replying to a request for a loan, he declared that "so far
am I from having L200 to lend ... I would gladly borrow that sum myself
for a few months." When offered land adjoining Mount Vernon for three
thousand pounds in 1778, he could only reply that it was "a sum I have
little chance, if I had inclination, to pay; & therefore would not engage
it, as I am resolved not to incumber myself with Debt." In 1782, to secure
a much desired tract he was forced to borrow two thousand pounds York
currency at the rate of seven per cent.

In 1788, "the total loss of my crop last year by the drought" "with
necessary demands for cash" "have caused me much perplexity and given me
more uneasiness than I ever experienced before from want of money," and a
year later, just before setting out to be inaugurated, he tried to borrow
five hundred pounds "to discharge what I owe" and to pay the expenses of
the journey to New York, but was "unable to obtain more than half of it,
(though it was not much I required), and this at an advanced interest with
other rigid conditions," though at this time "could I get in one fourth
part of what is due me on Bonds" "without the intervention of suits" there
would have been ample funds. In 1795 the President said, "my friends
entertain a very erroneous idea of my particular resources, when they set
me down for a money lender, or one who (now) has a command of it. You may
believe me when I assert that the bonds which were due to me before the
Revolution, were discharged during the progress of it--with a few
exceptions in depreciated paper (in some instances as low as a shilling in
the pound). That such has been the management of the Estate, for many
years past, especially since my absence from home, now six years, as
scarcely to support itself. That my public allowance (whatever the world
may think of it) is inadequate to the expence of living in this City; to
such an extravagant height has the necessaries as well as the conveniences
of life arisen. And, moreover that to keep myself out of debt; I have
found it expedient now and then to sell Lands, or something else to effect
this purpose."

[Illustration: LOTTERY TICKET SIGNED BY WASHINGTON]

As these extensive land ventures bespoke a national characteristic, so a
liking for other forms of speculation was innate in the great American.
During the Revolution he tried to secure an interest in a privateer. One
of his favorite flyers was chances in lotteries