The Virginia gazette — Williamsburg, Va., 1776-07-05 00:00:00, page 5

IN A GENERAL CONVENTION
Begun and holden at the CAPITOL,
in the city of WILLIAMSBURG, on Mon
day the sixth day of May, one thousand
seven hundred and seventy six, and con
tinued, by adjournment, to the day
of JULY following.
The CONSTITUTION, or FORM of
GOVERNMENT, agreed to and re
solved upon by the Delegates and Re
presentatives of the several counties and
corporations of VIRGINIA.
WHEREAS George the third, king of
Great Britain and Ireland, and elec
tor of Hanover, heretofore intrusted with
the exercise of the kingly office in this
government, hath endeavoured to pervert
the same into a detestable and insupport
able tyranny, by putting his negative on
laws the most wholesome and necessary for
the publick good:
By denying his governours permission
to pass laws of immediate and pressing
importance, unless suspended in their ope
ration 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 re
peatedly and continually, for opposing
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 popula
tion 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 inde
pendent of, and superiour to, the civil
power:
By combining with others to subject us
to a foreign jurisdiction, giving 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 negroes whom,
by an inhuman use of his negative, he hath
refused us permission to exclude by law:
By endeavouring to bring on the inha
bitants of our frontiers the merciless 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 tyran
ny, already begun with circumstances of
cruelty and perfidy unworthy the head of
a civilized 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 repre
sentatives of the good people of Virginia,
having maturely considered the premises,
and viewing with great concern the deplo
rable condition to which this once happy
country must be reduced, unless some re
gular adequate mode of civil polity is
speedily adopted, and in compliance with
a recommendation of the General Con
gress, do ordain and declare the future
form of government of Virginia to be as
followeth:
The legislative, executive, and judiciary
departments, shall be separate and distinct,
so that neither exercise the powers pro
perly 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.
One of these shall be called the HOUSE
OF DELEGATES, and consist of two
representatives to be chosen for each coun
ty, 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
annually for the city of Williamsburg, and
one for the borough of Norfolk, and a re
presentative 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 de
crease as that the number of persons hav
ing right of suffrage therein shall have
been for the space of seven years succes
sively 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 business, 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 qua
lified 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 As
sembly by rotation, the districts shall be
equally divided into four classes, and num
bered by lot. At the end of one year after
the general election, the six members
elected by the first division shall be dis
placed, and the vacancies thereby occasi
oned supplied from such class or division,
by new election, in the manner aforesaid.
This rotation shall be applied to each divi
sion, according to its number, and conti
nued in due order annually.
The right of suffrage 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
own officers, settle its rules of proceeding,
and direct writs of election for supplying
intermediate vacancies.
All laws shall originate 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 Governour, or chief magistrate, shall
be chosen annually, by joint ballot of both
Houses, to be taken in each House respec
tively, deposited in the conference room,
the boxes examined jointly by a committee
of each House, and the numbers severally
reported to them, that the appointments
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 sala
ry, shall be settled on him during his con
tinuance in office; and he shall, with the
advice of a Council of State, exercise the
executive powers of government accor
ding to the laws of this commonwealth;
and shall not, under any pretence, exer
cise any power or prerogative by virtue
of any law, statute, or custom, of England:
But he shall, with the advice of the Coun
cil 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 grant
ed but by resolve of the House of Dele
gates.
Either House of the General Assembly may
adjourn themselves respectively. The
Governour shall not prorogue or adjourn
the Assembly during their sitting, nor dis
solve them at any time; but he shall, if ne
cessary, 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 pro
rogued or adjourned.
A Privy Council, or Council of State,
consisting of eight members, shall be cho
sen by joint ballot of both Houses of Assem
bly, either from their own members or
the people at large, to assist in the admi
nistration of government. They shall an
nually choose out of their own members a
president, who, in case of the death, in
ability, or necessary absence of the Gover
nour from the government, shall act as
Lieutenant-Governour. 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 As
sembly, 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 mem
bers, in proportion to their attendance;
and they shall be incapable, during their
continuance in office, of sitting in either
House of Assembly. Two members shall
be removed by joint ballot of both Houses
of Assembly at the end of every three years,
and be ineligible for the three next years.
These vacancies, as well as those occasi
oned by death or incapacity, shall be sup
plied by new elections, in the same manner.
The delegates for Virginia to the Con
tinental Congress shall be chosen annually,
or superseded in the mean time by joint
ballot of both Houses of Assembly.
The present militia officers shall be con
tinued, and vacancies supplied by appoint
ment of the Governour, with the advice
of the Privy Council, on recommendations