He said he cannot tell a lie
Chat with our AI personalities
George Wahington cut his father's cherry tree down. When he was asked about it, he told the truth.
The story about George Washington cutting down his father's cherry tree, and then being unable to lie about it, has persisted throughout history. However, there is no evidence that this ever happened, and researchers have not been able to find any.
He invented the tale of the Cherry Tree. The myth was that when he was a little boy, George chopped down a cherry tree. When his father asked about it, George replied, "I cannot tell a lie," and admitted his act. This was used to demonstrate the perceived image of Washington as scrupulously honest.
The George Washington myth was a story that Parson Locke Weems made up portraying how honest George Washington was. The story involved George chopping down his father's cherry tree as a young boy, his father asks him if he chopped the cherry tree down and George tells him that he "cannot tell a lie."
There is a famous apocryphal story that George Washington cut down his father's prize cherry tree with his new axe and said when questioned ,confessed with the words, "I can not tell a lie.". Lincoln was known as "Honest Abe".