did him disservice
with Bishop Meade and certain others who
like the Bishop knew only one kind of preach-
ing and one kind of praying. To be " cheer-
ful in his mien that he might win men to re-
4

46 PARSON WEEMS

ligion " would be considered no great crime
in a preacher of modern times, provided al-
ways that a proper dignity were maintained.
It is in this particular that Weems sinned,
according to Bishop Meade who writes that
in family prayers his erring brother would
present his petitions in such a form that
neither " the young or old, the grave or gay,
could keep their risible faculties from violent
agitation." Whether this was a regular cus-
tom with Weems, or whether having once or
twice indulged too freely in homely and vig-
orous allusions in his prayers and so acquired
a lasting reputation for irreverence, it is im-
possible to determine in the absence of other
testimony. Certainly there is no trace of any-
thing of the sort in his writings, and the only
comment that William Duke ever made on
any of his prayers or exhortations was to re-
cord that he found one of them " tedious."
It is possible, of course, that Weems was
guilty of this sort of sacrilege, but it is not
the impression that one acquires of him from
a close study of his life and writings.

THE BOOK PEDDLER 47

Others of Bishop Meade's memories of
Weems at this period are of Interest, although
they are stories which cast doubt upon his
orthodoxy in the faith, or which at the least
lay him open to the charge of exercising what
the Bishop calls a " spurious charity " In
things doctrinal. " On an election or court-
day at Fairfax Court-House," writes the
church historian of Virginia, " .... I ... .
found Mr. Weems with a bookcaseful for
sale. In the portico of the tavern. On looking
at them I saw Palne's * Age of Reason,' and
taking it Into my hand, turned to him, and
asked him If It was possible that he could sell
such a book. He Immediately took out the
Bishop of Llandaff's answer, and said, ' Be-
hold the antidote. The bane and the antidote
are both before you.' " His crowning im-
pertinence, however, was that time when in
the Bishop's own pulpit he " extolled Tom
Paine and one or more Infidels in America,
and said if their ghosts could return to earth
they would be shocked to hear the falsehoods
which were told of them," a statement which

48 PARSON WEEMS

was doubtless Truth's very image, for to cer-
tain of our ancestors Tom Paine was the ful-
fillment of the Scripture prophecies concern-
ing Antichrist. It sometimes seems that Par-
son Weems was that peculiar type of clergy-
man who Is born and lives apparently for no
other reason than to vex the soul of whatever
bishop he may be serving under.

It is obvious that a clergyman who went
about the country in a cart, who sold books
among which were the works of Tom Paine,
and who preached and prayed in a fashion
entirely his own, would draw upon himself
sharp disapproval from Mr. and Mrs.
Grundy. But It is not likely that Weems
noticed their averted faces or that he would
have cared if he had noticed them. They who
dwell in tents, Ishmael's breed, have never
been notably sensitive to the opinions, ex-
pressed or unexpressed, of the sons of Sarah.
Weems was aggressive in business, zealous in
religion, tactless and careless of opinion In
both. He strode in his hob-nailed boots over
a thousand conventions, but If he got his

THE BOOK PEDDLER 49

books sold, found an audience now and then
for a sermon or an address, and carried home
a good profit to what Bishop Meade calls his
" interesting and pious family " at Dumfries,
he cared not what cherished ideal of clerical
conduct he left trampled behind him.

It has frequently been said that Weems
gave up his active ministry because he could
not support his family upon the small stipend
with which it was the custom of the day and
place to reward its clergy. This might have
been true but for the small consideration that
when he took to the road in 1792 he had no
family. The true explanation of his action
may lie in the fact that he was the victim of
an incurable restlessness. The opportunity
offered to gratify his propensity for roaming,
while at the same time he might employ him-
self In a business with a wide sphere of use-
fulness. He seems to have impressed Duke
with the belief that he took to peddling re-
ligious and moral literature with the idea of
serving his God more acceptably than he was
doing as a parish priest, and that gentleman

50 PARSON WEEMS

was not one to be taken in by a canting pre-
text. Doubtless Weems was sincere in this
explanation, but primarily it was because he
was born for the road that he took to the
road. He liked change and movement. He
gave up medicine for the church, the church
for the road. He was constitutionally a wan-
derer. William Duke, himself the most rest-
less of men, rode in and out, endlong and
overthwart the state of Maryland, and as
often as not in some inaccessible corner he re-
cords a meeting with Mr. Weems, then a
simple parish priest. Just what their business
is, or whether they have any, no man may
know. At any rate Weems liked to wander
and he liked to sell books, and if any person
may be said to have the advantage of keeping
his cake and eating it too, it is he who en-
gages in a profitable business the activities of
which are in line with his predilections. To
live in a van and sell books for bread ! What
golden dream is this?

His life as a wandering book peddler has
become part of the local tradition of many

THE BOOK PEDDLER 51

of the places through which his business used
to take him. The legends say that he carried
his violin with him on the long journeys which
made up the greater part of his later life, and
it is pleasant to think of him as having this
means of relaxation. Numerous stories are
told of his willingness to play for dances, for
the negro boys' " hoe down," and once even
for a puppet show. Generally the narrator of
these tales implies that in them there is some-
thing discreditable to their subject. Bishop
Meade disapproved of these doings almost as
much as he did of the good-natured minstrel's
heretical opinions concerning Tom Paine.
The stories about his fiddling are so conflict-
ing, so frequently asserted by one and so em-
phatically denied by others, that it is difficult
to say how general a custom this public fid-
ling was with him. It is to be hoped that they
are true tales. Surely there is no harm in
fiddling. One likes to think of him ready at
all times to play for rich or poor, in the
" great house " or in the " quarter." This is
certain, that if he fiddled for people to dance,

SZ PARSON WEEMS

he was equally ready to inveigh upon them
shrewdly if they showed vicious inclination.
If it was pleasant for those who danced to his
playing, it was correspondingly unpleasant for
the drunkard or the rake that felt the rough
of his tongue. We gather from various
sources a sort of composite pen picture of
Weems as he appeared to the people of the
rural South — a merrily disposed, white-haired
man who was ready at a moment's notice to
play for you to dance, to sell you an improv-
ing book, to pray with you, or to preach at
you a sermon which, for the shame of it, you
would remember all your life.""'*

This is to say little of the business side of
his life. If his object was to praise God by
circulating religious literature through the
South, he attained it beyond dispute. It has
been asserted that in one year he sold three

^^ In fairness it should be recorded that the descendants
of Weems are positive in their denial of the stories relating
to his public fiddling. It is true that these stories are
legendary, but they are so persistent, and there is so little
evidence of their untruth that it is necessary in the interests
of the story to notice them here.

THE BOOK PEDDLER 53

thousand copies of an exceptionally handsome
and expensive Bible which Matthew Carey is
said to have published with no little uneasi-
ness as to the success of his venture. He sold
books for children and books for their elders,
prayer books, hymn books. Bibles, philosoph-
ical, historical and biographical works — any-
thing, in short, that there was a possible de-
mand for. He circulated no man may tell
how many thousands of his own biographies
and moral pamphlets, and a great number of
books of sermons and philosophical works by
standard authors which he published at his
own risk. There has been published a letter
from him to one of his several employers ^ in
which, writing of the sale of Marshall's Life
of Washington, he advises and discourses so
knowingly of the peculiarities of customers

^ This very interesting letter is to be found in the Ameri-
can Historical Record, vol. 2, Feb. 1873, p. 82. It is worthy
of perusal. It is addressed to Caleb P. Wayne, the pub-
lisher of Marshall's " Life of Washington." Weems left
the service of Matthew Carey about this time (1804), but
later, Carey apparently agrees to disagree with his strong-
headed agent, and the old relationship is resumed. It was
doubtless ^ mutually advantageous one.

54 PARSON WEEMS

and the ins and outs of the trade that one
feels the case to be understated when he says
further In the letter: " The world Is pleased
to say that I have talents at the subscription
business." In the same letter he plans for a
third edition of one of his own pamphlets, to
consist of a thousand copies.

The manner of his selling was not always
the same. Without doubt when he had to
secure subscriptions to the five-volume edition
of Marshall's Life of Washington, he went
about It In the regular fashion of book agents
and authors from time Immemorial. Woe to
the poor gentleman who admitted him to his
house when a project of this sort was afoot,
for Weems was not unknown for a certain
^* Industry & Zeal." When, however, it was
merely a question of disposing of a fresh box
of miscellaneous works, moral, religious or
educational, he would place himself In the
portico of the tavern on court day and there
expose his wares to the public gaze. We can
imagine him so placed, calling his greetings
to acquaintances from the outlying parts, ex-

THE BOOK PEDDLER 55

changing a jest with one, a kind word with
another, or seizing a third, a possible cus-
tomer, and overwhelming him with a flood of
words relative to the merits of his new stock
in trade. It is said that, armed with a sheaf
of pamphlets, he would Invade crowded tav-
ern bars, take up a favorable position In view
of all, and after a few words of good-natured
bantering, launch a virile diatribe against the
sin of drunkenness and Its attendant evils.
Then, before his astonished hearers had time
to get sulky, he would go around among them
and sell a handful of his Drunkard^ s Looking
Glass at twenty-five cents a copy, combining
by this means philanthropic service and per-
sonal profit.

Without doubt the " interesting and pious
family " which he maintained in Dumfries
and " Belle Air " was supported In comfort
and decency. After nearly thirty-five years of
life on the road, Parson Weems died In 1825,
while on business In Beaufort, South Carolina.
A well-founded tradition has it that he died
In the utterance of a sentiment which had ani-

56 PARSON WEEMS

mated his life. " God is love/' were his last
words. He was buried there, but ere long his
remains were removed to a corner of the fam-
ily cemetery on the " Belle Air " estate. It
was here that the leisure of his later years had
been spent, and it is fitting that his restless,
road-worn body should finally be at rest in
the beautiful, placid spot which he loved.

V
THE AUTHOR

It would be a mistake for anyone to take
up the works of Weems thinking to find in
them well-considered historical writing and
careful biography. They are of interest to-
day principally as literary curiosities, and as
with all books of this sort, it Is with each
reader almost a matter of pre-natal disposi-
tion whether or not he will like them or find
them dull and flat. If he was born to like
Weems as a writer, he will like him in spite
of obvious faults, but if his predisposition is
to the contrary, no amount of exposition will
persuade him that the '' historian of the
Cherry Tree " is anything but an inaccurate
biographer, an extravagant preacher of mor-
als and a saucy fellow who was sometimes in-
excusably vulgar in thought or expression.

Doubtless Weems felt that there was a
place for his biographical and moral works in

58 PARSON WEEMS

the America which emerged from the War of
Independence, for when he began his literary
career the country had but lately come out of
a successful struggle for liberty, and child-like
it was confounding its new possession with
that other quality of license, loath to submit
itself again to government of any sort. Fed-
eral and Democrat were the opposing parties.
Jacobin clubs, Tammany organizations and
other political associations were forming on
every hand, while party hatred ran so high
that not even Washington was spared the
vilest lampoons. Eighteenth century ration-
alism, which here became succinctly " French
Infidelity," was submerging the intellects of
the educated classes, and the unsettled politics
of Europe contributed no little to the national
uneasiness. The indirect result of all this was
a relaxation of the moral fibre of all classes,
and the country stood in need of those who
could tell it who were its truly great men and
why they were great, and to ding in its ears
that the Ten Commandments had not been re-
scinded by the Declaration of Independence.

THE AUTHOR 59

This was what Weems tried to do by preach-
ing, by praying and by biographical and moral
writing.

The first published work of Weems is gen-
erally said to have been the Philanthropist in
1 799, but thanks to certain entries in the Duke
" Diary," an earlier publication than this can
be named, although, unfortunately, there are
to be found no details of the little book in
question. Just before he gave up his active
ministry in the Diocese of Maryland, he at-
tended the annual convention at Annapolis,
and William Duke writes as follows of some
of the happenings of these days and others
later in the month. *' June i, 1792. Walked
into the country and lodged with Mr. Weems
and Mr. Coleman. Subscribed Weems' pro-
posals for 2 books and paid i/io." " June
29. I see Weems' publication of Onania is in
a good many hands. I am afraid rather as
a matter of diversion than serious considera-
tion." And next day he proceeds: " Weems
has incurred a good deal of ridicule as well
as serious blame by his odd publication."

6o PARSON JVEEMS

This date, June i, 1792, places the begin-
ning of Weems' literary career seven years
earlier than has been done heretofore by his
biographers. He published in 1799, as has
been said, a political tract called the Philan-
thropist, and as far as is known these two are
the only writings of his that saw type before
the publication of his Life of Washington in
1800, an event which may truly be called his
literary debut. Aside from their undeniable
merit, there are additional reasons which
should be given in explanation of the popu-
larity of the books and pamphlets which he
now began to produce in quick succession to
one another. The Revolution had left an im-
pressionable people who immediately entered
upon an era of generous hero worship, and a
man who could add fuel to their ardor in this
would be sure of a hearing from all classes.
Then, too, it was no small thing in his favor
that he was his own publisher and his own dis-
tributing agent. But the most important rea-
son for the magnitude and distribution of his
audience is the fact that he found no rivals in

THE AUTHOR 6x

his own particular field of endeavor. And
this Is said with no Intention of depreciating
the quality of his work.

The generation of Weems' literary activ-
ity, approximately the years 1790- 1820, was
a sterile period in the production of books for
young people or for the less cultured of their
elders. Of native writers, at least, scarcely
one offered anything fit for the reading of
children, and even In England the list of
books for young people and in the least suit-
able for them was painfully short. In his
own country Weems was a pioneer In what
has since become a great industry, the writing
of books for boys.

The grimly mysterious tales of Charles
Brockden Brown, the essays and novels of
James Kirke Paulding, the comedies of Royall
Tyler and the belles lettres of Washington
Irving were for the pleasing of a higher in-
tellectual taste than the day and place could
claim for its average reader. Cooper had not
yet begun the writing which was to Inaugurate
a new era In American letters. When, there-

63 PARSON WEEMS

fore, Weems appeared to the shopkeeper, the
artisan, the ploughboy and the children of all
of them, with his stirring lives of Washington
and Marion, written in language of the sim-
plest, without any attempt at subtlety or orig-
inality of thought, and in a style which is the
despair of a more conscious writer, he was ac-
claimed as a national benefactor. For his own
generation, he was the most widely read of
American writers. The number of editions
of his Life of Washington is variously esti-
mated from forty to seventy, and in a day
when books were passed from hand to hand
to a greater extent than now, this one must
have reached a host of readers.

The Civil War made new heroes, and it
and its results changed the country from lad
to man. The consequence has been that
Weems is almost unknown to the generation
which has grown up since the great conflict
between the States. Not a year ago, however,
this writer found a newly printed issue of the
Life of Marion on the shelf of a country
store, and he knows of a contemplated new

THE AUTHOR 63

edition of the Life of Washington. If an
author's fame be measured by the publisher's
memory of his work, Weems has attained a
share of the shining bauble sufficient to lift
him completely beyond the class of minor
writers In which his merits place him.

VI
THE BIOGRAPHIES

In December of 1799 died George Wash-
ington, who to many of his contemporaries
was the archetype of statesman, soldier and
gentleman, while on the other hand to a large
number of people, he stood for everything
that was the opposite of these connotations in
mind, manners and morals. Weems was of
the former class, and in an outburst of sin-
cere hero worship he wrote, and published
on February 22, 1800, a short biographical
sketch of the great general and president. His
was not the first " life " of Washington that
appeared, but it was so far the best and most
readable that a new and enlarged edition was
called for immediately. For the rest of his
days he was collecting new material for the
successive enlargements and embellishments
of the work which, from an anniversary ser-

FRONTISPIECE OF WEEMS' PAMPHLET, " GOD's REVENGE AGAINST
GAMBLING." REDUCED.
[See page 92.]

THE BIOGRAPHIES 65

mon, became his most important contribution
to literature.

We owe chiefly to the biographies by Mar-
shall and Ramsay the picture which we have
of Washington as the cold and colorless
statesman and man of affairs, but it must be
confessed that it is Weems who has made his
name almost a synonym for youthful priggish-
ness. His life of the hero of the Cherry Tree
story was written chiefly for the youth of the
land that they might have before them always
an example of perfection in conduct, but it
needs only reference to such a book as San-
ford and Merton to become convinced that
the eighteenth century ideal of manners in
boys was not ours. That he was unaware of
his offense is evident from the fact that in
one of the later editions of the book he de-
clares in the preface his intention of human-
izing one who already lived in the popular
imagination as a sort of demi-god.

Not by any means the most worthy, but cer-
tainly the best known of American hero tales
is the story of George Washington and his

66 PARSON WEEMS

mutilation of the Cherry Tree.'" It is as-
serted, generally carelessly and without any
thought upon the subject, that Weems was
father and mother to this famous anecdote as
well as its sponsor, and no one may deny the
assertion. It is only fair, however, to say
that no really good reason has ever been
given for holding this view, and no evidence
has ever been brought forward In support of
it. On the contrary there Is something to be
said for the authenticity of the anecdote. The
story Is probable in every detail, and it is well
known that Weems was assiduous In the col-
lection of Washington anecdotes of every
sort. Moreover, through his wife's kinship
with the Washington family, he had every
opportunity for learning these anecdotes, if
any existed, from authoritative sources. He
knew Washington personally, corresponded
with him, and in company with their common
friend. Dr. Cralk, stayed at least once with

^ For a full and interesting discussion of the Cherry
Tree story, see " Historian of the Cherry Tree," W. B.
Norris, National Magazine, February, 1910.

THE BIOGRAPHIES 67

him at Mt. Vernon, and he was intimate with
the Reverend Lee Massey who was Washing-
ton's rector and associate for many years.
These things, of course, may mean nothing.
They are given only to show that it was en-
tirely possible for Weems to have heard the
Cherry Tree anecdote from some one close
to its hero. It is quite within the pale of
probability that when Weems gave as his au-
thority for the story the same " excellent
lady " who had told him others of her mem-
ories of the youthful hero, he was speaking
sober truth.

Even if the story be wholly invented by
Weems, he has done a real service to the
youth of the nation. It is questionable, of
course, as a matter of literary ethics to lay an
invented anecdote to the charge of one's hero,
but possibly the good parson thought that a
striking example of truthfulness would be of
value to the American boy, wherefore he in-
vented a story containing one. He has made
the best-known story of American childhood
one that teaches by great example the telling

68 PARSON fVEEMS

of the truth whatever befall. Who may say
that this story, true or untrue, has not had an
influence on the national character?'"*

Weems has been accused of a general fabri-
cation of all his Washington anecdotes.
Whether or not there is any foundation for
this will probably never be known, as it is a
matter likely to baffle the research of scholars.
In the case of one at least of the best remem-
bered of them, it is established beyond doubt
that he brazenly transplanted it from another
book, a fact which makes it difficult to defend
him from the accusation of literary dishon-
esty. But true, or stolen, or invented, this
much is to be considered, that they are good
anecdotes of their sort and the only ones that
we have pertaining to the youth of George
Washington.

The literary style of the Life of JVashing-

^* Lincoln tells of having borrowed Weems' Life of
Washington and read it during his hard-working boyhood.
Moreover, he left it in a hiding-place where the rain
entered and sadly damaged the book. He was compelled
to work still harder for a while to pay the owner for the
ruin which had resulted from his carelessness.

THE BIOGRAPHIES 69

ton and others of the works of Weems is
worthy of some consideration, for a dull or
a badly written page in these books is a rarity,
and this statement is made advisedly and with
deference to Henry Cabot Lodge's '' charac-
terization of his style as '' turgid, overloaded
and at times silly." His writing is embel-
lished with anecdotes, figures of comparison,
and appropriate historical, classical and scrip-
tural allusions. The language is simple, the
sentences uninvolved, the vocabulary varied
and the whole inspired by that something
which we call " style," that spirit which makes
a piece of writing live and move.

He has grave defects as a writer of Eng-
lish. His figurative language is sometimes
grandiose in the manner of his age. He fre-
quently indulges In a species of fine writing
exasperating to the critical mind, and his use
of the epic where plain prose were better
spoils many a passage in his books. He was
one of the lesser writers of the fag end of an

^ George Washington. By Henry Cabot Lodge. (Ameri-
can Statesman Series.)

70 PARSON WEEMS

age which preferred Mr. Alexander Pope to
William Shakespeare, and which was so deaf-
ened by the roar of Osslan in its ears that it
could not hear Burns the Gauger singing im-
mortal odes in his Scottish gin shops. It was
an artificial age and Weems partook of its
faults, but there was in him sufficient literary
virtue to make his books live in the affection
of his countrymen for more than a generation
after his death. Discredited by historians
and his books supplanted by those of later
and more authoritative biographers, it is his
style which has kept him from oblivion. Since
Weems' death this nation has given birth to
several heroes, but there has arisen no biogra-
pher to make their lives the common property
of every household in the land. There have
lived and died Lee and Lincoln, Jackson and
Grant, and each of these has been written
about time and again, but none of them has
had a biographer in the sense that Weems was
the biographer of Washington. And this is
true not because he is an accurate historian or
a painstaking biographer, but because he tells

THE BIOGRAPHIES 71

his story with a contagious enthusiasm which
fixes itself in the reader's memory.

Weems was first of all a preacher, and his
style exhibits the marks of his calling, that
peculiar fluency of language which is the pos-
session of one who does a great deal of ex-
temporaneous speaking. He was well read in
the classics, he knew his Shakespeare, and it
is said that he could recite from memory the
Book of Common Prayer and a vast portion
of the Holy Scripture. It is not necessary
to look much further for an explanation of
his lively, sometimes breathless, narrative
style. He wrote in the straightforward, un-
stemmed form of address which is the use of
every earnest preacher of moderate oratorical
ability, the language and rhetorical style of
a man who must say much in a restricted time,
and who to express his thought is driven to
the use of nervous, racy and direct language.
Moreover Weems had for a heritage the
" unstinted English of the Scot," and he lived
in an age which was not ashamed of elo-
quence, the generation in which every school-

72 PARSON WEEMS

house rang with the wildest oratorical flights
essayed by even the gentlest of lads. In his
writing, the reader never loses sight of the
eloquent preacher and orator.

The simile which is quoted here is one that
Weems in various forms frequently employs.
It is undoubtedly grandiloquent, but it is ap-
propriate and expressive none the less for that
reason. There are many of us, indeed, who
confess to a shamefaced liking for this sort of
bombast. It is pleasant now and then to
meet a man who is not afraid to let himself
out, one who knows not the use of the word
*' reserve " in literary composition. '' As
when a mammoth suddenly dashes in among
a thousand buffaloes, feeding at large on the
vast plains of Missouri; all at once the in-
numerous herd, with wildly rolling eyes, and
hideous bellowings, break forth into flight,
while, close at their heels the roaring monster
follows. Earth trembles as they fly. Such
was the noise in the chase of Tarleton ....
from the famous field of Cowpens."

The following anecdote is as good an ex-

THE BIOGRAPHIES 73

ample as may be found of the sort which il-
lumine his pages, and which make it impos-
sible to charge him with dullness, whatever
his other faults may be. " Tarleton was
brave, but not generous. He could not bear
to hear another's praise. When some ladies
in Charleston were speaking very handsomely
of Washington,'' he replied with a scornful
air that, * He would be very glad to get a
sight of Col. Washington. He had heard
much talk of him,' he said, ^ but had never
seen him yet.' * Why, sir,' rejoined one of
the ladies, * if you had looked behind you at
the battle of Cowpens, you might easily have
enjoyed that pleasure.' "

When he is not in a Homeric mood his
battle pictures, howbeit lightly sketched, are
generally done with a good deal of spirit and
enthusiasm. They are not good historical
sources, but they are eminently readable.
Take, for an example, his description of the
defense of Charleston : " ' Well, General
Moultrie,' said Governor Rutledge, * what do

^ Colonel Washington, not the Commander-in-Chief.

74 PARSON WEEMS

you think of giving up the fort? ' Moultrie
could scarcely suppress his indignation. ' No
man, sir/ said he to Lee, * can have a higher
opinion of the British ships and seamen than
I have. But there are others who love the
smell of gunpowder as well as they do; and
give us but plenty of powder and ball, sir,
and let them come on as soon as they please.'
His courage was quickly put to the test; for
about ten o'clock, on the 28th of June, in the
glorious 1776, Sir Peter Parker, with seven
tall ships formed his line, and bearing down
within point-blank shot of the fort, let go his
anchors and began a tremendous fire. At
every thundering blast he hoped fondly to
see the militia take to the sands like fright-
ened rats from an old barn on fire. But,
widely different from his hopes, the militia
stood their ground, firm as the Black-jacks of
their land ; and leveling their f our-and-twenty
pounders with good aim, bored the old hearts
of oak through and through at every fire.
Their third broadside carried away the
springs on the cables of the commodore's

THE BIOGRAPHIES 75

ship, which immediately swung around right
stern under the guns of the fort. ' Hurra ! my
sons of thunder,' was instantly the cry of the
American battery, ' look handsomely to the
commodore ! now my boys, for your best re-
spects to the commodore ! ' Little did the
commodore thank them for such respects;
for In a short time he had 60 of his brave crew
lying lifeless on his decks, and his cockpit
stowed with the wounded. At one period
of the action, the quarter-deck was cleared of
every soul, except Sir Peter himself. Nor
was he entirely excused; for an honest cannon
ball, by way of a broad hint that It was out
of character for a Briton to fight against lib-
erty, rudely snatched away the bags of his
silk breeches. Thus Sir Peter had the honour
to be the first, and I believe the only Sans
Culotte ever heard of In American natural
history."

This Is informal writing, but It at least has
the merit of life and animation. He goes to
the other extreme In describing the Battle of
Saratoga, but It Is not to the reader's loss that

^(> PARSON WEEMS

the epic fire burnt within the honest parson
for a moment or two:

" The riflemen flew to their places, and in
a few moments the hero "^ was cut down.
With him fell the courage of the left wing,
who, being now fiercely charged, gave way,
and retreated to their camp. But scarcely had
they entered it, when the Americans, with
Arnold at their head, stormed it with incon-
ceivable fury; rushing with trailed arms
through a heavy discharge of musketry and
grape shot. The British fought with equal
desperation. For their all was at stake; the
Americans, like a whelming flood, were burst-
ing over their intrenchments ; and hand to
hand, with arguments of bloody steel, were
pleading the causes of ages yet unborn.
Hoarse as a mastiff of true British breed,
Lord Balcarras was heard from rank to rank,
loud-animating his troops ; while on the other
hand, fierce as the hungry tiger of Bengal, the
impetuous Arnold precipitated his heroes on

^'The British General Frazier, shot by Arnold's picked
riflemen.

THE BIOGRAPHIES 77

the stubborn foe. High in air, the encoun-
tering banners blazed; there bold waving the
lion painted standards of Britain; here the
streaming pride of Columbia's lovely stripes
— while thick below, ten thousand eager war-
riors close the darkening files, all bristled with
vengeful steel. No firing is heard. But
shrill and terrible, from rank to rank, re-
sounds the clash of bayonets — frequent and
sad the groans of the dying. Pairs on pairs,
Britons and Americans, with each his bayonet
in his brother's breast, fall forward together
faint-shrieking in death, and mingle their
smoking blood."

Next In merit and importance to Weems'
Life of Washington stands his Life of Gen-
eral Francis Marion^ a work which was pub-
lished under the reputed authorship of Peter
Horry. In this book the author is accused of
the same sort of unveracious anecdotage as
in the Life of Washington, but William Gil-
more Simms was of a contrary opinion, for he
wrote in the preface of his own biography of

6

78 PARSON WEEMS

the famous partisan leader that " Mr. Weems
had rather loose notions of the privileges of
the biographer; though, in reality, he has
transgressed much less in his Life of Marion
than is generally supposed." But even if we
accept Mr. Simms' statement, and allow
Weems to have been more trustworthy than
usual in this work, yet it is not as a study in
biography that we turn to it. Its charm lies
in the fact that of sober history and biography
the author has made an unusually entertain-
ing historical romance. Simms called it " a
delightful book for the young." It is more
than this; it is a delightful book for anyone
that will read it.

One of Marion's companions in arms was
General Peter Horry, a stout soldier and an
eminent citizen of South Carolina. Weems
persuaded this personage to turn over to him
material which he had collected with a view to
writing the life of his great leader and friend,
and it is doubtful if the bluff, plain soldier
was not much relieved to shift the responsibil-
ity of the undertaking to a more practised

THE BIOGRAPHIES 79

writer. He was unfelgnedly displeased, how-
ever, when the book appeared and its title
page proclaimed him as the author, for he
declared that he could not recognize his own
sober notes In the form which they had taken
In the hands of Mr. Weems.

It is certain that the book was entirely of
Weems' authorship, and what his motive was
In disclaiming this connection with It, Is, and
will ever be something of a problem. Whether
it was simply that he wished to give his book
the better commercial chance which It would
have under the name of the widely known old
hero, or whether he had some agreement with
the General which the latter In his indigna-
tion repudiated. It is difficult to say with cer-
tainty. At any rate his action was question-
able enough to bring a storm upon his head
in the form of spirited protests from the out-
raged Horry, who endeavored to assuage his
mortification and anger by a series of bitter
letters. Weems replied that he had enlivened
his collaborator's material and written a " mil-
itary romance." General Horry might as

8o PARSON JVEEMS

well have saved the paper upon which he
wrote his denunciatory letters, for a second
edition of the book was soon brought out in
which there were no changes made either in
the manner of presentation or in the name of
the author. In later editions, the work was
credited to " General Peter Horry and M. L.
Weems," but this is the only concession that
was made, and the book has been as widely
known as " Horry's Life of Marion '' as by
any other signification.'*

The preface to the celebrated " military
romance " in which General Horry is repre-
sented as giving in the first person his reasons
for writing a memoir of his friend, must have
been amusingly true to life. It has been sug-
gested that the reason for Horry's disgust
with the book and its author was the uncanny
cleverness with which here and there through-
out the work Weems drew the character of
the rough-mannered but stout-hearted old sol-
dier and gentleman. It was a splendid bit of

** See Wm. Gilmore Simms, Views and Reviews, for an
account of this literary feud.

THE BIOGRAPHIES 8i

characterization, which fell just short enough
of caricature to be decent.

A feature in the Life of Marion which is
especially pleasing to the reader, and which
must have been one of the reasons for the
great popularity of the book in South Caro-
lina, is the amount of space which the author
devotes to the words and deeds of his second-
ary characters. In this respect it is a memoir
of Marion's men as much as of the wily
" Swamp Fox " himself. He portrays the
valorous feats of Sergeants Jasper and Mac-
donald, of Newton and a score more non-
commissioned officers and privates, and he
digresses to tell of the suffering and hardship
endured by the non-combatant Whigs during
the British and Tory ascendancy of South
Carolina. The battles of Marion were
fought largely within the borders of South
Carolina, and his men were largely made up
of natives of that State. The book is con-
sequently, for the South Carolinean, much
about home folks. It is the " Roll of the
Battle Abbey " of that commonwealth.

82 PARSON WEEMS

The attacks, retreats and daring raids in
which Sergeant Macdonald and his horse
Selim are the chief figures make this earliest
of American historical romances a book of
delights for the most critical. The author has
preserved anecdotes and stories of achieve-
ment of Marion and his paladins which have
become a part of our Revolutionary tradition.
His book is an American Mort d' Arthur, and
if one were to begin a detailed quotation of
the vigorous and happy descriptions of deeds
of arms which it contains, he would never
have done. A few selections must suffice to
give an idea of the zest with which Weems
tells a story.

Marion captures an encampment about the
fires of which he finds the British drinking,
fiddling and playing cards. Hear Weems
tell of an incident of the night. " One of
the gamblers (it is a serious truth), though
shot dead, still held the cards griped in his
hands. Led by curiosity to inspect this strange
sight, a dead gambler, we found that the
cards which he held were ace, deuce and jack.

THE BIOGRAPHIES 83

Clubs were trumps. Holding high, low, jack
and the game, In his own hand, he seemed
to be In a fair way to do well; but Marlon
came down upon him with a trump that
spoiled his sport, and non-suited him forever."

It seems that the potent and seductive bev-
erage known as " apple brandy '' was danger-
ously popular with the American troopers,
and Weems closes a chapter dealing wholly
with disastrous blunders caused by overindul-
gence In It with the following Incident. While
foraging near Georgetown, South Carolina,
six young men of Marlon's force met an old
Tory whose most valuable possession was a
bottle of the favorite drink. He was relieved
of It, and each of them, the story says,
" twigged the tickler to the tune of a deep
dram." The relation continues:

" Macdonald, for his part, with a face as
red as a comet, reined up Sellm, and drawing
his claymore, began to pitch and prance about,
cutting and slashing the empty air, as If he
had a score of enemies before him, and ever
and anon, roaring out, ' Huzza, boys ! damme,
let's charge ! '

84 PARSON JVEEMS

"'Charge, boys! charge!' cried all the
rest, reining up their horses, and flourishing
their swords.

" ' Where the plague are you going to
charge ? ' asked the old Tory.

" ' Why, into Georgetown, right off,' re-
plied they.

" ' Well, you had better have a care, boys,
how you charge there, for I'll be blamed if
you do not get yourselves into business pretty
quick: for the town is chock full of red coats.'

" ' Red coats ! ' one and all they roared out,
' red coats ! egad, that's just what we want.
Charge, boys ! charge ! huzza for the red
coats, damme ! '

" Then, clapping spurs to their steeds, off
went these six young mad-caps, huzzaing and
flourishing their swords, and charging at full
tilt into a British garrison of three hundred
men! !

" The enemy supposing that this was only
our advance, and that General Marion, with
his whole force, would presently be upon
them, flew with all speed to their redoubt,

THE BIOGRAPHIES 85

and there lay, as snug as fleas In a sheep-skin.
But all of them were not quite so lucky, for
several were overtaken and cut down In the
streets, among whom was a sergeant major, a
stout greasy fellow, who strove hard to waddle
away with his bacon ; but Sellm was too quick
for him : and Macdonald with a back-handed
stroke of his claymore, sent his frightened
ghost to join the MAJORITY."

In both the Life of Washington and the
Life of Marion, Weems Is In the main de-
pendable In his accounts of the principal
movements and actions of the war. His de-
scriptions of the battles, though brief and
highly colored often by his enthusiasm and
extreme partisanship, are generally far from
misleading. It Is probable that he drew
his Information for the military part of his
works from the gazettes and other semi-
official sources, and the principal events In
the lives of his heroes are also presented
truthfully and carefully. There cannot be
two opinions of the value of the service of
that man who tells In a language understood

86 PARSON WEEMS

of the people his country's history and the
lives of its great men. And this holds true
even if it shall be proved that he has em-
broidered these writings with details unde-
niably picturesque but of uncertain origin.

The Life of Franklin is a less important
book than either of those which we have
spoken of. To begin with, a good half of it,
in the early editions, is simply the oft-printed
and reprinted " Autobiography " of the great
philosopher and statesman. Weems should
have written a good biography of Franklin.
The words of Poor Richard, the philosopher
of the middle class, were always on his lips,
and he never wearied of pointing out the
greater prosperity which was visited upon the
thrifty Pennsylvanians than seemed possible
for the easy going Southerners to attain.
Moreover he had engaged in pleasant per-
sonal correspondence with Franklin at the
time of his struggle for Holy Orders when
the then Ambassador to France had good-
naturedly tried to be of service to him. In

THE BIOGRAPHIES 87

Spite of this predisposition to write a good
biography of him, he yet in some way fell
short of success in his attempts to do so. The
old buoyancy and impulsiveness is missing.

The later editions of the book are entirely
by Weems, although in the first half of it he
has done little more than turn the '' Auto-
biography " into the narration of a third per-
son. Taken as a whole, the book is only mod-
erately entertaining. Whether it is the ab-
sence of something in Franklin himself, or
whether a statesman and a scientist needs a
different sort of biographer from the gossipy,
moralizing Weems it is difficult to say, but it
is clear to the most cursory reading of it that
the Life of Franklin scarcely escapes medi-
ocrity.

The Life of Penn is another of Weems'
less successful works, being merely an en-
larged moral treatise sprinkled with scanty
biographical and historical details. It is ob-
viously intended for the delectation of youth,
and the reader who finds the prosy anecdotes

88 PARSON JVEEMS

of the youthful Washington unpalatable had
better not touch the Life of William Penn,
for a good third of it consists of fatiguing,
smugly pious dialogue between the boy Penn
and his mother. Another third is given over
to moral disquisitions from the mouths of va-
rious persons, and the rest to more or less
dependable history and biography. There is
an appendix of Penn's Maxims.

The only natural and likable figure in this
book is the outraged father of the hero. The
old admiral rages without avail against the
fanaticism of his son, and one cannot but
feel sympathy for him in his failure to under-
stand the peculiarities of the Quaker tempera-
ment. The scenes between William and the
sturdy old gentleman are the most interesting
as they are the best done of any in the book.

One of his outbursts should be quoted, il-
lustrating as it does the sane point of view
of the normally good man. The father is ad-
juring the son not to throw away his many
opportunities for worldly advancement by ad-
hesion to a fanatical sect, and he cries out in

THE BIOGRAPHIES 89

his bewilderment: " But why, in the name
of God, can't you be good and happy as a
great man, as well as a 7nean one; and by
dressing like a gentleman as well as like a
monk? Can Tom Loe have made such a
blockhead of you, as to make you believe it a
sin to wear a suit of clothes in the fashion? "
And again: " Can they be such fools as to
think that religion has anything to do with
the color and cut of people's clothes? " The
reader's sympathies throughout the argument
are undisguisedly with this irate representa-
tive of unregenerate man.

The one extenuation for page after page
of pietistical dialogue is that in their fabrica-
tion, Weems is intensely in earnest and in-
tensely anxious to be of service in setting a
high ideal for American children. When he
writes in terms of exaggerated tenderness of
Lady Penn's love and care for her son, one
feels that he has in mind his own children and
their upbringing. He was the kindest and
most devoted of fathers himself, so that when
his overdone piety fails to touch an answering

90 PARSON WEEMS

chord, the reader is ready to forgive him,
knowing the excellence of his intention.

It would not be justice to Weems to say
that his Life of Penn is not a good book. It
is not a good biography for the reason that
one-half of it is dialogue which had its birth
in the brain of the author. It is, however, a
good book, for whenever Weems put his pen
to paper a certain enthusiasm and zest were
born which made readable conversations and
disquisitions which in another writer would be
" as dry as the remainder biscuit after a voy-
age.'' In him they are alive in spite of them-
selves, and once more style has its triumph.

VII
THE PAMPHLETS

It Is often said truly that Weems' pam-
phlets are among the curiosities of American
literature, but it would be doing their author
an injustice if anyone were left with the im-
pression that they were no more than this.
For in the generation of their birth and great-
est circulation, these coarse, stinging invectives
against the grosser vices influenced their read-
ers to a degree that would have been impos-
sible of accomplishment in quiet, dignified
sermons or tracts, in whatsoever trenchant or
logical form their arguments might have been
put forth. Contemporary writers allow them
to have been notable agents for good in the
hands of the half educated, emotional classes
to whom their crudity of manner and matter
was no hindrance to an appreciation of the
very obvious lesson in the author's mind and
heart.

92 PARSON WEEMS

The earliest of the tracts, and undoubtedly
a very Interesting one if a copy of it could be
found, is Onania, the " odd publication "
which, according to William Duke writing a
few days after its appearance in June, 1792,
brought upon its writer " a good deal of ridi-
cule as well as serious blame." The nature of
the subject makes discussion of the tract un-
desirable here, but one can imagine Weems'
contempt for those who ridiculed him, and
the indignant sarcasm with which he must
have answered those who blamed him for his
plain speaking in the cause of public health
and morals. He was a hundred years before
his time in this particular form of endeavor.

For many reasons, the most remarkable of
the Weems' pamphlets is that one called
God's Revenge against Gambling, and this is
so not because It Is the most flambuoyant and
lurid of them in design, but rather for the
contrary reason. It probably lost in effective-
ness on account of its comparative pallor, but
this loss was Its gain from a literary stand-
point. It Is the most finished and pleasing of

THE PAMPHLETS 93

the tractates which claim Weems as their au-
thor. It is closely reasoned on the purely
ethical grounds of the gambling question, and
it contains passages which attain almost to
nobility of expression. The dialogue, a fa-
vorite device with Weems, has dramatic
movement and a certain intensity of feeling.
Some of the " cases " illustrating the evil re-
sults of gambling are presented with a pathos
not devoid of delicacy, a more convincing
method than the dulling bludgeon strokes
which follow thick and fast in the form of
'' cases " in others of the pamphlets. A good
example of this method occurs in the dialogue
in which he has been lauding the excellencies
of a well-known gentleman of Maryland.
The contrast, of course, is evident mechanism,
but it is none the less effective for being so.

" But please to stand by, Mr. Goodloe
Harper, for here pushes forward a gambler,
I suppose, but so rumpled and bedirted both
in hair and hide, that but for his size, I should
as lieve take him for a mole as a man. Well,
sir, who are you? "

94 PARSON WEEMS

" A man, sir."

" But are you sure of that, sir? for, to be
candid, you come in so ' questionable a shape '
that I am put to a stand."

'* Yes, I am a Man, or rather a mad-Man.
I am the thing, sir, they call a gambler."

'* O ! Well then, sir, go on for heaven's
sake, for you look full well enough for a
gambler; please, sir, to go on."

And with this introduction the unfortunate
gambler relates with no little effect the story
of a fall from comfortable circumstances to
his present sad estate. Of all the sermons
of Parson Weems which have been preserved,
this against gambling is the single one that
has kept its appeal for the more sophisticated
reader of a later generation.

In God's Revenge Against Adultery, the
author writes with some circumstance of the
errors and punishment of two unhappy
women, whose names, it is to be hoped, were
altered before their disgrace was thus adver-
tised in a pamphlet which had an enormous
sale in all parts of the country. The practice

THE PAMPHLETS 95

of inculcating virtue by presenting " horrible
examples " of vice, here reaches the limit of
its possibilities. The effect is in some measure
destroyed for the critical reader by the au-
thor's extravagance, for when he is called
upon to curse and bewail the villainy of man,
a greatly different attitude of mind Is Induced
in him by the bathos of attendant circum-
stances. This is decidedly the most unpleas-
ant of his writings but there is no reason for
doubting the statement that it was the most
effective of them.

The Drunkard's Looking Glass, besides
being a powerful sermon In which John
Barleycorn is given a sad drubbing, is on
account of the slang of the period with which
Its pages are studded, a document of some in-
terest to the antiquarian. We learn, for in-
stance, that the equivalents for present-day
phrases indicative of the stages of intoxica-
tion were something like these: first, the
drunkard has a *' drop In his eye," then, he
becomes " half shaved," and so finally he is
" quite capsized," or '' snug under the table

96 PARSON WEEMS

with the dogs." He also becomes " swipy,"
and is " cut," or " cut in the craw.'' This is
not the only age which revels in nice dis-
tinctions in the progress of the effects of
*' Demon Rum."

There are passages throughout this early
bit of temperance reform literature which are
of a degree of coarseness indescribable by
comparison to anything in printed English.
The language which from every page cries
out to one is the sort that may be heard from
a crew of drunken stevedores in the height of
their inebriation, and this statement is rather
rough on the stevedores at that. Weems was
a close observer of the people with whom his
roving life threw him in contact, and he has
here described them so truly that the reader
is almost convinced of their physical nearness.
The author's depiction of a man in the " stu-
pid or torpid stage," with all the loathsome
consequences, is a wonderful and at the same
time a disgustingly crude bit of realistic writ-
ing. So much is this so that in spite of the
admiration which it compels from the stand-

TliE ' •

Drunkard's LooMng- Glass,

REFLKCTIJJG

A FAITIUX'L LlxOSNESS

OF ' . '

THE DRUNKARD,

; SUNDRY VERY INTERESTING ATTITUDE S,j

WITH r.lVKLY REPIJESENTATIONS
OF THE Many ST" \N(;K C V PKUS \VH1CII HE cdxS ;

AT DJFFEUB.NT STAGES OF HIS DISEASE ; ♦ i

./ "WTien he has only " A DROP IN IIIS EYE,*

Secnud, ^ ' *>, - '

WHEN HE IS '• HALF SHAVED,"'

. '.e Thii'df ^ ' , I

^liTieh hfe is jcetfinpc " A little on ihe Staggers or s^/* ■
And fourth and jifih, itnd so on, #%

TILL IIF IS - QUil'E GAPblZED,"

OR,

" Snu* under the Tiible witJi the Dogs,'*
Can « Slick to the FLOOR without holMna^ on?^ ^' * ^

BY M. L. WEEMS,
iiiMhor of the Lrfc of IVashinglon, &*

■SiHainTiSaWiif I III i\ im,m,,j,,miSSmirm r' i ii il „ , ' "=

■•#KCOH» EDiTlO't," r.BElTtY IMPROVEB.

IPrkt) JSvtitly-Jixe cmt8»} v >

■ ■ ■ 1813. . .-

PHOTOGRAPHIC REPRODUCTION OF THE TITLE PAGE OF WEEMS'

POWERFUL AND REALISTIC PAMPHLET AGAINST THE

PREVAILING VICE OF HIS GENERATION. REDUCED.

THE PAMPHLETS 97

point of literary effect, one does not care to
read a second time the page which contains it.

In God's Revenge Against Murder, the evil
influence of low environment and of the pa-
rental neglect of children alike conspire to the
undoing of a young South Carolinian and the
hapless wife whom he kills with shocking
brutality. It is like the other pamphlets in
its description of sordid wretchedness, and
like them, too, in its undoubted power, but
except that it possesses some local historical
interest, there is little more that need be said
about it.

The Philanthropist, an olive branch held
out to opposing " Adamsites and Jefferson-
ians," has an interest of its own in that it
has to do with the stirring political questions
of that day. Its sane treatment of the issues
won for it a general commendation. God's
Revenge Against Duelling and the Bad Wife's
Looking Glass are much of a type with the
other moral dissertations which have been
described.

It is a pleasure to turn from these barbaric

98 PARSON JVEEMS

and In the main successful attempts to badger
people Into an observance of the Decalogue
to that one of Weems' pamphlets which Is a
type of his jocularly earnest nature. The
title, Indicative of Its style and contents. Is
Hymen's Recruiting Sergeant; or the New
Matrimonial Tat-too for Old Bachelors. As
early as 1805 '' we find him suggesting to a
publisher that a third edition of the pamphlet
consisting of 1000 copies would be profitable,
and at as late a date as 1840, new editions
were being Issued by different publishers In
various parts of the country.

In this seriously meant entreaty to the un-
married to enter upon and enjoy the felicities
of the " honorable estate," he exhorts In
humorous fashion the " Citizen Bachelor " to
find himself a wife, quoting Scripture, para-
phrasing the Book of Proverbs and calling
loudly upon Common Sense to support him in
his crusade against the state of bachelordom.
The letter dedicatory Is typical of the lively,

^American Historical Record, vol. 2, Feb. 1873, p. 83.

THE PAMPHLETS 99

almost frolicsome, style of the book, and at
the risk of taking up too much space It Is
copied here, for surely there Is nothing In our
literature quite so curious as this little book.

" TO ALL THE SINGLES, WHETHER MAS-
CULINES OR FEMININES, THROUGHOUT THE
UNITED STATES.

" Dear Gentles, I am very clear that
our Yankee heroes are made of at least, as
good stuff as any the best of the beef or
frog-eating gentry on the other side of the
water. But neither this, nor all our fine
speeches to our President, nor all his fine
speeches to us again, will ever save us from
the British gripe or Carmagnole hug, while
they can outnumber us, ten to one! No, my
friends, 'tis population, 'tis population alone,
can save our bacon.

List then, ye bach'lors, and ye maidens fair,

If truly you do love your country dear;

O, list with rapture to the great decree,

Which thus in Genesis you all may see :

'Marry, and raise up soldiers, might and main,'

Then laugh, you may, at England, France and Spain.

loo PARSON WEEMS

'^ Wishing you all, the hearing ear — the be-
lieving heart — and a saving antipathy to apes,
" I remain yours, dear Gentles,
" In the bonds of

" Love and Matrimony,

" M. L. Weems."

It is evident that the cry of '* race suicide "
is as old as the nation.

Unfortunately, many of the apposite anec-
dotes and parallels which the author calls to
his service in this pamphlet are not suitable
for quotation, and this is not because there is
any vicious intent in his relation of them, but
for the reason that for ill or good this age
has elected to close its ears to frank mention
of the elemental facts of life. Weems finds
three prime reasons for matrimony — pleasure,
rosy health and prosperity, and upon each of
them he enlarges in a number of delightful
essays, drawing in high colors the contrast be-
tween the bachelor's " silent supper," " cold
sheets " and generally disconsolate condition,
and the comforts and delights which are the

THE PAMPHLETS loi

lot of the benedict. One may not say which
is the better reading, Master Burton's melan-
cholic views on the " miseries of marriage "
or these '* sweet persuasives to wedlock " of
good Parson Weems.

These are the works of the celebrated
" Parson Weems." '^ We are not troubled
to find for him a place in the family of Ameri-
can authors. He is one of those that will not
exactly fit in with any group of them, whether
arranged by period, by section or by similarity
of product. His biographies are read to some
extent to-day, three generations after his
death, and it is not unlikely that they will
continue to be read to a similar extent as long
as people are interested in the beginnings of

" For readable accounts of Weems' life, see Duyckink's
" Cyclopaedia," Arthur P. Gray in Hayden's ** Virginia
Genealogies," also Hayden in the same work, Ludwig
Lewisohn in the Charleston News and Courier, August 30,
1903, and an all too short article, by W. B. Norris, in
National Magazine, February, 1910. The late Paul Leices-
ter Ford was, at the time of his death, engaged upon a
monograph on Weems, which he intended to issue in con-
nection with his own book, The True George Washington.

102 PARSON fVEEMS

this nation. And if his works were to be
utterly forgotten, the evidence of his existence
would still be seen in the legendary history of
the nation. A great number of the stories of
the Revolution which to-day are the heritage
of the American child were, if not actually
first told by Weems, at least preserved from
oblivion and sown broadcast in the hearts and
memories of the people by means of his writ-
ings. This man wrote the earliest biographies
of four of the nation's heroes, and wrote them
so well that he moulded many of the national
legends; to an age that needed more of his
kind, he preached virtue and decent living in
language that gripped and seared and sick-
ened; and finally after his death himself be-
came the center of a legend. This is the
excuse for writing of Mason Locke Weems.

INDEX

Adams, John, 22

Adams, Samuel and John, printers,

38
Age of Reason, 47
All Hallows' Parish, 24, 27, 29, 31,

33
All Saints' Parish, 13
Allen, Mr., 43
American Prot't Episcopal

Preacher, 39
Annapolis, 36, 59

B

Bad Wife's Looking Glass, 97

Beach, The Rev. Abram, 38

Beaufort, S. O., 55

Bellas, H. H., 11

" Belle Air," Prince Wm. Co.,

Va., 40, 55, 56
Biogrraphies, The, 64

O

Cadwaladers, descendants of Wil-
liamina Wemyss, 12

Canterbury, Archbishop of, 21, 23,
26

Carey, Matthew, 38, 40, 53

Charieston, S. C, 73

Cherry Tree anecdote, 6, 65, 67

Chester, Bishop of, 23, 26

Claggett, T. J., Bp. of Md., 35, 38

Coleman, Mr. (the Rev. John), 59

Corporation for the Relief of Wid-
ows, etc., 24

Cowpens, Battle of, 72, 73

Craik, Dr., 66

D

Danish Church, Bishops of, 22

Danish orders, 23

Danish minister, 22

Davis, John, Travels in Amer-
ica, 30, 43, 45

Diary of William Duke, 29, 31-34,
,. 36, 39, 40, 46, 59, 92

Dunkard's Looking Glass, 55, 95

Duelling, God's Revenge
Against, 97

Duke, The Rev. Wm., 28, 31-34, 36-

38, 46, 49, 50
Duke Street Chapel, Westminster,

23
Dumfries, Va., 40, 49, 55

E
Edinburgh, Univ. of, 16
Elkton, Md., 36, 37
Enabling Act, 23
Ewell, Fanny, 40
Ewell, Jesse, 40

Fairfax Court House, 47
Franklin, Autobiography of, 86, 87
Franklin, Life of, by M. L.

Weems, 86, 87
Franklin, Benjamin, 18, 20, 21, 39,

86, 87
Franklin correspondence, 19, 20
Franklin papers, Calendar of, 16,

18

G
Gambling, God's Revenge

Against, 92
Gantt, The Rev. Edward, Jr., 20,

22, 23, 26
Goldsboroughs, descendants of

Williamina Wemyss, 12

H
Hague, The, 22
Harrison, Margaret, 13
Herring Creek, 11
Hill, Abell, 13
Hill, Hester, 13
Hill, Susannah, 13
Horry, General Peter, 77-80
Hymen's Recruiting Sergeant,
97

J
James, St., Parish, 13
Jenifer, Daniel of St. Thomas, 14

Lincoln, Abraham, 68
Locke, Dr. William, 12, 13

I04

INDEX

Lodge, Henry Cabot, 69
London, Bishop of, 23, 25

M

Macduff, 12

Marion, General Francis, 82

Marion, Life of, by M. L.

Weems, 62, 77, 78, 80, 81, 85
Marshall, John, 53, 54
" Marshall Seat," 11
" Marshes Seat," 11
Massey, The Rev. Lee, 67
Meade, Wm., Bishop of Va., 14, 15,

45, 46, 49
" Moore Hall," 12, 38
Moore, Rebecca, 12
Moore, William, 12
Moores, descendants of Williamina

Wemyss, 12
" Mt. Vernon," 67
Mt. Vernon Parish, 41, 43
Murder, Qod's Revenge

Against, 97

N

Nantes, France, 17
Negroes, Work among, 30
North Elk Parish, 36

Oath of Allegiance, 20
Onania, 59, 92

Paine, Tom, 47, 48

Pamphlets, The, 91

Parliament of Eng., 23

Penn, William, 88, 89

Penn, Admiral, 88

Penn, Lady, 89

Penn, Life of, by M. L, Weems,

87, 88, 90
Penn's Maxims, 88
Philadelphia, 37
Philadelphia, College of, 12
Philanthropist, The, 59, 60, 97
Pohick Church, 41, 42, 43
Protestant Epis. Church, 12, 19
Protestant Epis. Church in Va., 41

R
Revolutionary War, 17
Reynolds, Harriet, 11

Ridgeleys, descendants of Wil-
liamina Wemyss, 12

S
Saratoga, Battle of, 75
Seabury, Samuel, Bishop of Conn.,

20, 24
Simms, W. G., 77, 78, 80
Smith, Wm., D. D., 12
Smiths, descendants of Williamina

Wemyss, 12
Swamp Fox (General Marion), 81

Tarleton, Colonel, 72, 73
Trinity Church, New York, 38
Truro Parish, Va., 41

U
Upper Marlboro, 34

W

Washington, Colonel, 73

Washington, George, 6, 42, 58, 64,
65-71

Washington, Life of, by Mar-
shall, 53, 54, 65

Washington, Life of, by Ram-
say, 65

Washington, Life of, by Weems,
5, 14, 42, 60, 62, 63, 68, 77, 85

Way to Wealth, 39

Wayne, Caleb P., 53

Weems, David, 11, 12, 13

Weems, David, Jr., 13

Weems, James, 11, 13

Weems, Mason Locke: birth, 11;
early life, 14; medical career,
16, 18; ordination, 19-26; par-
ish priest, 28; publishing ven-
tures, authorship, 38; mar-
riage, 40; book peddler, 41;
as a preacher, 44; death, 55;
author, 57 ; biographical
works, 65; pamphlets, 91;
place in literature, 101

Wemyss, David, 3d Earl of, 11

Wemyss, Williamina, 11, 12, 13, 38

Wesley, John, 29, 45

Westminster Parish, Md., 27, 29, 36

White, William, Bishop of Penn-
sylvania, 24

Wilmington, Del., 37

" Wood Yard," 38

rO'=^^ ^? ^,::) "V

(¥^h

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