1st, R. H. Lee's resolution of independence was adopted, and on July 4th the immortal Declaration by Thomas Jefferson. Nor was this all that Virginia did. It having been determined to procure a Declaration of Rights and a written constitution for the State, the Convention, on May 15th, appointed a committee of thirty-one, at the head of which was Archibald Cary, to do the work. Many projects were submitted, but the Declaration of Rights and the State constitution prepared by the master-hand of George Mason, "swallowed up all the rest." The former document, adopted June 12, 1776, contained all that was valuable in Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights of 1689, and much more; for it stands without a rival as a summary of the rights of man and also of the principles of free government. The latter document,—the constitution,—adopted on June 29, 1776, unlike the similar constitutions established by South Carolina and other colonies, declared the connection with Great Britain "totally dissolved," furnishing in this way the first example in this country of a written constitution of a free and independent State.
Thus, in the language of John Adams of
