Other solicitors, however, were also put to work: among them the picturesque Mason Locke Weems, part Whitefield, part Villon, a delightful mingling of evangelist and vagabond, lecturer and politician, writer and musician.[610] Weems had himself written a "Life of Washington" which had already sold extensively among the common people.[611] He had long been a professional book agent with every trick of the trade at his fingers' ends, and was perfectly acquainted with the popular taste.
First, the parson-subscription agent hied himself to Baltimore. "I average 12 sub^s pr day. _Thank God for that_," he wrote to his employer. He is on fire with enthusiasm: "If the Work be done handsomely, you will sell at least 20,000," he brightly prophesies. Within a week Weems attacks the postmasters and insists that he be allowed to secure sub-agents from among the gentry: "The Mass of Riches and of Population in America lie in the Country. There is the wealthy Yeomanry; and there the ready Thousands who w^{ d.} instantly second you were they but duly stimulated."[612]
Almost immediately Weems discovered a popular distrust of Marshall's forthcoming volumes: "The People are very fearful that it will be prostituted to party purposes," he informs Wayne. "_For Heaven's Sake, drop now and then a cautionary Hint to John Marshall Esq._ Your all is at stake with respect to this work. If it be done in a generally acceptable manner you will make your fortune. Otherwise the work will fall an Abortion from the press."[613]
Weems's apprehension grew. Wayne had written that the cities would yield more subscribers than the country. "For a moment, admit it," argues Weems: "Does it follow that the Country is a mere blank, a cypher not worth your notice? Because there are 30,000 wealthy families in the City and but 20,000 in the Country, must nothing be tried to enlist 5000, at least of these 20,000??? If the _Fed^s sh^d be disappointed_, and the Demo^s disgusted with Gen^{ l.} Marshals performance, will it not be very convenient to have 4 to 5000 good Rustic Blades to lighten your shelves & to shovel in the Dol^$."[614]
The dean of book agents evidently was having a hard time, but his resourcefulness kept pace with his discouragement: "Patriotic Orations--Gazetter Puffs--Washingtonian Anecdotes, Sentimental, Moral Military and Wonderful--All sh^d be Tried," he advises Wayne.[615] Again, he notes the failure of the postmasters to sell Marshall's now much-talked-of book. "In six months," he writes from Martinsburg, Virginia, "the P. Master here got 1. In 1/2 day. _I thank God_, I've got 13 sub^s."[616]