• Geetnerd@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        He was one of the richest Americans who ever lived. I don’t if that is still true, but it was at one time.

      • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        So, he could have paid other guys to fight the war and stayed home? Instead of being in the middle of the battles, and going cold and hungry in Valley Forge?

        There’s a lot of bad things you can say about Washington but enough good to at least make him complicated. He chose to limit his own Presidency, the opposite of our wannabe Führer. for one.

        • StaticFalconar@lemmy.world
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          16 hours ago

          The modern technology of satelites, phones and such werent around back then, so any general wouldn’t be an effective one if they werent on the front lines with their soldiers.

          • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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            15 hours ago

            Yes, he chose to join the battle and become a General rather than sit out the war at Monticello. It’s not like he was ambitious to become the leader of the new country. He felt a sense of responsibility.

        • Geetnerd@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Yes, he was filthy rich, not in liquidity, but in assets.

          But yes, he was approached with the offer to be King of The Colonies, and he refused. We can admire that.

        • barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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          1 day ago

          Well, his wealth wasn’t exactly liquid, it was mostly tied up in wilderness land.

          Fortunes in those days weren’t in bank accounts, or stocks, or index funds, etc. They tended to be tied up in assets like land, slaves, crops, etc., and cold hard cash/gold, stored in a box somewhere, like under the floor.