Checking in with Mencken, again.......

     That sort of candor was also evident in Mencken's assessment of George Washington, another American statesman that Christians in the United States have turned into a model of sanctity:

     If George Washington were alive today, what a shining mark he
     would be for the whole camorrra of uplifters, forward-lookers
     and professional patriots!  He was the Rockefeller of his time,
     the richest man in the United States, a promoter of stock
     companies, a land-grabber, an exploiter of mines and timber.
     He was a bitter opponent of foreign entanglements, and 
     denounced their evils in harsh, specific terms.  He had a liking
     for all forthright and pugnacious men, and a contempt for
     lawyers, schoolmasters and all other such obscurantists.
     He was not pious.  He drank whiskey whenever he felt chilly,
     and kept a jug of it handy.  He knew far more profanity than
     scripture, and used and enjoyed it more.  He had no belief in
     the infallible wisdom of the common people, but regarded them
     as inflammatory dolts, and tried to save the Republic from them.
     He advocated no sure cure for all the sorrows of the world, and
     doubted that such a panacea existed.  He took no interest in the
     private morals of his neighbors.

-H. L. Mencken, as quoted in D. G. Hart's Damning Words:  the life and religious times of H. L. Mencken