The Virginia gazette — Williamsburg [Va.], 1776-07-06 00:00:00, page 4

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Begun and holden at the CAPITOL, in the city of WILLIAMSBURG,
on Monday the sixth day of May, one thousand seven hundred and
seventy six, and continued, by adjournment, to the sth day of July
following.
The CONSTITUTION, or FORM of GOVERNMENT, agreed to
and resolved upon by the Delegates and Representatives of the several
counties and corporations of VIRGINIA.
WHEREAS George the third, King of Great Britain and Ireland,
and elector of Hanover, heretofore intrusted with the exercise of
the kingly office in this government, hath endeavoured to pervert the
same into a detestable and insupportable tyranny, by putting his nega
tive on laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good:
By denying his Governors permission to pass laws of immediate and
pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation for his assent,
and, when so suspended, neglecting to attend to them for many years:
By refusing to pass certain other laws, unless the persons to be benefited
by them would relinquish the inestimable right of representation in the
legislature:
By dissolving legislative assemblies repeatedly and continually, for op
posing with manly firmness his invasions of the rights of the people:
When dissolved, by refusing to call others for a long space of time,
thereby leaving the political system without any legislative head:
By endeavouring to prevent the population of our country, and, for
that purpose, obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners:
By keeping among us, in times of peace, standing armies and ships of
war:
By affecting to render the military independent of, and superiour to,
the civil power:
By combining with others to subject us to a foreign jurisdiction, giv
ing his assent to their pretended acts of legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing taxes on us without our consent:
For depriving us of the benefits of trial by jury:
For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offences:
For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested
with power to legislate for us, in all cases whatsoever:
By plundering our seas, ravaging our coasts, burning our towns, and
destroying the lives of our people:
By inciting insurrections of our fellow subjects, with the allurements
of forfeiture and confiscation:
By prompting our negroes to rise in arms among us, those very ne
groes whom, by an inhuman use of his negative, he hath refused us per
mission to exclude by law:
By endeavouring to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the mer
ciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished
destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions of existence:
By transporting, at this time, a large army of foreign mercenaries, to
complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun
with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy unworthy the head of a civil
ized nation:
By answering our repeated petitions for redress with a repetition of
injuries:
And finally, by abandoning the helm of government, and declaring
us out of his allegiance and protection:
By which several acts of misrule, the government of this country, as
formerly exercised under the crown of Great Britain, is TOTALLY
DISSOLVED:
We therefore, the delegates and representatives of the good people of
Virginia, having maturely considered the premises, and viewing with
great concern the deplorable condition to which this once happy country
must be reduced, unless some regular adequate mode of civil polity is
speedily adopted, and in compliance with a recommendation of the Gene
ral Congress, do ordain and declare the future form of government of
Virginia to be as followeth:
The legislative, executive, and judiciary departments, shall be sepa
rate and distinct, so that neither exercise the powers properly belonging to
the other; nor shall any person exercise the powers of more than one of
them at the same time, except that the justices of the county courts shall
be eligible to either House of Assembly.
The legislative shall be formed of two distinct branches, who, together,
shall be a complete legislature. They shall meet once, or oftener, every
year, and shall be called the GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
VIRGINIA.
In A GENERAL CONVENTION
One of these shall be called the HOUSE OF DELEGATES, and
consist of two representatives to be chosen for each county, and for the
district of West Augusta, annually, of such men as actually reside in and
are freeholders of the same, or duly qualified according to law, and also
of one delegate or representative to be chosen anually for the city of
Williamsburg, and one for the borough of Norfolk, and a representative
for each of such other cities and boroughs as may hereafter be allowed
particular representation by the legislature; but when any city or borough
shall so decrease as that the number of persons having right of suffrage
therein shall have been for the space of seven years successively less than
half the number of voters in some one county in Virginia, such city or
borough thenceforward shall cease to send a delegate or representative to
the Assembly.
The other shall be called the SENATE, and consist of twenty four
members, of whom thirteen shall constitute a House to proceed on busi
ness, for whose election the different counties shall be divided into twenty
four districts, and each county of the respective district, at the time of
the election of its delegates, shall vote for one Senator, who is actually
a resident and freeholder within the district, or duly qualified according
to law, and is upwards of twenty five years of age; and the sheriffs of
each county, within five days at farthest after the last county election in
the district, shall meet at some convenient place, and from the poll so
taken in their respective counties return as a Senator the man who shall
have the greatest number of votes in the whole district. To keep up this
Assembly by rotation, the districts shall be equally divided into four classes,
and numbered by lot. At the end of one year after the general election,
the six members elected by the first division shall be displaced, and the
vacancies thereby occasioned supplied from such class or division, by new
election, in the manner aforelaid. This rotation shall be applied to each
division, according to its number, and continued in due order annually.
The right of suffrag e in the election of members for both Houses shall
remain as exercised at present, and each House shall choose its own
Speaker, appoint its own officers, settle its own rules of proceeding,
and direct writs of election for supplying intermediate vacancies.
All laws shall origionate in the House of Delegates, to be approved or
rejected by the Senate, or to be amended with the consent of the House
of Delegates; except money bills, which in no instance shall be altered
by the Senate, but wholly approved or rejected.
A Governor, or Chief Magistrate, shall be chosen annually, by joint
ballot of both Houses, to be taken in each House respectively deposited
in the conference room, the boxes examined jointly by a committee of
each House, and the numbers severally reported to them, that the ap
pointments may be entered (which shall be the mode of taking the joint
ballot of both Houses in all cases) who shall not continue in that office
longer than three years successively, nor be eligible until the expiration
of four years after he shall have been out of that office. An adequate,
but moderate salary, shall be settled upon him during his continuance in
office; and he shall, with the advice of a Council of State, exercise the
executive powers of government according to the laws of this common
wealth; and shall not, under any pretence, exercise any power or prero
gative by virtue of any law, statute, or custom, of England: But he
shall, with the advice of the Council of State, have the power of granting
reprieves or pardons, except where the prosecution shall have been carried
on by the House of Delegates, or the law shall otherwise particularly
direct; in which cases no reprieve or pardon shall be granted, but by
resolve of the House of Delegates.
Either House of the General Assembly may adjourn themselves respec
tively. The Governor shall not prorogue or adjourn the Assembly during
their sitting, nor dissolve them at any time; but he shall, if necessary,
either by advice of the Council of State, or on application of a majority
of the House of Delegates, call them before the time to which they shall
stand prorogued or adjourned.
A Privy Council, or Council of State, consisting of eight members,
shall be chosen by joint ballot of both Houses of Assembly, either from
their own members or the people at large, to assist in the administration
of government. They shall annually choose out of their own members a
President, who, in case of the death, inability, or necessary absence of
the Governor from the government, shall act as Lieutenant Governor.
Four members shall be sufficient to act, and their advice and proceedings
shall be entered of record, and signed by the members present (to any
part whereof any member may enter his dissent) to be laid before the
General Assembly, when called for by them. This Council may appoint
their own clerk, who shall have a salary settled by law, and take an oath
of secrecy in such matters as he shall be directed by the board to conceal.
A sum of money appropriated to that purpose shall be divided annually
among the members, in proportion to their attendance; and they shall be
incapable, during their continuance in office, of sitting in either House