In defense of Frank, I would argue that most Washington scholars give only  
slightly more credence to many of the recollections of GWP Custis than they 
do  to Weems. Obviously, one cannot "prove" it did not happen but there 
seems to be  no sound historical support that it did and to me it lacks the 
ring of  truth.
 
Pete Henriques
 
 
In a message dated 2/22/2010 4:18:04 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

I was  able to find Frank Grizzard's GW piece through a google news
search.  Wonderful work, as one would expect from Frank; but I will
toss one  friendly water balloon at him over his assertion that the "I
cannot tell a  lie" cherry-tree story is itself "a lie."  Everyone says
that, of  course, but the interesting thing is that there is a similar
story in GWP  Custis's "Recollections" of Washington, with a quote from
GW's mother "I  rejoice in my son, who always speaks the truth." Custis
knew George  Washington intimately.  In editing the GW biography by
Parson Weems,  who supposedly fabricated the story, Marcus Cunliffe
devoted several pages  of his introduction to a careful, scholarly
assessment of the cherry-tree  story and concluded that it should NOT
be dismissed as a fake, that it was  perfectly plausible, and that what
made people dislike it so much was that  Weems had unctuously moralized
over it.

Henry  Wiencek

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