The Life of Gen. Francis Marion | Page 3

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Weems' Life of General Francis Marion

[Note on text: Italicized words or phrases capitalized. Some obvious
errors have been corrected.]

IMPORTANT NOTE ON THIS TEXT:
This biography, though historically based, should not be considered
factual. It is not that there was no such man -- indeed there was, and
other accounts indicate that Francis Marion is as deserving of praise as
this account would indicate -- or moreso. It is not that the events
described did not take place -- most of them, at least, did.
It is simply that Parson Weems (Mason Locke Weems, 1759-1825), in
an honest effort to teach a high patriotism, nobility, and morality,
sometimes embellished or exaggerated his stories to the point of
falsehood, as with his invention of the cherry tree anecdote in his Life
of Washington. It seems strange that such a devotion to moral teaching
should use falsehoods to reach its audience, but he apparently felt the
means justified by the end.
Not everyone agreed with his methods, and Gen. Peter Horry wrote to
him: "I requested you would (if necessary) so far alter the work as to
make it read grammatically, and I gave you leave to embellish the work,
but entertained not the least idea of what has happened . . . You have
carved and mutilated it with so many erroneous statements your
embellishments, observation and remarks, must necessarily be

erroneous as proceeding from false grounds. . . . Can you suppose I can
be pleased with reading particulars (though so elevated, by you) of
Marion and myself, when I know such never existed." Though Horry
did not want to be known as the co-author of this work, I have suffered
to let his name remain, with this notice, as it has traditionally been
connected with it.
For all this, the basic ideas, gleaned largely from facts provided by
Peter Horry and Robert Marion (the nephew of Francis), remain largely
unchanged. Even in this decadent state, Weems' biography brought the
nation's attention to Francis Marion, and inspired numerous other
writers to touch on the subject -- two of these works, biographies by
James and Simms, are especially noteworthy. Therefore, for the literary,
rather than strictly historical, value, the following is presented to the
reader.
Alan Light, Birmingham, Alabama, 1997.

======== Weems' Life of General Francis Marion [Mason Locke
Weems, American (Maryland) author & Anglican priest. 1759-1825.]
========

The Life of General Francis Marion, a Celebrated Partisan Officer, in
the Revolutionary War, against the British and Tories in South Carolina
and Georgia
by Brig. Gen. P. Horry, of Marion's Brigade, and M. L. Weems,
formerly rector of Mount Vernon Parish.

-------- "On VERNON'S CHIEF why lavish all our lays; Come, honest
Muse, and sing great MARION'S praise." --------

Preface.

"O that mine enemy would write a book." -- This, in former times,
passed for as sore an evil as a good man could think of wishing to his
worst enemy. -- Whether any of my enemies ever wished me so great
an evil, I know not. But certain it is, I never dreamed of such a thing as
writing a book; and least of all a `war book'. What, I! a man here under

the frozen zone and grand climacteric of my days, with one foot in the
grave and the other hard by, to quit my prayer book and crutches, (an
old man's best companion,) and drawing my sword, flourish and fight
over again the battles of my youth.
The Lord forbid me such madness! But what can one do when one's
friends are eternally teasing him, as they are me, and calling out at
every whipstitch and corner of the streets, "Well, but, sir, where's
Marion? where's the history of Marion, that we have so long been
looking for?"
'Twas in vain that I told them I was no scholar; no historian. "God,"
said I, "gentlemen, has made `many men of many minds;' one for this
thing and another for that. But I am morally certain he never made me
for a writer. I