A bit of an uproar was created this week when the current front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney, hedged his bets when asked when he would release his latest tax return.
Income and tax rates are often touchy issues for presidential candidates who usually want to appear like regular folks. But presidents, aside from their salary, are generally much richer than the average American. Let's look back at some of the richest people who have held the office of president:
* Theodore Roosevelt -- Roosevelt was born into a prominent New York City family in 1858. His father was a wealthy merchant in the glass-making business and, as a result, young "Teddy" had a trust fund and didn't have to worry much about money. This was fortuitous given Roosevelt's bad investments as a rancher in the West while he was a young man. Still, he recovered nicely, buying what became a sprawling estate that he called Sagamore Hill overlooking Long Island Sound.
* Andrew Jackson -- Old Hickory was not born into wealth and this is a fact that he often exploited as a way to connect with the "common man." It's a bit ironic then that he became one of the wealthiest people to ever hold the office of the presidency. Jackson's humble beginnings improved greatly when he married his wife Rachel who came from a wealthy Virginia plantation-holding family. Then, after moving to Tennessee, he amassed an enormous fortune on the backs of his slaves, eventually owning more than 300 who worked on his enormous estate in Nashville.
* John F. Kennedy -- Kennedy's father Joseph was among the richest people in America during his lifetime. Joseph's wealth at the time of his death in 1969 was estimated at $500 million. Of course JFK, who was assassinated about a thousand days into his term in 1963, never actually inherited his father's wealth, he certainly lived the good life was a result of it and never wanted for money.
* George Washington -- Perhaps fittingly for the father of his country, Washington was also a massive owner of it. His Virginia plantation, Mount Vernon, eventually grew to about 7,300 acres by the end of his life. His wife Martha came from one of colonial America's most elite families as well. When Washington married her in 1759, he inherited vast amounts of land, money and slaves. Washington, of course, was also a large slave owner in his own right. At the time of his death, he owned 123 slaves and had more than 300 working at Mount Vernon.
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