Fortunes Left By American Presidents

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 26 August 1933, Page 14

Fortunes Left By American Presidents

T HEwill of Calvin Coolidge, a simple document bequeathing his estate to his. widow, has called forth estimates of its value at approximately £IOO,OOO. . The will also serves to call attention to the fact that few Presidents of the i United .States could be classed as] wealthy men and that, while most of them might be regarded as 'being in “comfortable circumstances,” some presidents died practically penniless. The first and most illustrious of American Presidents was the wealthiest, according to the “New York Times.” Hi's will, besides being the instrument of disposing of the largest estate left by any of the Presidents—the fortune was estimated at £1,060,000 —was a unique document worthy in every way of the Father of His Country. But with the exception of Washington, it is doubtful if any of the Presidents could be rated as a millionaire, and most of the estates were of relatively modest proportions. Two at least of Washington’s sue-! eessors fell on evil days and received help from their admiring and sympathetic countrymen. Another, threatened with bankruptcy and ruin after lie had laid aside the sword of glory and the cares of statesmanship, .proved the pen mightier than the sword in carving out for himself a new career as an author. It "was not long after Washington before a retiring President encountered evil fortune. John Adams was moderately well to do, but Thomas Jefferson suffered serious reverses in his later days. Ills father had operated 1000 acres of tobacco and wheat land in Vir- . ginia with the aid of 130 slaves. Through the death of his wife, at the close of the Revolution, Thomas Jefferson inherited some 40,000 acres of land and 135 slaves. Apparently beyond the reach of care, he met with a series of . reverses, until Monticello was endangered. 1

j removed, to New York after lii's wife’s death to be near Ills two daughters. This 2000-acre Oak Hill estate, thirtyrive miles from Washington, w T as ..the property bought by Mr Andrew W. Mellon for hi's daughter a few years ago.

James Iv. Polk, although his personal fortune was not great, had the postnumous distinction of having his will invalidated. In gallant tribute to his wife he had left his property “to the worthiest of -the name for ever,” and

t was the decision of the Courts that this constituted a perpetuity. His tomb and the bodies of himself and Mrs Polk were vcnually removed from the Polk place and reinterred at Capitol Hill, Nashvill.

Lincoln’s estate as administered by Supreme Court Justice Davis, amounted to £22,000, divided equally between -os widow and two sons. This was said to have been- saved chiefly from liis salary and invested in Government securities.

Grant’s life, along with Jefferson’s, shows more strikingly the high lights and shadows of glory and ill fortune. After his yeoman service as a soldier in the Civil War and his two terms as President, lie feared that his personal fortune was not sufficient to safeguard •is family and became a partner in a .junking venture At the failure of the firm, faced with total ruin financially, he yielded to the solicitation of publishers, writing first some magazine articles and then his memoirs. These yielded hi's widow approximately £IOO,OOO. This monumental labour was achieved in the last two years of uis life, while lie was dying of cancer, .jeing finished but a few days before -vis death.

Most of the recent Presidents have left amounts running into six figures, and their wills and estates have been devoid of any spectacular features: The -Cleveland estate was estimated at about. £50,000 —with bequests for sons and daughter and other relatives and the bulk of the estate to his wife, wdio was an executrix. Harrison’s estate was estimated at £75,000. At the time of the death of Mrs McKinley it was announced that the value of tlio estate left her by Jior husband was £43,000. ’ . '.;V

Through Philip Hone, (Mayor of New York, some £1,700 was raised and the cities of Philadelphia and Baltimore raised respectively £IOOO and £6OO more. Jefferson had sold his library to Congress for £4600, said to 'be about one-quarter of its value. His daughter and her children lost their home, and, with their support threatened, South Carolina and Virginia each voted £2OOO to aid them. Monroe had an estate at Ash Lawn, Albmarle County, Va., when lie left the White House, and while President •ie had built a country home at Oak Hill, in Loudon County, from which, he

The estate of the late William Howard Taft, wdio at the time of his death was Chief Justice of the 'Supremo Court, was reckoned at £70,000 in personal and £25,000 in real property. The estate of Theodore Roosevelt, which,

Few Classed Among Wealthy Men Of The Nation

like that of Woodrow Wilson, was swelled by extensive literary and historical labours, was given as £162,000. An inventory of, personal effects at Sagamore Hill totalled £BOOO.

1 President Harding's estate was aj)- . praised at £97,000, the bulk of which together with the plant of the “Marion Star, " "office building and home, was left to Mrs Harding. A trust fund was established for the President's .Lather, and there were many personal and public bequests, including £SOOO to the Marion Park Commission for park improvements. The will of Washington is the most important and interesting of any left jy the Presidents. It was made -without direct legal assistance and, since a holgraph will needed no witnesses in Virginia, it was not witnessed. This .ed to difficulties in a number of other States, however, where such formality was required and where some of his scattered property lay. The 'historian of Washington's estate found it necessary to visit seven States and about fifty counties to compile his chronicle. ‘So extensive was the real property and so involved and j ramified did the administration of the , will prove that slightly more than a Half century elapsed before the task [ was completed. The property was scat- I I tered from the Dismal Swamp of Vir- I ! ginia to the Mohawk Valley in New | York and from the Potomac to a branch of the ‘Green Biver in Kentucky. Prom 50,000 to 70,000 acres of land were involved, much of which was a gift of Congress in return for ais military services.

Among the most interesting items in the will, which is a historic document of the highest value, arc the clauses dealing with the freeing of the slaves on his own land and those who had come to him in payment of a debt, but .iad been allowed to remain in the service of their former owner. His own slaves were to be freed on the death of Martha Washington. One bequest under the will, revealing Washington's principles and philosophy, was the leaving to his five nephews of five swords accompanied by these instructions: -<

“These swords are accompanied with an injunction not to unsheathe them cor the purpose of shedding ‘blood except it be for self-defence or in de-L-ence of their country and its rights, and in the latter case to keep them unsheathed, and prefer falling with them in their hands, to the relinquishment thereof. ’'