64 FISHER— MYTH-MAKING PROCESS IN [April i8, 



guidance of the whigs and the Annual Register and in tliis respect 

 stands alone. He seems to understand that the dispute hetvveen 

 America and England was irreconcilable and could never have been 

 settled by conciliation. He does not regard England's conduct 

 toward the colonies as a mere mistake of a ministry, nor did he 

 regard it as the affair of the king, but as a deliberate movement of 

 an overwhelming majority in Parliament heartily supported by the 

 aristocracy, the county gentry and the ruling classes, to consolidate 

 the empire and bring the colonies under stricter regulations. He 

 showed that under the old system the colonists had grown accus- 

 tomed to semi-independence and now were bent on absolute inde- 

 pendence. But his method of writing was so obscure and tedious 

 and he gave himself so little room, that his book could never have 

 much effect. 



Any influence he might have had was soon overwhelmed and 

 forgotten by the historical works of a writer of the highest order of 

 popularity, and in that sense 'and influence the ablest historian we 

 have ever produced. Prescott, Motley and Parkman are mere chil- 

 dren when compared with him. 



The truth is that Americans had no book about their great polit- 

 ical event that was easy to read until 1800 when the Reverend 

 Mason L. Weems came to their rescue with his " Life of Wash- 

 ington," followed by lives of Franklin and Marion. Parson Weems, 

 as he was called, was, it is said, a preacher of large family and 

 slender means, who had charge of a church in Virginia near Mount 

 Vernon. To support his family he became a traveling book agent 

 for Alatthew Carey, of Philadelphia. He wrote books of his own 

 and sold them in his wagon journeys through the country. He was 

 ready with a sermon, an harangue, or a stump speech, wherever he 

 could draw a crowd ; and he would then recommend his wares and 

 sell them from his wagon. He played well on the fiddle and was 

 in demand at social gatherings and dances. He must have been an 

 entertaining fellow in his way and I should like to have seen him 

 on some of his tours through the south. 



For a generation and more, his books, especially his "Life of 

 Washington," had an enormous sale and went through over forty 



