Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v2.djvu/121

Early Historians of the Revolution 105 narrative to please the feelings of his friends In England. His book is but slightly esteemed. Dr. Ramsay (1749-1815), of South Carolina, though educated to be a physician, was more a politician and littSrateur than a scientist. His History of the Revolution of South Carolina (1785) and History of the American Revolution (1789) were well received by an uncritical genera- tion. It remained for a later age to discover that the second of these books, long accepted as an original work, was largely drawn from The Annual Register. Drayton and Moultrie were prominent South Carolinians, one a poHtical and the other a military defender of the Whig cause. Each wrote an excellent account of what he had seen in his own state. Mar- shall' and Wirt* were Virginia lawyers who thought it their duty to portray the Hves of two great men of the Revolution. From the first we have the Life of Washington (1804-07) in five volumes, a heavy book without literary style and smacking of Federalist opinions. It displeased the followers of Jefferson but had a wide circulation among those who did not agree with the great Republican leader. For posterity it has value chiefly as a soHd source of information. Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry (1817) is much unlike Marshall's book. It was well written — ^Wirt had a polished style — ^but it was a hasty and inadequate picture of a most important life. A better but less readable biography was William Tudor's Life of James Otis (1823). Mrs. Mercy Otis Warren (i728-i8l4),3 a sister of James Otis, was the wife of James Warren of Boston. Her three- volume History of the American Revolution (1805), a loosely written book which contained many biographical sketches, was popular and for a long time furnished the average New Englander his knowledge of the Revolution. Five years earlier had appeared the most successful historical book of the day, Weems's Life of Washington. The author was a versatile man, who could be buffoon, fiddler, parson, or hawker of his book as occasion demanded. He had not known Washington, but he created the impression that he wrote from personal knowledge by announcing himself as "formerly Rector of Mt. Vernon Parish." The book was a romance, interlarded with pious " See also Book II, Chap. xv. ° See also Book II, Chaps, i and in, » See also Book I, Chap, ix, and Book II, Chap. u.