He was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1759-1760.
According to this Hamburg is a republic, the government (Staatsgewalt) residing in two chambers, the Senate and the House of Burgesses.
The House of Burgesses consists of 160 members, of whom 80 are elected in secret ballot by the direct suffrages of all tax-paying citizens, 40 by the owners of house-property within the city (also by ballot), and the remaining 40, by ballot also, by the so-called "notables," i.e.
Jefferson began his public service as a justice of the peace and parish vestryman; he was chosen a member of the Virginia house of burgesses in 1769 and of every succeeding assembly and convention of the colony until he entered the Continental Congress in 1775.
The executive is in the hands of the Senate, but the House of Burgesses has the right of initiating legislation, including that relative to foreign treaties; the sanction of both chambers is required to the passing of any new law.
