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Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution
Collection: Classics of Liberty

proposed constitution for virginia 1 - Thomas Jefferson, The Works, vol. 2 (1771-1779) [1905]

Edition used:

The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Federal Edition (New York and London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904-5). Vol. 2.

Part of: The Works of Thomas Jefferson, 12 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


proposed constitution for virginia1

[June, 1776.]

first draft

A Bill for new modelling the form of government and for establishing the Fundamental principles of our future Constitution

Whereas George king of Great Britain & Ireland and Elector of Hanover.2

Be it therefore enacted by the authority of the people that the said George the third king of Great Britain and elector of Hanover formerly holding & exercising the kingly power office within this colony be & he is, be & he is hereby absolutely divested of deposed from the kingly office & powers within this colony, within yt government & absolutely divested of all it’s rights and powers & that he & his descendants & all persons claimg by or through him & all other persons whatsoever are hereby declared, shall be & forever remain incapable of being again appointed to holding the same & further that the sd office shall henceforth cease and be never more erected within this government colony.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid that the in lieu of those which have heretofore taken place the following fundamental laws & principles of government shall henceforth be established.

The Legislative, Executive, & Judicial offices shall be kept for ever separate, & no person exercising the one shall be capable of appointment to the others or to either of them.

Legislative.

Legislation shall be exercised by two separate houses who shall be called the General Assembly of Virginia to wit a house of Representatives and a house of Senators which shall be called the General assembly of Virginia.

The sd house of representatives shall be composed of persons chosen by the people annually on the [ day of December] and shall have power to meet in General Assembly on the [ day of January] following & so from time to time on their own adjournments, or at any other time when summoned by the Administrator, & to continue sitting so long as they shall think the publick service requires.

Vacancies in the sd house by death or disqualification shall be filled up by the electors under a warrant from the Speaker of the house.

All persons holding [half All male persons of full age & sane mind having a freehold estate in [¼ of an acre] of land in any town, or in [250] acres of land in the country, & all persons resident in the country colony who shall have paid scot & lot to government the last [three two] years shall have right to vote give their vote in the election of their respective representatives. And all every person so qualified to vote elect shall be capable of being elected; provided he shall have given no bribe either directly or indirectly to any elector voting for & and shall take an oath of fidelity to the government before he enters state & of duty in his office on the exercise thereof his office, and shall hold during his continuance therein in the said office he shall hold no public post of profit either himself or by another for his use.

The number of representatives for each county or borough shall be so proportioned to the number of it’s qualified electors that the whole number of representatives shall not exceed [300] nor be less than [150] for the present there shall be one representative for every [400] qualified electors in each county or borough; but when ever this or any future proportion shall be likely to exceed or fall short of the limits beforementioned, the proportion shall be again adjusted by the house of representatives.

The house of representatives when met shall be free to act according to their own judgments.

Senate.

The Senate shall consist of [15] not less than [15] nor more than [50] members at the least, who shall be appointed by the house of representatives [for life. Their qualifications shall be an oath of fidelity to government the state & of duty in their office the being of [31] years of age at the least and the having given no bribes directly or indirectly to obtain their appointment: while in the Senatorial office they shall be incapable of holding any public posts of profits either themselves or by others for their use.

With the house of Senators]1 One third of them shall be removed out of office by lot at the end of the first three years & their places be supplied by a new appointment; one other third shall be removed by lot in like manner at the end of the second three years & their places be supplied by a new appointment; after which one third shall be removed annually at the end of every three years according to seniority. When once removed they shall be forever incapable of being re-appointed to that house.

The judges of the General court & of the High court of chancery shall have session & deliberative voice but not suffrage in the house of Senators.

The Senate & the house of representatives shall each of them have power to originate & amend bills, save only that money bills shall be originated & amended by the Representatives only; and the assent of both houses shall be requisite to pass a law.

The General assembly shall have no power to pass any law inflicting death for any crime excepting murder & excepting also those offences in the military service for which they shall think punishment of death absolutely necessary; nor shall they have power to prescribe and all capital punishments in other cases are hereby abolished: nor shall they have power to prescribe torture in any case whatever; nor for inflicting torture for in any cause whatever nor shall any law for levying money be in force longer than [ten] years from the time of it’s commencement.

Two thirds of the members of either house shall be a quorum to proceed to business.

Delegates

see post.

Executive Administrator

For The exercise of the executive powers shall be exercised by in manner following one person to be called the [Administrator] who shall be annually appointed by the [house of representatives ] on the second day of their first session, & who after having acted [one] year shall be incapable of being again appointed till to that office until he shall have been out of the said same office [three] years.

Deputy Admr.

Under him shall be appointed by the same house & at the same time a Deputy Administrator to assist his principal in the discharge of his office, & to succeed to the whole powers thereof in case of his death before the year shall have expired, to the whole powers thereof during the residue of the year.

The Administrator shall possess the powers formerly held by the king save only that

he shall be bound by acts of legislature tho’ not expressly named.

he shall have no negative on the bills of the Legislature.

he shall be liable to action tho’ not to personal restraint for private duties or wrongs?

he shall not possess no the prerogatives of

of dissolving, proroguing, or adjourning either house of assembly

of Declaring war or making concluding peace

of issuing letters of marque or reprisal

of raising or introducing armed forces, building armed vessels, forts or strongholds.

of coining monies or regulating their value.

of regulating weights & measures.

of erecting courts, offices, boroughs, corporations, fairs, markets, ports, beacons, lighthouses, sea-marks.

of laying embargoes or prohibiting the exportations of any commodity for a longer space than 4 days.

of retaining or recalling a member of the state but by legal process pro delicto vel contractu.

of making denizens.

of pardoning crimes or remitting fines or punishmts.

of creating dignities or granting rights of precedence.

but these powers shall be exercised by the legislature alone.

Privy Council.

A privy council shall be annually appointed by the house of Representatives to consist of such number as they shall whose duty it shall be to give advice to the Administrator when called on by him. With them the Deputy Admr shall have session & suffrage

Delegates

insert here.

Treasurer Delegates see below

A Treasurer &c.

Sheriffs &c.

High Sheriffs and coroners of counties shall be annually elected by those qualified to vote for representatives: but officers of the courts of general jurisdiction and [part missing] by their respective courts and no person who shall have served as high sheriff [one] year shall be incapable of being reelected to the said office in the same county till he shall have been out of office [five] years.

Delegates see belowOther officers

All other officers civil & military shall be appointed by the Administrator but such appointment shall be subject to the negative of the privy council. Saving however to the legislature a right power of transferring from the Administrator the right of ye to any other persons appointment of such officers to any persons they may think fit of such offices or any of them.

Treasurer

The A Treasurer shall be appointed by the house of Representatives, who shall issue no money but by warrant from authority of both houses.

Delegates

Delegates shall be appointed to represent this colony in the American Congress shall be appointed when necessary by the H. of Represves, who shall not be after serving [two] years in that office they shall not be capable of being reappointed to the same during an interval of [two] years.

Judicial

The Judicial powers shall be exercised

First by County courts & other inferior jurisdictions.

Secondly by a General Court & a High Court of Chancery.

Thirdly by a Court of Appeals.

County Courts

The justices judges of the County courts & other inferior jurisdictions shall be appointed by the Administrator, subject to the negative of the privy council. They shall not be fewer than [five] in number their jurisdiction shall be defined from time to time by the Legislature: & they shall be removable for misbehavior by the court of Appeals.

Genl Court & Chancery

The judges of the General court & of the High court of Chancery shall be appointed by the Administrator and Privy council. If kept united they shall be [5] in number, if separate there shall be [part lacking] & [3] for the High Court of Chancery. The appointment shall be made from the faculty of the law and of such persons of that faculty as shall have actually exercised the same at some the bar or bars of some court or courts of record within this colony for [seven] years. They shall hold their commissions during good behavior, for breach of which they shall be removable by the court of Appeals. Their jurisdiction shall be defined from time to time by the Legislature.

Court of Appeals

The court of Appeals shall consist of not less than [7] nor more than [11] members to be chosen appointed by the house of Representatives; they shall hold their offices during good behavior, for breach of which they shall be removable by an act of the legislature only. Their jurisdiction shall be to determine finally all causes removed before them from the General court or High court of Chancery on suggestion of error, to remove judges of the General court or High court of Chancery or of the County courts or other inferior jurisdictions for misbehavior: [to try impeachments against of high offenders to be lodged before them by the House of representatives for such crimes as shall be hereafter defined shall hereafter be precisely defined by the Legislature shall hereafter define with precision and [[Editor: illegible word]] and for the punishment of which the sd Legislature shall have previously presented certain & determinate pains. In this court the judges of the Genl Ct., & High Ct. of Chancy shall have session and deliberative voice but no suffrage.

Juries

All facts, in causes, whether of Chancery, Common, Ecclesiastical or Marine law, shall be tried by a jury upon evidence given viva voce in open court; unless but where witnesses are out of the colony in which case their depositions may be used or unable to attend through by through sickness or other invincible necessity, their depositions may be proposed submitted to the credit of the jury.

Fines

All Fines & Amercements shall be fixed by juries and determined assessed and terms of imprisonment for Contempts shall or misdemeanors shall be fixed by the verdict of a jury.

Stile of process

All process original & judicial process shall issue run in the name [part lacking] which it issues.

Quorum

Two thirds of the members of the General Court, High court of Chancery, or Court of Appeals shall be a Quorum to proceed to business.

Lands

Unappropriated or Forfeited lands shall be appropriated by the Administrator and with the consent of the privy council.

Fifty acres of la

Every male person of full age neither owning nor having owned [50] acres of land shall be entitled to an appropriation of [50] acres or to so much as shall make up what he owns or has owned [50] acres in full and absolute dominion. And no other person shall be capable of taking an appropriation.

Lands heretofore holden of the crown in fee simple and those hereafter to be appropriated shall be holden of no superior by him in full and absolute dominion of no superior whatever.

No lands shall be appropriated until purchased of the Indian natives proprietors nor shall any purchases be made of them but on behalf of the public by authority of acts of the General assembly to be made passed for every purchase specially

[part lacking] contained within the charters erecting the colonies of Maryland, Pennsylvania, North & South Carolina, are hereby ceded & released and forever confirmed to the people of those pro colonies respectively with all the rights of jurisdiction and property, jurisdiction & and government and all other rights whatsoever claimed which might at any time heretofore have been claimed by this colony. The Western and Northern extent of this country shall in all other respects stand as described fixed by the Charter of until by act of the Legislature any new a territory or one or more territories shall be laid off Westward of the Alleganey mountains for the establishment of any new colony or colonies, which colony or colonies when established shall be free and independent of this & shall shall be established on the same fundamental laws contained in this instrument & shall be free & independent of this colony and of all the world.

Descents shall go according to the laws of Gavelkind, save only that females shall have equal rights with males.

Slaves

No person hereafter coming into this country shall be held in slavery under any pretext whatever.

Naturalization

All persons who by their own oath or affirmation or by other testimony shall give satisfactory proof to any court of record in this colony that they purpose to reside in the same [7] years at the least and who shall subscribe the fundamental laws shall be considered as a residents & entitled to all the rights of a persons natural born.

Religion

All persons shall have full & free liberty of religious opinion nor shall any be compelled to frequent or maintain any religious institution. But this shall not be held to justify any seditious preaching or conversation against the authority of the civil government.

Arms

No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms [within his own lands or tenements].

Standing Army

There shall be no standing army but in time of actual war.

Free Press

Printing presses shall be free, except so [part lacking] of private injury they may give cause [part lacking] action.

Forfeitures

All forfeitures heretofore going to the king shall go to the state, save only such as the legislature may hereafter abolish.

Wrecks, &c.

The royal claim to Wrecks, Waifs, Strays, Treasure-trove, royal mines, royal fish, royal birds are declared to have been usurpations on the common right.

Salaries, &c.

No salaries or perquisites shall be given to any officer but by act of the legislature. No salaries shall be given to the Administrator, members of the house of Representatives, Legislative houses, judges of the court of appeals, justices of the peace, members of the privy council, judges of the County courts or other inferior jurisdictions, Privy counsellors, or delegates to the American Congress. But the reasonable expences of the Administrator, members of the house of Representatives, judges of the court of Appeals, members of Privy counsellors & Delegates for subsistence while acting in the duties of their office may shall be borne by the public if the Legislature shall so direct.

Qualificns of officers

The Qualifications of all officers Civil, military Executive Judicial Civil, military & Ecclesiastical shall be an oath of fidelity to the governm state and the having given no bribe to obtain their office.

None of these fundamental laws & principles of government shall be repealed or alt or altered but by the personal consent of the people to be on summons to meet in their respective counties on one & the same day by an act of Legislature to be passed for every special occasion: and if in such county meetings the people of two thirds of the counties shall give their suffrage for any particular alter ation or repeal referred to them by the said act, the same shall be accordingly repealed or altered or repealed, and such repeal or alteration shall take it’s place among these fundamental [part lacking] the same footing with them in lieu of the article re[part lacking].

The laws heretofore in force in this colony shall remain still in force except so far as they are altered by the foregoing fundamental laws, or so far as they may be hereafter altered by acts of the legislature.

It is proposed that the above bill, after correction by the Convention, shall be referred by them to the people to be assembled in their respective counties: and that the suffrages of two third of the counties shall be requisite to establish it.

fair copy

[A Bil]l for new-modelling the form of Government and for establishing the Fundamental principles thereof in future.

Whereas George Guelf king of Great Britain and Ireland and Elector of Hanover, heretofore entrusted with the exercise of the kingly office in this government hath endeavored to pervert the same into a detestable and insupportable tyranny;

by putting his negative on laws the most wholesome & necessary for ye public good;

by denying to his governors permission to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operations for his assent, and, when so suspended, neglecting to attend to them for many years;

by refusing to pass certain other laws, unless the person to be benefited by them would relinquish the inestimable right of representation in the legislature

by dissolving legislative assemblies repeatedly and continually for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on 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 endeavoring to prevent the population of our country, & for that purpose obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners & raising the condition [lacking appro]priations of lands;

[by keeping among u]s, in times of peace, standing armies and ships of war;

[lacking]ing to render the military independent of & superior 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 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; and

for suspending our own legislatures & 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 & confiscation;

by prompting our negroes to rise in arms among us; those very negroes whom he hath from time to time by an inhuman use of his negative he hath refused permission to exclude by law;

by endeavoring to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, & conditions of existence;

by transporting at this time a large army of foreign mercenaries [to complete] the works of death, desolation & tyranny already begun with circum[stances] of cruelty & perfidy so 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 & protection;

by which several acts of misrule the said George Guelf has forfeited the kingly office and has rendered it necessary for the preservation of the people that he should be immediately deposed from the same, and divested of all its privileges powers, & prerogatives:

And forasmuch as the public liberty may be more certainly secured by abolishing an office which all experience hath shewn to be inveterately inimical thereto or which and it will thereupon become further necessary to re-establish such ancient principles as are friendly to the rights of the people and to declare certain others which may co-operate with and fortify the same in future.

Be it therefore enacted by the authority of the people that the said, George Guelf be, and he hereby is deposed from the kingly office within this government and absolutely divested of all it’s rights, powers, and prerogatives: and that he and his descendants and all persons acting by or through him, and all other persons whatsoever shall be and forever remain incapable of the same: and that the said office shall henceforth cease and never more either in name or substance be re-established within this colony.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid that the following fundamental laws and principles of government shall henceforth be established.

The Legislative, Executive and Judiciary offices shall be kept forever separate; no person exercising the one shall be capable of appointment to the others, or to either of them.

I. Legislative

Legislation shall be exercised by two separate houses, to wit a house of Representatives, and a house of Senators, which shall be called the General Assembly of Virginia.

Ho. of Representatives.

The sd house of Representatives shall be composed of persons chosen by the people annually on the [1st day of October] and shall meet in General assembly on the [1st day of November] following and so from time to time on their own adjournments, or at any time when summoned by the Administrator and to shall continue sitting so long as they shall think the publick service requires.

Vacancies in the said house by death or disqualification shall be filled by the electors under a warrant from the Speaker of the said house.

Electors.Elected.

All male persons of full age and sane mind having a freehold estate in [one fourth of an acre] of land in any town, or in [25] acres of land in the country, and all persons resident in the colony who shall have paid scot and lot to government the last [two years] shall have right to give their vote in the election of their respective representatives. And every person so qualified to elect shall be capable of being elected, provided he shall have given no bribe either directly or indirectly to any elector, and shall take an oath of fidelity to the state and of duty in his office, before he enters on the exercise thereof. During his continuance in the said office he shall hold no public pension nor post of profit, either himself, or by another for his use.

The number of Representatives for each county or borough shall be so proportioned to the numbers of it’s qualified electors that the whole number of representatives shall not exceed [300] nor be less than [125.] for the present there shall be one representative for every [ ] qualified electors in each county or borough: but whenever this or any future proportion shall be likely to exceed or fall short of the limits before-mentioned, it shall be again adjusted by the house of representatives.

The house of Representatives when met shall be free to act according to their own judgment and conscience.

Senate.

The Senate shall consist of not less than [15] nor more than [50] members who shall be appointed by the house of Representatives. One third of them shall be removed out of office by lot at the end of the first [three] years and their places be supplied by a new appointment; one other third shall be removed by lot in like manner at the end of the second [three] years and their places be supplied by a new appointment; after which one third shall be removed annually at the end of every [three] years according to seniority. When once removed, they shall be forever incapable of being re-appointed to that house. Their qualifications shall be an oath of fidelity to the state, and of duty in their office, the being [31] years of age at the least, and the having given no bribe directly or indirectly to obtain their appointment. While in the senatorial office they shall be incapable of holding any public pension or post of profit either themselves, or by others for their use.

The judges of the General court and of the High court of Chancery shall have session and deliberative voice, but not suffrage in the house of Senators.

The Senate and the house of representatives shall each of them have power to originate and amend bills; save only that bills for levying money bills shall be originated and amended by the representatives only: the assent of both houses shall be requisite to pass a law.

The General assembly shall have no power to pass any law inflicting death for any crime, excepting murder, & such those offences in the military service for which they shall think punishment by death absolutely necessary: and all capital punishments in other cases are hereby abolished. Nor shall they have power to prescribe torture in any case whatever: nor shall there be power anywhere to pardon crimes or to remit fines or punishments: nor shall any law for levying money be in force longer than [ten years] from the time of its commencement

[Two thirds] of the members of either house shall be a Quorum to proceed to business.

II. Executive

The executive powers shall be exercised in manner following.

Administrator

One person to be called the [Administrator] shall be annually appointed by the house of Representatives on the second day of their first session, who after having acted [one] year shall be incapable of being again appointed to that office until he shall have been out of the same [three] years.

Deputy Admr.

Under him shall be appointed by the same house and at the same time, a Deputy-Administrator to assist his principal in the discharge of his office, and to succeed, in case of his death before the year shall have expired, to the whole powers thereof during the residue of the year.

The administrator shall possess the power formerly held by the king: save only that, he shall be bound by acts of legislature tho’ not expressly named;

he shall have no negative on the bills of the Legislature;

he shall be liable to action, tho’ not to personal restraint for private duties or wrongs;

he shall not possess the prerogatives;

of dissolving, proroguing or adjourning either house of Assembly;

of declaring war or concluding peace;

of issuing letters of marque or reprisal;

of raising or introducing armed forces, building armed vessels, forts or strongholds;

of coining monies or regulating their values;

of regulating weights and measures;

of erecting courts, offices, boroughs, corporations, fairs, markets, ports, beacons, lighthouses, sea-marks.

of laying embargoes, or prohibiting the exportation of any commodity for a longer space than [40] days.

of retaining or recalling a member of the state but by legal process pro delicto vel contractu.

of making denizens.

of pardoning crimes, or remitting fines or punishments.

of creating dignities or granting rights of precedence.

but these powers shall be exercised by the legislature alone. and excepting also those powers which by these fundamentals are given to others, or abolished.

Privy Council

A Privy council shall be annually appointed by the house of representatives whose duties it shall be to give advice to the Administrator when called on by him. With them the Deputy Administrator shall have session and suffrage.

Delegates

Delegates to represent this colony in the American Congress shall be appointed when necessary by the house of Representatives. After serving [one] year in that office they shall not be capable of being re-appointed to the same during an interval of [one] year.

Treasurer

A Treasurer shall be appointed by the house of Representatives who shall issue no money but by authority of both houses.

Attorney Genrl.

An Attorney general shall be appointed by the house of Representatives

High Sheriffs, &c.

High Sheriffs and Coroners of counties shall be annually elected by those qualified to vote for representatives: and no person who shall have served as high sheriff [one] year shall be capable of being re-elected to the said office in the same county till he shall have been out of office [five] years.

Other Officers

All other Officers civil and military shall be appointed by the Administrator; but such appointment shall be subject to the negative of the Privy council, saving however to the Legislature a power of transferring to any other persons the appointment of such officers or any of them.

III. Judiciary

The Judiciary powers shall be exercised

First, by County courts and other inferior jurisdictions:

Secondly, by a General court & a High court of Chancery:

Thirdly, by a Court of Appeals.

County Courts, &c.

The judges of the county courts and other inferior jurisdictions shall be appointed by the Administrator, subject to the negative of the privy council. They shall not be fewer than [five] in number. Their jurisdictions shall be defined from time to time by the legislature: and they shall be removable for misbehavior by the court of Appeals.

Genl. Court and High Ct. of Chancery

The Judges of the General court and of the High court of Chancery shall be appointed by the Administrator and Privy council. If kept united they shall be [5] in number, if separate, there shall be [5] for the General court & [3] for the High court of Chancery. The appointment shall be made from the faculty of the law, and of such persons of that faculty as shall have actually exercised the same at the bar of some court or courts of record within this colony for [seven] years. They shall hold their commissions during good behavior, for breach of which they shall be removable by the court of Appeals. Their jurisdiction shall be defined from time to time by the Legislature.

Court of Appeals

The Court of Appeals shall consist of not less than [7] nor more than [11] members, to be appointed by the house of Representatives: they shall hold their offices during good behavior, for breach of which they shall be removable by an act of the legislature only. Their jurisdiction shall be to determine finally all causes removed before them from the General Court or High Court of Chancery, or of the county courts or other inferior jurisdictions for misbehavior: [to try impeachments against high offenders lodged before them by the house of representatives for such crimes as shall hereafter be precisely defined by the Legislature, and for the punishment of which, the said legislature shall have previously prescribed certain and determinate pains.] In this court the judges of the General court and High court of Chancery shall have session and deliberative voice, but no suffrage.

Juries

All facts in causes whether of Chancery, Common, Ecclesiastical, or Marine law, shall be tried by a jury upon evidence given vivâ voce, in open court: but where witnesses are out of the colony or unable to attend through sickness or other invincible necessity, their deposition may be submitted to the credit of the jury.

Fines, &c.

All Fines or Amercements shall be assessed, & Terms of imprisonment for Contempts & Misdemeanors shall be fixed by the verdict of a Jury.

Process

All Process Original & Judicial shall run in the name of the court from which it issues.

Quorum

Two thirds of the members of the General court, High court of Chancery, or Court of Appeals shall be a Quorum to proceed to business.

IV. Rights, Private and Public

Lands

Unappropriated or Forfeited lands shall be appropriated by the Administrator with the consent of the Privy council.

Every person of full age neither owning nor having owned [50] acres of land, shall be entitled to an appropriation of [50] acres or to so much as shall make up what he owns or has owned [50] acres in full and absolute dominion. And no other person shall be capable of taking an appropriation.

Lands heretofore holden of the crown in fee simple, and those hereafter to be appropriated shall be holden in full and absolute dominion, of no superior whatever.

No lands shall be appropriated until purchased of the Indian native proprietors; nor shall any purchases be made of them but on behalf of the public, by authority of acts of the General assembly to be passed for every purchase specially.

The territories contained within the charters erecting the colonies of Maryland, Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina, are hereby ceeded, released, & forever confirmed to the people of those colonies respectively, with all the rights of property, jurisdiction and government and all other rights whatsoever which might at any time heretofore have been claimed by this colony. The Western and Northern extent of this country shall in all other respects stand as fixed by the charter of until by act of the Legislature one or more territories shall be laid off Westward of the Alleghaney mountains for new colonies, which colonies shall be established on the same fundamental laws contained in this instrument, and shall be free and independent of this colony and of all the world.

Descents shall go according to the laws Gavelkind, save only that females shall have equal rights with males.

Slaves

No person hereafter coming into this county shall be held within the same in slavery under any pretext whatever.

Naturalization

All persons who by their own oath or affirmation, or by other testimony shall give satisfactory proof to any court of record in this colony that they propose to reside in the same [7] years at the least and who shall subscribe the fundamental laws, shall be considered as residents and entitled to all the rights of persons natural born.

Religion

All persons shall have full and free liberty of religious opinion; nor shall any be compelled to frequent or maintain any religious institution.

Arms

No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms [within his own lands].

Standing Armies

There shall be no standing army but in time of actual war.

Free Press

Printing presses shall be free, except so far as by commission of private injury cause may be given of private action.

Forfeitures

All Forfeitures heretofore going to the king, shall go to the state; save only such as the legislature may hereafter abolish.

Wrecks

The royal claim to Wrecks, waifs, strays, treasure-trove, royal mines, royal fish, royal birds, are declared to have been usurpations on common right.

Salaries

No Salaries or Perquisites shall be given to any officer but by some future act of the legislature. No salaries shall be given to the Administrator, members of the legislative houses, judges of the court of Appeals, judges of the County courts, or other inferior jurisdictions, Privy counsellors, or Delegates to the American Congress: but the reasonable expences of the Administrator, members of the house of representatives, judges of the court of Appeals, Privy counsellors, & Delegates for subsistence while acting in the duties of their office, may be borne by the public, if the legislature shall so direct.

Qualifications

No person shall be capable of acting in any office Civil, Military [or Ecclesiastical] The Qualifications of all not otherwise directed, shall be an oath of fidelity to state and the having given no bribe to obtain their office who shall have given any bribe to obtain such office, or who shall not previously take an oath of fidelity to the state.

None of these fundamental laws and principles of government shall be repealed or altered, but by the personal consent of the people on summons to meet in their respective counties on one and the same day by an act of Legislature to be passed for every special occasion: and if in such county meetings the people of two thirds of the counties shall give their suffrage for any particular alteration or repeal referred to them by the said act, the same shall be accordingly repealed or altered, and such repeal or alteration shall take it’s place among these fundamentals and stand on the same footing with them, in lieu of the article repealed or altered.

The laws heretofore in force in this colony shall remain in force, except so far as they are altered by the foregoing fundamental laws, or so far as they may be hereafter altered by acts of the Legislature.

[1 ]The fair copy is endorsed in Jefferson’s handwriting, “A Bill for new modelling the form of government, & for establishing the fundamental principles thereof in future. It is proposed that this bill, after correction by the Convention, shall be referred by them to the people, to be assembled in their respective counties and that the suffrages of two thirds of the counties shall be requisite to establish it.” The rough draft has no preamble, though space was left for it. In both copies the erasures and interlineations are indicated. The bracketed portions in Roman are so written by Jefferson. Those in italic are inserted by the editor. For these most important papers I am under obligation to the courtesy of Mr. Cassius F. Lee of Alexandria, Va., and Mr. Worthington Chauncey Ford, of Brooklyn, N. Y., not merely for photographic reproductions, but also for the facts concerning them given at large in the latter’s Jefferson’s Constitution for Virginia (The Nation, li., 107). This constitution, though mentioned in several of the histories and other works concerning Virginia, and though seen by Wirt (Life of Patrick Henry, p. 196), and by Leigh (Debates of Virginia Convention, 1830, p. 160), has never yet been printed or even quoted. The history of its production is as follows:

On December 4, 1775, the Continental Congress resolved that if the “Convention of Virginia shall find it necessary to establish a form of government in that Colony, it be recommended to that Convention to call a full and free representation of the people, and that the said representatives, if they think it necessary, establish such forms of government as in their judgment will best produce the happiness of the people.” The Convention received this resolution on Dec. 13th, but took no action upon it. In April a new Convention was elected, which met on May 6th, and on May 15th appointed a Committee to prepare a “Declaration of Rights” and a “Form of Government.” In the meantime the Continental Congress, on motion of John Adams, May 10, 1776, “recommended to the respective assemblies and conventions of these United Colonies where no government sufficient to the exigencies of their affairs hath been hitherto established, to adopt such government as shall in the opinion of the representatives of the people best conduce to the happiness and safety of their constituents in particular, and America in general.” On May 27th the resolutions of the Virginia Convention were laid before the Continental Congress, and between that date and the middle part of June, Jefferson, while attending Congress, drew up this constitution. This he forwarded to Pendleton in the Convention, by George Wythe, who was returning from Congress to Virginia, and the latter wrote him, July 27, 1776:

“When I came here the plan of government had been committed to the whole house. To those who had the chief hand in forming it the one you put into my hands was shewn. Two or three parts of this were, with little alteration, inserted in that: but such was the impatience of sitting long enough to discuss several important points in which they differ, and so many other matters were necessary to be dispatched before the adjournment that I was persuaded the revision of a subject the members seemed tired of would at that time have been unsuccessfully proposed.” Of it, Jefferson, in 1825, wrote:

“I was then at Philadelphia with Congress; and knowing that the Convention of Virginia was engaged in forming a plan of government, I turned my mind to the same subject, and drew a sketch or outline of a Constitution, with a preamble, which I sent to Mr. Pendleton, president of the convention, on the mere possibility that it might suggest something worth incorporation into that before the Convention. He informed me afterwards by letter, that he received it on the day on which the Committee of the Whole had reported to the House the plan they had agreed to; that that had been so long in hand, so disputed inch by inch, and the subject of so much altercation and debate; that they were worried with the contentions it had produced, and could not, from mere lassitude, have been induced to open the instrument again; but that, being pleased with the Preamble to mine, they adopted it in the House, by way of amendment to the Report of the Committee; and thus my Preamble became tacked to the work of George Mason. The Constitution, with the Preamble, was passed on the 29th of June, and the Committee of Congress had only the day before that reported to that body the draught of the Declaration of Independence. The fact is, that that Preamble was prior in composition to the Declaration; and both having the same object, of justifying our separation from Great Britain, they used necessarily the same materials of justification, and hence their similitude.”

Jefferson, both at the time, and afterwards, denied the power of the Virginia Convention to adopt a permanent constitution, on the grounds that it was chosen an executive body to carry on the war, and that independence and the establishment of a state government were not before the people when they chose the delegates to it. Edmund Randolph (MS. History of Virginia, p. 63) states that:

“Mr. Jefferson, who was in Congress, urged a youthful friend in the convention to oppose a permanent constitution until the people should elect deputies for the special purpose. He denied the power of the body elected (as he conceived them to be agents for the management of the war) to exceed some temporary regimen.” The leading members of the Convention, however, according to Randolph, “saw no distinction between the conceded powers to declare independence, and its necessary consequence, the fencing of society by the institution of government.”

In pursuance of his opinion, Jefferson’s proposed constitution was given the form of a mere act, and much is included which has no place in a constitution. The non-concurrence of the Convention in his view, and even more, the aristocratic limits on the franchise and the unfavorable discrimination against the western counties, that the planter and tide-water representatives secured, which made “no grosser error than to suppose that the Constitution of Virginia was formed in 1776, [for] its two great distinctive features, the sectional, and the aristocratic, had been given to it a century before” (Debates of Virginia Convention, 1830), were the causes for his dislike of the Constitution adopted in 1776, and of his constant attempts to obtain its alteration. His objections are indicated in his Notes on Virginia (Query XIII, ¶ 5) as well as in his correspondence, and his preparation of his “Fundamental Constitution” in 1783 and his “Notes for a Constitution” in 1794; both of which form striking examples, in contrast to this, of the democratic development of his mind.

[2 ]This heading is written on a separate sheet, the remainder of the page being left blank.

[1 ]This portion in brackets is cancelled by the paragraph following, which is pasted as a flap over it.