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At that he has been notably unsuccessful. In 1768, the year before he began work on the Monticello property, Jefferson was elected to a seat in Virginia's House of Burgesses. He is a shy man who has always avoided open debate —he also has a frail voice and occasionally stammers. But his facile pen and broad intellectual background soon made him an important advocate of American resistance to Parliament. his best-known work until now was his A Summary View of the Rights of British America, a pamphlet of 23 pages that appeared in 1774 and passionately attacked Britain for its intransigence toward the Colonies, particularly the closing of the port of Boston. He wrote that Americans' "own blood was spilt in acquiring lands for their settlement ... For themselves they fought, for themselves they conquered, and for themselves alone they have right to hold." Last week, two years later, that idea was adopted by all the Colonies.