Now let me tell you about what happened when George Washington was running for the House

of Burgesses in Virginia in the colonial period, 1757.

George Washington purchased 46 gallons of beer, one hog set, one barrel, and 10 bowls of

rum punch.

35 gallons of wine, two gallons of cider, and three and a half points of branding.

This is something that he would do treating his neighbors at the time of the election, and

they would then he help reciprocate by casting their vote for him.

Now, all the people would gather around at an electioneering restaurant.

They'd have fiddly, they might have a wrestling, they might have a little bit of dancing, and

they very likely would have been eating barbecue, yelling, shouting, and I'm sure after they

had consumed copious quantities of beer and rum and wine and cider and brandy, who knows

what else they would have done.

But they probably loosened up quite a bit.

The traditional ritual was that each candidate stood on the platform, and they awaited each

voter to come up and announce for whom they would vote.

Mr. Blair, who do you vote for?

You West.

Your vote is appreciated.

Who do you vote for, Mr. Buchanan?

George Washington.

Voice broken, think about that.

You can imagine if we all went out in November and announced in public our vote, nobody

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