George Washington's Cherry Tree and the Trump/Republican Party Hatchet
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Terre Haute Tribune Star, July 18, 2026
Letter: The search for historical truths
“I can’t tell a lie, Pa; you know I can’t tell a lie. I did cut it with my hatchet.” So confessed 6-year-old George Washington.
Parson Mason Locke Weems introduced the famous cherry tree confession to the public around 1800, soon after George Washington’s death. The tree, the hatchet, the confession, it was all a lie. But this lie became a story repeated to children for generations. In this way it became part of our history.
A recent White House report is titled "Saving America's Story: How Ideological Capture at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History Erases Our Heritage." (Always beware of any report or book whose subtitle is five times the length of the title.)
Read this report and you will find this: "As it stands today, it would benefit most Americans, especially parents bringing their children for a tour, if the Smithsonian's flagship history museum had a label at every entrance that reads: 'Warning: the exhibits in this museum were prepared by people who don't want you to love your country.'”
This warning expresses fear and ignorance, not love for our nation’s history. Much of our history is complex. Much of our history was once hidden in silence. All of American history can serve to strengthen us as citizens and as a nation.
Highly trained professionals at the National Smithsonian Museum of American History acknowledge that the George Washington tale is a fable invented by Weems and that his lie was turned into a myth. It doesn’t “erase” the importance, the impact of the cherry tree myth. It trusts Americans with a fuller truth, a truth about the past that strengthens us.
I’m predicting that someday this museum will exhibit a copy of this bloated Parson Trump report. It will provide the background and factual details of how its politically motivated false warnings threatened the search for historical truths. Just part of the job of dedicated historians who love their country and the truth.
— Gary Daily
posted by gary daily | 11:38 AM
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