Washington’s farm was operating even as he got the distillery off the ground. What kind of problems could that raise for the ex-president?

When he stepped off the podium in front of Federal Hall in New York City on March 4, 1797, George Washington was probably thinking not about the presidency he just handed over to John Adams, but about his audacious plan to start a new career to rescue his Virginia farm, Mount Vernon, from bankruptcy. For Washington, farmer, surveyor, soldier, commander, legislator, and president, this new role might be called his seventh career, but it was necessary.
Washington had owned a plantation for much of his adult life, and he tried to get back to it between stints as the nation’s top general and as president. By the time he could retire to Mount Vernon, he discovered the business was in trouble. The number of people for whom he was responsible had grown from 10 when he inherited the farm to 300 as he left the presidency. Unfortunately his land-holding size and productivity had not kept pace. He was facing bankruptcy.