"With this letter comes a negro (Tom) which I beg the favor of you to sell in any of the islands you may go to, for whatever he will fetch, and bring me in return for him One hhd of best molasses One ditto of best rum One barrel of lymes, if good and cheap One pot of tamarinds, containing about 10 lbs. Two small ditto of mixed sweetmeats, about 5 lbs each. And the residue, much or little in good old spirits." Shortly before this time Washington was a candidate for the legislature. There was then a Virginia statute forbidding treating the voters, or bribery at elections, and declaring illegal all elections thus obtained, yet the following is the bill of the liquors Washington furnished the voters of Frederick: 40 gallons of Rum punch a 3/6 per galn. 7.00 15 gallons of wine a 10 per galn. 7.10 Dinner for your friends 3.00 13 1/2 gallons of wine a 10/ 6.15 13 gallons of beer a 1/3 4-4/2 8 qts Cider Royal a 1/6 .16-3 Punch 3-9 30 galls strong beer a 8d. per gall. 1-0 26 gall. best Barbadoes rum 5/ 6.10 12 lbs. S Fefd. Sugar 1/6 .18-9 3 galls & 3 qts of beer 1/per gall. 3-9 10 bowls of punch 2/6 each 1.50 9 half pints of rum 7-1/2 d. each 5-7-1 1 pint of wine 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 Swearington received forty-five. 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 208 votes, his colleague getting 148, and in the election of 1768 he received 185, and his colleague only 142. Washington spent between £40 and £75 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 galls of strong beer 52 dro. of Ale £1.0.0. to Mr. John Muir for his fiddler, For cakes at the election £7.11.1. Bushrod Washington, made a real estate investment that did not suit his uncle, and Washington wrote him as follows: "Now let me ask you what your views were in purchasing a Lott in a place which, I presume, originated with and will end in two or three Gin shops, which probably will exist no longer than they serve to ruin the proprietors, and those who make the most frequent applications to them."