Disappointing History

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Finding out that George Washington actually did tell lies.

Yup.

He also refused a salary a president, asking only for 'expenses'. These turned out to be detailed and exceedingly expensive.


"Sir, I beg leave to assure the Congress that as no pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to have accepted this arduous employment, I do not wish to make any profit from it. I will keep an exact account of my expenses. Those I doubt not they will discharge, and that is all I desire."

[i]"Congress drew up the pay for officers and privates. A private made $6 2/3 a month, a captain $20, and a major general $166. Seems to us Washington was giving up a decent sum in exchange for this promise of discharging these expenses. He was well-regarded for stonily taking this economic hit for the team.

By contrast, George easily followed that maxim because he wasn't funny at all. The man was so spectacularly unfunny that when P.M. Zall tried to write a book called George Washington Laughing in an effort to prove otherwise, he had to stop after only 52 pages. As if that weren't bad enough, most of these episodes describe jokes being told in Washington's presence rather than being uttered by the man himself. The President appears to have enjoyed pratfalls and seeing the hats of clergymen get blown into lakes, but rare was the day a witticism passed his lips. Surely, such a stoic, servile man would be content with meager rations. So Congress must have thought when it approved his expense account. Fortunately for posterity, a complete record of Washington's account exists. You can even look at scans of it, in entirety, online.[2] The father of the United States, it seems, was magnificent at padding his accounts."[/i]

[i]https://www.plaintruth.com/the_plain_truth/2011/09/george-washingtons-expense-account.html[/i]

Actually, Washington did take a salary as President. What he declined was a salary as commanding general during the Revolution.  Smart as a whip, too - it's a helluva lot easier to pad an expense account as a soldier than as a statesman.

Boru