The Story of George Washington's 1758 Virginia House of Burgesses Campaign

In 1757, a young George Washington unsuccessfully ran to become a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses.

The reason he lost? According to Washington, the answer was simple:

Not enough alcohol.

In colonial America, politicians would regularly buy voters alcohol in order to try and buy their vote.

This practice was technically illegal though many did it.

In fact, the practice was so widespread that it had a name: "swilling the planters with bumbo".

George Washington had a budget of 50 pounds heading into the 1758 Virginia House of Burgesses election.

This 50 pounds was supposed to cover ALL of his campaign expenses - travel, advertising, etc.

Instead, George Washington decided to spend the entire thing on alcohol.

In total, Washington bought:

-28 gallons of rum

-50 gallons of rum punch

-34 gallons of wine

-46 gallons of beer

-2 gallons of royal cider

The barrels of alcohol were rolled to polling places where they were served up to voters, compliments of George Washington, who just so happened to be running for a seat in the Virginia House of Burgesses.

Did the scheme work? Absolutely.

When Washington ran in 1757, he received just 7% of the vote.

In 1758, things went much differently, as Washington received 39.04% of the total vote, placing him far ahead of rivals such as Thomas Bryan, Hugh West and Thomas Swearingen.

The plan had worked. Washington had supplied voters with plenty of alcohol, and they had rewarded him with victory.

Filed under: General Knowledge