Page:The Federal and state constitutions v7.djvu/40

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3812
Virginia—1776

V. whereas in all other Things, we require the said General Assembly, as also the said Council of State, to imitate and follow the Policy of the Form of Government, Laws, Customs, and Manner of Trial, and other Administration of Justice, used in the Realm of England, as near as may be, even as ourselves, by his Majesty’s Letters Patent, are required.

VI. provided, that no Law or Ordinance, made in the said General Assembly, shall be or continue in Force or Validity, unless the same shall be solemnly ratified and confirmed, in a General Quarter Court of the said Company here in England and so ratified, be returned to them under our Seal; It being our Intent to afford the like Measure also unto the said Colony, that after the Government of the said Colony shall once have been well framed, and settled accordingly, which is to be done by Us, as by Authority derived from his Majesty, and the same shall have been so by us declared, no Orders of Court afterwards shall bind the said Colony, unless they be ratified in like Manner in the General Assemblies. in witness whereof we have hereunto set our Common Seal, the 24th of July 1621, and in the Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord, James, King of England, &c., the * * * and of Scotland the * * *.


THE CONSTITUTION OF VIRGINIA—1776[1][2]

bill of rights

A declaration of rights made by the representatives of the good people of Virginia, assembled in full and free convention; which rights do pertain to them and their posterity, as the basis and foundation of government.


  1. *Verified from “Ordinances passed at a General Convention of Delegates and Representatives from the Several Counties and Corporations of Virginia, Held at the Capitol in the City of Williamsburg, on Monday, the 6th of May, A. D. 1776. Reprinted by a Resolution of the House of Delegates, of the 24th February, 1816. Richmond: Ritchie, Trueheart & Duval, Printers. 1816.” pp. 3–6.—“The Proceedings of the Convention of Delegates for the Counties and Corporations in the Colony of Virginia, held at Richmond Town, in the County of Henrico, on the 20th of March, 1775. Re-printed by a Resolution of the House of Delegates, of the 24th February, 1810. Richmond: Ritchie, Trueheart & Du-val, Printers. 1816.” 8 pp.—“The Proceedings of the Convention of Delegates for the Counties and Corporations in the Colony of Virginia held at Richmond Town, in, the County of Henrico, on Monday the 17th of July 1775. Reprinted by a Resolution of the House of Delegates, of the 24th February, 1816. Richmond: Ritchie, Trueheart & Du-Val, Printers. 1816.” 116 pp.—“The Proceedings of the Convention of Delegates held at the Capitol, in the city of Williamsburg, in the Colony of Virginia, On Monday, the 6th of May, 1776. Reprinted by a Resolution of the House of Delegates, of the 24th February, 1816. Richmond: Ritchie, Trueheart & Duval, Printers. 1816.” 86 pp.—“Ordinances passed at a General Convention of Delegates and Representatives, from the several Counties and Corporations of Virginia, held at the Capitol in the City of Williamsburg, On Monday, the 6th of May, Anno-Dom. 1776. Reprinted by a Resolution of the House of Delegates, of the 24th February, 1816. Richmond: Ritchie, Trueheart & Du-Val, Printers. 1816.” 19 pp.
  2. This Declaration of Rights was framed by a Convention, composed of forty-five members of the colonial house of burgesses, which met at Williamsburgh May 6, 1776, and adopted this Declaration June 12, 1776.—This constitution was framed by the convention which issued the preceding Declaration of Rights, and was adopted June 29, 1776. It was not submitted to the people for ratification.