Most certainly 'tis not my history,
but your romance." . . . "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."
The book has been through scores of editions and printings
and the falsehoods that Weems concocted -- sometimes in malice --
have been accepted as truth and retold throughout the United States
and used in encyclopaedias and text books, government reports
and political speeches. As a result, Marion has been honored
by having counties and towns named for him to an extent equalled or surpassed
by few of America's greatest men.
Judge James's book had but a limited circulation and it has long been
a very scarce book; hence it has not been the factor it should have been
in correcting the fabrications in Weems's book.
Judge James's book is not entirely free from error. He begins
his first chapter with the statement: "Francis Marion was born at Winyaw,
near Georgetown, South-Carolina, in the year 1732.
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