Little Falls transcript., 1885-02-27
Poverty Of the Pres;d dent5.

II you will look back. over the Est
you will see from the beginning most OF
our Presidents have been poor men,
George Washington was, perhaps the
wealthiest Of them and Rutherford B.
Hayes Will perhaps rank next. John
Adams, at the age Of 66, after twenty
six years OF continuous public service,
retired to his little estate at Quincy,
Mass, with barely enough property tc
give him the needs Of life on q farm.
Thomas Jefferson had to borrow some
thing less than SIC, 900 Of a Richmond
bank to pay his debts before he left the
White House, and the history Of the last
seventeen years of his life is one Of al
most continuous financial embarrass.
ment. President Madison left some
property at the time of his death, but
his widow, the peerless Dolly, was fo,
time dependant on the bread and
meat furnished her by an old negro ser
want, and her last days were made easy
only by Congress buying Of herfor $780,
900 the manuscript notes of the debates
of the Constitutional Convention which
Madison had taken. President Monroe,
though he declined, it is said, $35S, ,00C
from the government for his public SER
vices, died very poor in New York.
John Quincy Adams must have received
over half a million dollars in govern
ment salaries, and he is one of the few
Presidents who again took up life after
he left the White House. He remain
ed in retirement only about year,
and then entered the Lower House of
Congress. After about sixteen years of
service there he died in the Capital in
1848, exclaiming, "This is the end Of
earth, / am content" Andrew Jackson
gained nothing in wealth from his
White House salary. 1t cost him, he
says, every cent of it to pay his expen-
ses, and the most of the proceeds Of his
cotton crop in addition. He returned
from Washington at the close of his
second term with just 800 in his pock-
ct, to find his farm going to ruin, and
himself SO deeply in debt that he had to
sell part of his land to get out. Van
Buren, was a close, cautious, money
making fellow. He got good law fees
aud began to learn economy while saw
ing enough as q young man to get mar
ried. At his estate at Linden valid,
where he lived during his last years, he
was surrounded with comforts. Presi-
dent Harrison owned farm in Ohio
when he was inaugurated Presi-
dent. It is safe to say he was poor,
for he had been lately doing the drudg-
cry of clerk Of the courts at Cincin-
natl. President Tyler supplied much
of the money which ran the White House
out of his own pocket, and congress
would not pay the salary of bis private
secretary. Moderately wealthy while
here at Washington, he left little to his
children, and one of his sons is now a
clerk in the treasury department in
Washington. Zach Taylor was by no
means wealthy when he died in the
White House. James K. Polk left a
big house and enough to keep his widow,
and Millard Fillmore. who started Life
as wool carder, died ten years ago
with enough of ON estate to create a
1AWSuIG OV01 Lu0. odulCy VI lin
second wife. James Buchanan did not
leave such an estate as enabled Harriet
Lane to keep Wheatlands, and with
in the past year it has been advertised
for sale. Buchanan spent oil his sala-
ry as president at Washington. and
what he had left after paying his White
House expenses he gave in charity.
Abraham Lincoln died poor, and it was
due to congress that his family was pro-
vided for. Andrew johnson went back
to ais house at Greenville, Tenn. where
he had started life as a tailor, he died
with . stroke Of paralysis, and left no
fortune behind. OF the other Presi-
dents Grants necessities are agitating
the country to-day, and Garfield's family
IS wealthy only through the voluntary
subscriptions Of the people. Truly as
Sidney Smith used to say, There is
nothing SO expensive as glory. I" ~
Carp" IN the Cleveland Leader. II