See related post George's Copy Book from the Magazine Of American History....
In a small dilapidated ledger, probably the first opened by George Washington, may be found accounts against eighteen persons, whose names, with the years in which the entries were made, can all be given in alphabetical order. We deduce from these entries, the bulk of which were chiefly for small sums of money lent to friends, that Washington was of an accommodating spirit; the fact that he seems always to have had money, shows that he was thrifty, and his making book-entries shows that he had business tact and methods, was orderly, and had a just appreciation of the value of money.
He credits himself in this book with small sums won at loo, whist, and billiards; also with small losses at these games with his friends. This habit of charging himself with losses at cards and other games was continued through his life. These extracts from George Washington's early business accounts suggest that the germ of his orderly methods which led him to submit to the labor of keeping an exact account of his personal expenses throughout the Revolutionary War, and which he presented to congress to discharge in lieu of salary, existed in him from his youth. He never counted trouble or cost where a principle was to be maintained, and his systematic methods secured to him time for every duty.
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