No. II.
In the Summer of the Year 1783, it was expected, that the Assembly of Virginia would call a Convention for the Eſtabliſhment of a Constitution. The following Draught of a Fundamental Constitution for the Commonwealth of Virginia was then prepared, with a deſign of being propoſed in ſuch Convention had it taken place.
TO the citizens of the commonwealth of Virginia, and all others whom it may concern, the delegates for the ſaid commonwealth in convention aſſembled, ſend greeting.
It is known to you, and to the world, that the government of Great-Britain, with which the American States were not long ſince connected, aſſumed over them an authority unwarrantable and oppreſſive; that they endeavored to enforce this authority by arms, and that the ſtates of New-Hampſhire, Maſſachuſetts, Rhode-Iſland, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jerſey, Pennſylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, South-Carolina, and Georgia, conſidering reſiſtance, with all its train of horrors, as a leſſer evil than abject ſubmiſſion, cloſed in the appeal to arms. It hath pleaſed the Sovereign Diſpoſer of all human events to give to this appeal an iſſue favorable to the rights of the ſtates; to enable them to reject for ever all dependance on a government which had ſhewn itſelf ſo capable of abuſing the truſts repoſed in it; and to obtain from that gov-
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