shington's substantial pledge of property to the cause of liberty was
repaid by a grateful country at the close of the war. But not a dollar
of payment for the tremendous toil of body and mind, not a dollar for
work "overtime," for indirect damages to his estate, for commissions on
the benefits which he secured for the general enterprise, for the use of
his name or the value of his counsel, would he receive.

A few years later, when his large sagacity perceived that the
development of internal commerce was one of the first needs of the new
country, at a time when he held no public office, he became president of
a company for the extension of navigation on the rivers James and
Potomac. The Legislature of Virginia proposed to give him a hundred and
fifty shares of stock. Washington refused this, or any other kind of
pay, saying that he could serve the people better in the enterprise if
he were known to have no selfish interest in it. He was not the kind of
a man to reconcile himself to a gratuity (which is the Latinized word
for a "tip" offered to a person not in livery), and if the modern
methods of "coming in on the ground-floor" and "taking a rake-off" had
been explained and suggested to him, I suspect that he would have
described them in language more notable for its force than for its
elegance.

It is true, of course, that the fortune which he so willingly imperilled
and impaired recouped itself again after peace was established, and his
industry and wisdom made him once more a rich man for those days. But
what injustice was there in that? It is both natural and right that men
who have risked their all to secure for the country at large what they
could have secured for themselves by other means, should share in the
general prosperity attendant upon the success of their efforts and
sacrifices for the common good.

I am sick of the shallow judgment that ranks the worth of a man by his
poverty or by his wealth at death. Many a selfish speculator dies poor.
Many an unselfish patriot dies prosperous. It is not the possession of
the dollar that cankers the soul, it is the worship of it. The true test
of a man is this: Has he labored for his own interest, or for the
general welfare? Has he earned his money fairly or unfairly? Does he use
it greedily or generously? What does it mean to him, a personal
advantage over his fellow-men, or a personal opportunity of serving
them?

There are a hundred other points in Washington