The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1885-03-06
Poverty of Presidents.
MOST OF THE NATIONS RULERS DYING
POOR.
DENTS FROM WASHINGTON DOWN
TO GARFIELD.

If you will look back over the list,
writes the Washington correspondent
of the Cleveland (Ohio) Leader, you
will see that 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 GO, 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 $4,000 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 en-
barrassment. President Madison lef,
some property at the time of his death,
but his widow, the peerless Dolly, was
for 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 100000 the manuscript notes of
the debates of the Constitutional Con
vention which Madison had taken.
President Monroe, though he declined,
it is said, S35S,0O0 from the govern.
ment for his public services, died very
poor in New York. John Quincy
Adams must have received over half a
million dollars in government salaries,
and he is one of the few Presidents who
again took up public life after he left
the WHIT House He remained in re-
tirement only about year, and then en-
tered the Lower House of Congress.
After about sixteen years Of service
there he died in the Capital in lS48,
exclaiming, "This is the end of earth,
| am content" Andrew Jackson gain
ed nothing in wealth from his White
House salary. 1t cost him, he says,
every cent of it to pay his expenses,
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 fam 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
and began to learn economy while saw
ing enough as young man to get
married. At his estate at Lindenwald,
where he lived during his last years, he
was surrounded with comforts. Pres
ident Harrison owned farm in Ohio
when he was inaugurated President.
1t was safe to say he was poor, for he
had been lately 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 bis own 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 X. Polk left a
big house aud enough to keep his wild
ow, and Millard Fillmore, who started
life as wood carder, died ten years
ago with enough of an estate to create
a lawsuit over the sanity of his second
wife. James Buchanan did not leave
such an estate as enabled Harriet Lane
to keep Wheatlands, and within the
past year it has been advertised for
sale. Buchanan spent all his salary 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 provided
for Andrew johnson went back to
his house at Greenville, Tenn, where
be started life as tailor. He died by
a stroke of paralysis, and left no for
tune behind. OF the other Presidents
Grants necessities are agtating the
country to-day, and Garfeld'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"