Day 132, June 7

Did you know that George Washington, one of our Founding Fathers, was not loved, or even liked by everyone?  While he was in office, Washington was one of the most unpopular presidents ever to serve. 

He was criticized, defiled in public print, a leading newspaper editor calling him an embezzler, a tryant.  Another editor accused him of murder.  Patriots, who'd served with him, demanded that he resign,  calling him power mad.  His secretary of state, Thomas Jefferson, resigned in disagreement over his foreign policies. 

Jefferson went so far as to form a political party to fight Washington.  Another Cabinet member, Alexander Hamilton, did the same.  The fledgling nation was split in two parts by the French Revolution.  One element wanted to come to the aid of the French, as the French had helped secure America's independence.  Washington opposed becoming involved in foreign affairs.

One of his steadfast friends of the Revoluntionary War, Thomas Paine, wrote of Washington:  "You are treacherous in private friendship and a hyppocrite in public life ... the world will be puzzled to decide whether you have abandoned good principles, or whether you ever had any."