The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1885-02-06
PRESIDENTIAL POVERTY.
Few Of Our Executives Who Have Left For
Il tunes Behind Them.

service. writes a correspondent to
Ths Cleveland Leader, retired to his
ii little estate near Quincy, Mass, with
"a barely enough property to give him
a .the needs of life on a farm and the
only thing he got from the United
4 States during his later years was the
4 privilege of receiving and sending his
q .iettags without postage.
M Thomas Jefferson had to borrow
':* something less than $40, 900 of Rich
~ mond bank to pay his debts before he
lief the white house, and the history
81 of the last seventeen years of his life
,;s one of almost continuous financial
Embarrassment. During the forty-four
Years which he devoted to the service
Isl of his country his property dwindled
81 and his estates became involved. In
asking for the above loan he says:
.My NIGHTS will be almost sleepless,
as nothing would be more distressing
III To me than to have debts here Tin
# Washington unpaid, If, indeed, L
IL should be allowed to depart with them
n unpaid of which l am by no means GER
tain"
He obtained the loan, but he went
from Washington still owing S2O,O0O,
and few years later he was forced to
sell his library, which he had been
s1xty years in gathering to relieve his
necessities. Congress, parsimonious
then asNow, valued it at half Its cost,
and gave him $23,000 for what was
worth $4,000. In 1919 and 1920 there
were hard times in this country, and
B. efferson, now a man of II, lost $780,
1000 by indorsing for friend, and he
SStried to relieve himself by selling some
f]sof his lands. But times were bad and
ktheye were no purchasers. Land
Wodld not bring more than one-third
bf it's value, and at the request of the
bid ex-president the Virginia legisla-
lure passed an act permitting him to
kzlispose of Monticello by lottery.
This fact was noised about over the
|s.country, and SO many subscriptions
came to his relief that the idea was
2iriven up. New York raised $500,
Philadelphia sent $1,000, Baltimore
5000, and Jefferson, it is said, re-
eived these moneys proudly, saying:
mo cent of this was wrung from the
Taxpayer. 1t is the pure, unsolicited
Offering of love-" He died at SO, be-
& ieving that his estate would support
his ch1Rlr9n. He was mistaken. Con-
kinued hard times caused increased |
Repression, and the mansion and the |
state merely paid the debts which |
lung over them. Martha Jefferson,
: lis daug iter, lost her home and pre-
barred to teach school, but the legisla-
lures of South Carolina and Louisiana |
zach votel her $4,000, and this en-
&bled her to die in comfort. Jeffer-
IONS only surviving granddaughter,
Mrs. Mickleham, lives in poverty in
Georgetown, and congress has refused |
10 aid her.
RI have before me a newspaper of
1926, published just one month after
1eferson's death. 1t contains an adj
VortisenAnt of the sale of Monticello
4 RI lottery in 1920, and represents it
- valued at ST. ,O0O Shadwell Mills,
bother estate of Jefferson, is valued
Il 1000, and the Albemarle estate
81, 800, making total of three
.es worth S112,500 The tickets are
30 each and there are LAT blanks.
President Madison left some proper
" at the time of his death, but his
Eidow, the peerless Dolly, was for
lime dependent upon the bread and
heat furnished her by an old negro
ervant. and her last days were made
asy only by congress buying from her
pr $4,000 the manuscript notes of
be debates of the constitutional con-
ention, which Madison had taken.
+ President Monroe, though he declin-
= it is said, $35S,000 from the gov
pment for his public services, died
~ poor in New York, and it was
years before his body
rs removed to Richmond, Va.
John Quincy Adams must have re-
we'd over $500,00 in government
= [aries, and heis one of the few presi-
- BITS who again took up public life
VI Yer he had left the white house. He
hained in retirement only about
lr, and then entered the lower house :
congress. After about sixteen
hrs of service there, he died in the
pital in 184S, exclaiming: "This is
end of earth: 1 am content" John :
incy Adams accumulated property,
o< the home in which he lived in
Z&shington is now worth at least :
900, and was until few years ago
~ ~.nds of his defendants. His r
ytNealthy, and Charles Francis
IA railroad nabob :
"a n.&IeW 1dchsoH SdiHcu HOlnlnS IN
1alth from his white house salary.
post him, he says, every cent of it
pay his expenses, and the most of s
"a proceeds of his cotton crop in adj
- Tor He returned from Washing
- aU sAe close of his second term ;
ID just 800 in his pocket, to find his l
IN going to ruin and himself so 4
ply in debt that he had to sell '
d of bis land to get out. The panic i
e. l37 d1d not affect him, but in 1912 q
a ecame involved through the debts 4
n bis adopted son, and he had to 3
TOW $4,000 from Frank Blair. E
gress. relieved him somewhat dur I
his leecr years by refunding the fine .
900 which he had paid in New Or !,
IS in 1915, and this with the interest !,
Punted in l843, think, to So, 700. ~
at the time of Jackson's death ;
lived more than SIG, 900, and now W
heirs hold only a life estate in the w
mitage by an act of the Tennessee a.
BlatureH =,