George Washington: "Openly Abused"

Dear Mr. President:

You are roundly abused in the media, but you are in august company. In Janet Whitley's biography of Abigail Adams (Little, Brown and Co., 1947) she quotes Abigail as saying, "'Since the last election the President has been openly abused in the National Gazette...abused for his levees as an ape of royalty; Mrs. Washington abused for her drawing-rooms; their celebration of birthdays sneered at; himself insulted because he has not come forward and exerted his influence in favor of the army. They even tell him that a greater misfortune cannot befall a people than for their President to have no competitor; that it infuses into him a supercilious spirit, renders him self-important, and creates an idea that one man only is competent to govern. They compare him to a hyena and a crocodile; charge him with duplicity and deception.'" (pg. 254)

We Americans elect people and then despise them. Being in political office requires a very thick skin.

Hang in there.