Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1885-03-05
POVERTY OF PREsID EN- Ts
Most Of the Nations Rule rs Dy
ing Poor.
Financial Condition of the Presidents
From Washington Down to
Garfield.

of the Cleveland [Ohiol Leader, you
will see that from the beginning most
of our presidents have been poor men.
George Washington was, perhaps, the
wealthiest of them aud Rutherford Is.
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 to
give him the needs of life on farm.
Thomas Jefferson had to borrow some
thing less than SIC. 900 of 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
almost constant financial embarass-
ment. President Madison left some
property OF the time of his death, but
his widow, the peerless Dolly, was for a
time dependent on the bread and meat
furnished her by an old negro servant,
and her last days were made :easy only
by Congress buying Of her for $50 900
the manuscript notes of the debates of
the Constitutional Convention which
Madison had taken. President Mon
roe, though he declined, it is said, $685.
600 from the government for hispublic
services. died very poor in New York.
John Quincy Adams must have receiv-
ed.over half 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 Con-
gress. After about sixteen years of
service there he died in the Capital in
1S4S, exclaiming, "This is the end of
earth, am content" Andrew jack
son gained nethlng in wealth from his
White House salary. 1t cost HIM, he
said. every cent of it to pay his expen-
ses, nd the most of the proceeds of his
cotton crop in addition. He. returned
from Washington at the close of his
second term with just $50 in his pocket.
to find his farm going to luin, and him.
self so deeply in debt that he had to sell
part of his land to get out. Van Bu-
rem was a cloee, cautious, money-mak-
ing fellow. He got good law fees and
began to learn economy while saving
enough as a young man to get married.
hsr ~ Vnhnrn bA
lived during his last years, he was sur
rounded with comforts. President
Harrison owned farm in Ohio when
he was inaugurated President. 1t was
safe to say he was poor. for he had late
ly been doing the drudgery of a clerk of
the courts at Cincinnati. 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 his own private secre-
tary. Moderately wealthy while here
at Washington, he left little to his chill
dren, and one Of his sons is now clerk
in the Treasury Department in Wash
ingtown. Zach Taylor was by no means
wealthy when he died in the White
House. James K Polk left big house
and enough to keep his widow, and
Millard Fillmore, who started life as a
wool carder, died ten years ago with
enough of an estate to create lawsuit
over the sanity of his second wife.
James Buchanan did not leave such an
estate rs enabled Harriet Lane to keep
Wheailands, and within the past year
it has been advertised for sale. Bu-
chanan spent all his salsry as President
at Washington, and what he had left
after paying his White House expenses
he gave to charity. Abraham Lincoln
died poor, and it was due to Congress
that his family was pI oyided for. An
drew Johnson went back to his house
at GreenYi'le, Tenn, where he started
life as tailor. He died by stroke of
paralysis, and left no fortune behind.
OF the other Presidents Grants necess-
tiles are agitating the country to-day,
and Garfeld's family is wealthy only
through the voluntary subscriptions of
the people. Truely, as Sidney Smith
used to say, "There is nothing so ex-
pensive as glory"
ADVICE TO MOTHERS.