LiteratEye: George Washington Lied About Taxes

by W.J. Elvin III

Prepare to be shocked and appalled

Few believe, surely, that George Washington never told a lie, or even that he confessed to chopping down one of his father's cherry trees, as his early biographer Parson Mason Locke Weems suggested. Weems saw nothing wrong with a bit of fabrication when it served his purposes. Neither, for that matter, did Washington.

Well, if that's so, what lie did George Washington tell? Name one. No doubt revisionist historians could provide a few dozen, but up until recently I certainly couldn't have done it. I ran across this little nugget while researching other matters in old newspapers, the sort of thing I do in putting together Fiona, a magazine about literary fraud and folly.

I ran my discovery past Rick Shenkman, editor of History News Network, and he replied that there is no mention of it in the papers of George Washington. I don't know if that means "and therefore it's a crock," or perhaps "good for you, you've rescued a valuable anecdote from the dustbin of history." Possibly neither.

http://pranks.com/2009/02/13/literateye-george-washington-lied-about-taxes/