Which U.S. president was said to have been too honest to lie to his father about chopping down a cherry tree?

The story behind the answer

George Washington is the correct answer. The tale that young Washington confessed, “I cannot tell a lie,” after chopping down his father’s cherry tree comes from Parson Weems’s early 19th-century biography. Historians agree it’s a myth, crafted to teach children about Washington’s character and the virtue of honesty, not a documented event.

A memory tip: Cherry tree = Washington (think Washington, D.C.’s famous cherry blossoms). Don’t confuse it with Abraham Lincoln, nicknamed “Honest Abe”; he’s associated with log cabins and the Civil War, not cherry trees. The story’s endurance shows how Americans used legend to shape the moral image of their first president.