Does make you wonder about the power (or value) of presenting. Loic Lemeur is in the US this week at a conference and he made a blog entry about Bill Clinton who had just heard speak.
Bill Clinton made over $6m per year on public speaking from 2001 until 2005.
When in office his salary was $400k per year but he also had allowances of over a $1m for personal and White House expenses.
Looking at Wikipedia they state that "the First U.S. Congress voted to pay George Washington a salary of $25,000 a year (about $531,000 in 2005 terms) — a significant sum in 1798. Washington, already a wealthy man, refused to accept his salary. Theodore Roosevelt spent his entire $50,000 salary on entertaining guests at the White House. (Morris: The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt) Similarly, John F. Kennedy donated his salary to charities." (Source Wikipedia: - 9th March 2007)