Did Washington really cut down the cherry tree? Steven C. Bullock tells us about his new project--the life of Mason Locke "Parson" Weems, Washington's most popular biographer, who shaped the legend of Washington, and Francis Marion, as he tried to shape American character for the better. Steven Bullock, author of Tea Sets and Tyranny: The Politics of Politeness in Early America, and Revolutionary Brotherhood, on the Masons in early America, is a professor of history at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.