1 6

After the election was over, Washington wrote Wood that "I hope no
Exception was taken to any that voted against me, but that all were alike
treated, and all had enough. My only fear is that you spent with too
sparing a hand." It is hardly necessary to say that such methods reversed
the former election; Washington secured three hundred and ten votes, and
Swearingen received forty-five. What is more, so far from now threatening
to blow out his brains, there was "a general applause and huzzaing for
Colonel Washington."

From this time until he took command of the army Washington was a
burgess. Once again he was elected from Frederick County, and then, in
1765, he stood for Fairfax, in which Mount Vernon was located. Here he
received two hundred and eight votes, his colleague getting but one
hundred and forty-eight, and in the election of 1768 he received one
hundred and eighty-five, and his colleague only one hundred and forty-two.
Washington spent between forty and seventy-five pounds at each of these
elections, and usually gave a ball to the voters on the night he was
chosen. Some of the miscellaneous election expenses noted in his ledger
are, "54 gallons of Strong Beer," "52 Do. of Ale," "L1.0.0. to Mr. John
Muir for his fiddler," and "For cakes at the Election L7.11.1."

The first duty which fell to the new burgess was service on a committee to
draught a law to prevent hogs from running at large in Winchester. He was
very regular in his attendance; and though he took little part in the
proceedings, yet in some way he made his influence felt, so that when the
time came to elect deputies to the First Congress he stood third in order
among the seven appointed to attend that body, and a year later, in the
delegation to the Continental Congress, he stood second, Peyton Randolph
receiving one more vote only, and all the other delegates less.

This distinction was due to the sound judgment of the man rather than to
those qualities that are considered senatorial. Jefferson said, "I served
with General Washington in the legislature of Virginia before the
revolution, and, during it, with Dr. Franklin in Congress. I never heard
either of them speak ten minutes at a time, nor to any but the main point
which was to decide the question. They laid their shoulders to the great
points, knowing that the little ones would follow of themselves."

Through all his life Washington was no speechmaker. In 1758, by an