Disappointing History

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

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

Plus the Colonials were desperate to keep GW in command, so they just ignored his bullshit expenses.

Here's a partial list:

1. Household Expenses Valley Forge Winter of 1777-1778: $2,000
   
2. Telescope from France: $1274
   
3. A light Phaeton (a “chariot”):$1,430 and a riding mare: $1248
   
4. Decorating house in Cambridge with “Bedstead & Curtains, Mattrass, Blankets…”:  $546
   
5. Damascus Cloth (probably table linen): $62.00
   
6. 20 lbs. of tea: $468
   
7. Household expenses (Nov. 21,1780-Sept.6,1781 including food like “pidgeons,” veal, eggs, “hurtleberries”, cork cask, 400 limes, Madeira wines: $20,800.
   
8. French cook (recurring): $58.50
   
9. Mrs. Washington’s traveling expenses: $27,665.30
   
10. Interest charges for what Washington laid out: $7,488.
    

What clearly leaps out is Martha's traveling expenses.  $27665 in 1776 was roughly three quarters of a million today.  Ok, that's spread out over eight years, but...fuck. Wherever she was travelling, it must have been in a coach drawn by unicorns and attended by the Colonial Boy's Choir.

Boru