If you have taken my American History I class, you know how much I love me some George Washington. In fact GW ranks #3 on my hierarchy of men- just below God and my Daddy.
So when I saw an article on Discovery.com about George the Great, I had to read it. Imagine my surprise to learn that the greatest man in American History was slightly flawed. Wait for it...wait for it...
He checked out a couple of books from the New York Society Library and never returned them. The horrors! He should have been tarred and feathered for such offenses. (Imagine me fanning myself because I'm about to faint from the shock- I am a Southern belle after all).
Seriously though, in 1789, George Washington checked out Law of Nations, a book on foreign policy and another book whose title is not listed in the article but is a collection of debates in Britain's House of Commons. Given inflation, the overdue book fee for these two books is approximately $300,000. I nearly had a stroke one time when I forgot to turn in a bunch of books and had to pay a $20 fine! The library has said that they don't care about the fees, in fact, they'll be happy to waive them. But they would like their books back. Somebody break out the Ouija board to ask George where he left them.
Now from a historian's point of view, I have to say, cut the man some slack. 1789 was the first year of the newly created United States government and GW was figuring out how the President should do things. I'm thinking that returning library books was pretty low on his priority list.
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