`salary, since he valued his image as a selfless public servant. At the urging of Congress, however, he ultimately accepted the payment. A dangerous precedent could have been set otherwise, as the founding fathers wanted future presidents to come from a large pool of potential candidates — not just those citizenswho could afford to do the work for free.``  -This is also inaccurate, Washington knew he could not afford to have the lavish lifestyle he wanted with the pay they offered. His expenses for his presidential residency and his regular home far exceeded the $25,000. Supposedly congress forced him to take the set amount of money because he was bankrupting the coffers with his ``only expenses``. I wish I had a good refernce to point to, but this is from my AP history course in Highs School, and was repeated in my College courses.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by      == Add category == Someone please add Category:American farmers to this article.    `