George Washington's 1758 Election Bar Tab

George Washington's first election victory, Frederick County, Virginia, July 24, 1758. Next week, on November 3rd, Americans vote in secret, and paying anyone to vote in a federal election can bring a fine of up to $10,000. In 1758 only free white men of 21 or over with land could vote; each named his candidates out loud at the courthouse table, and the clerks wrote his name beneath them. Outside, five tavern and merchant accounts made out to the absent Washington came to £39 6s in Virginia money, more than 150 gallons of punch, wine, beer and cider, roughly a laborer's day's wage for every man who voted, although a 1705 Virginia law forbade candidates to treat voters. His only worry was that his friend had spent "with too sparing a hand." Amos, the voter in the cartoon, is a small freeholder, a composite, not a real person; his name is on no real poll sheet. Real people appear only as name cards and period portraits. Chapters 0:00 A vote out loud 0:41 The price of admission 2:03 The candidate who stayed away 3:24 Election day in Winchester 4:45 Five receipts 6:32 Was this legal? 7:31 What else won it 8:08 Too sparing a hand 8:49 The man who wouldn't pour 9:08 Back to the booth How the money is compared Virginia money, not British sterling (£1 = 20 shillings = 240 pence); the five accounts add up to exactly £39 6s, 9,432 pence. A private in Washington's regiment earned 8 pence a day, so the bill is 1,179 days of a soldier's pay. A frontier laborer in 1755 earned 2s 6d a day in Pennsylvania money, about 2 Virginia shillings (BLS Bulletin 604): the bill is roughly 400 days of common work, about one day for each of the roughly 395 voters (a high wartime wage, so "a day per voter" is conservative). The dollar line in the video compares wages, not inflation: 393 days at about $147, a U.S. hand laborer's median day in May 2025 (BLS), is about $58,000. Not a price per vote: the drinks went to "all" alike. Notes on the evidence Washington's votes: 310 on the poll sheet; the editors count 309 names; Charles Smith wrote 307. The "331" on some websites is in no document. Voters: Smith wrote 791 votes, "the half is 395"; the sheet has 397 lines; "391" is in no document. Drink: 150.4 gallons by measure plus a hogshead and a barrel of punch of unrecorded volume; "160 gallons" is a later tally. James Wood: one editors' note says he "had been sheriff" in 1758, the 1758 notes describe the sheriff as someone else; the video doesn't call him sheriff. John McNeill's "71 votes" matches no count. Washington's first try was on Dec. 10, 1755 (not 1757): 40 votes, a distant third. No document says he lost for serving no drink. The papers we read show no ruling on the 1758 treating; we did not check the House of Burgesses journal. He took his seat in February 1759. Madison's 1777 defeat is his own account, written decades later. Charles Porter, one of the two men elected, was a former tavern keeper; a bribery petition against him was rejected for lack of proof. Sources (search the titles) The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, vols. 2, 5 and 7, Founders Online (National Archives): Charles Smith's letters (July 20-Aug. 5, 1758) with the five accounts; the Frederick County Poll Sheet (July 24, 1758); Washington to James Wood (c. July 28, 1758) and to Henry Bouquet (July 21, 1758); letters from his friends (July 1758); Adam Stephen (Dec. 23, 1755); Washington to Peter Hog (Sept. 8, 1756) The Papers of James Madison, Founders Online: "Defeated for Election to Virginia House of Delegates, 24 April 1777" Virginia election acts of 1699, 1705, 1723, 1736 and 1762 (Hening, Statutes at Large), via Encyclopedia Virginia and USGenWeb U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, History of Wages in the United States from Colonial Times to 1928, Bulletin 604 (1934); Occupational Outlook Handbook (2025) 52 U.S. Code § 10307(c); 2 U.S. Code § 7; George Washington's Mount Vernon, Digital Encyclopedia: "Beer" Image credits Charles Willson Peale, George Washington, 1772, Washington and Lee University, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson, Map of Virginia, 1755, Library of Congress, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons William Hogarth, An Election Entertainment, 1755, Yale Center for British Art, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons Punch bowl, China for the British market, c. 1760, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons John Vanderlyn, James Madison, 1816, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Cartoon illustrations are made for this channel with AI image tools; the narration is a synthetic (AI) voice. #CostOfLiving #History #GeorgeWashington