own initiative, sought to beat Selfridge with a cane, and Selfridge fatally shot him in the encounter. Selfridge was prosecuted by Attorney General (and future Gore gubernatorial opponent) James Sullivan, and the defense also included arch-Federalist Harrison Gray Otis. Gore argued Selfridge acted in self-defense; Selfridge was acquitted of murder by a jury whose foreman was Patriot and Federalist Paul Revere after fifteen minutes' deliberation. Gore also resumed business activities upon his return. He invested in a wide variety of businesses and infrastructure, spurring economic activity in the state. His investments ranged widely, including maritime insurance (where is father-in-law had made his fortune), bridges, locks, canals, and textiles. He was a major investor in the Middlesex Canal, the Craigie Bridge (the first to connect Boston to Cambridge), and the Boston Manufacturing Company, whose factory proving the single-site production of textiles was in Waltham near his estate. Not all of his ventures panned out: the canal was in the long run a financial failure, as were efforts with other collaborators to develop Lechmere Point, the Cambridge side of the Craigie Bridge. The textile mill, however, was a success, and Gore invested in the Merrimack Manufacturing Company. When it decided to locate in what is now Lowell, Massachusetts, Gore purchased shares in the Proprietors of Locks and Canals, which operated (and still owns today) the Lowell canals. In 1806 Gore won election to the State Senate. That year the Republicans were in the majority, and the election for governor was close enough to require a recount. The legislature scrutinized the ballots in a partisan manner (for example, retaining ballots containing misspelled versions of Republican James Sullivan's name and discarding similar ballots marked for Federalist Caleb Strong). Gore and other Federalists raised a public outcry, and the legislature relented, eventually certifying Strong as the winner. Gore ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Massachusetts in 1807 and 1808 against a rising tide of Republicanism in the state, losing both times to moderate Republican James Sullivan. The Federalists gained control of the state legislature in 1808 in a backlash against Republican economic policies, but Gore was criticized for his failure to aggressively support state protests against the Embargo Act of 1807, which had a major negative effect on the state's large merchant fleet. Gore was in 1808 elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where he successfully led Federalist efforts to ensure the selection of a