In 1758, just before returning home from the French and Indian War, George Washington ran for a seat in Virginia’s House of Burgesses. Given his social standing and renown, the office was his for the taking, and on the day of the election he treated the 397 men who showed up at the poll to 46 gallons of beer, 35 gallons of wine, 2 gallons of hard cider, 3½ pints of brandy, 40 gallons of “Rum Punch,” and “1hhd [hogshead] & 1 Barrell of Punch, consisting of 26 Gals. best Barbados Rum & 12½ Pds S. Refd. Sugar.”[1] As a Burgess, Washington was expected to represent his constituents’ interests, dole out patronage, and help the colony govern itself in local matters; in return for his services, he would earn respect, deference, and some degree of power. Certainly, when he entered the political arena, the returning war hero did not expect to engage in heated disputes with the British Parliament or challenge the status quo in any other way.
How, then, did George Washington, one of America’s elite 1%, become its leading revolutionary? His evolution came in stages.
Stage 1: Accruing Debt
Early the following year, George Washington married the wealthy widow, Mary Custis, and by combining their fortunes—primarily in land and slaves—George and Martha created one of Virginia’s most impressive estates.[2] Buying out his neighbors, Washington more than doubled his Mount Vernon plantation, expanded his mansion, and purchased all the finest clothing and home furnishings that his factor in London, Robert Cary, could procure.[3] By the fall of 1760, less than two years into his spending spree, Washington noticed a serious discrepancy between the money he made (the season’s yield from tobacco, his main source of income, had been very low due to a wet summer) and the money he spent (the fall shopping list he sent to Cary included hundreds of items, ranging from “1 pair crimson velvet breeches” to “1 dozn stone chamber pots”).[4] Despite the expense, Washington grumbled that the clothes Cary sent him didn’t fit, and worse yet, they were dated. “Instead of getting things good and fashionable … we often have articles sent us that coud only have been used by our forefathers in the days of yore,” he wrote to Cary. “’Tis a custom … with many shop keepers, and tradesmen in London when they know goods are bespoke for exportation to palm sometimes old, and sometimes very slight and indifferent goods upon us, taking care at the same time to advance 10, 15 or perhaps 20 prct upon them.”[5]
