eral Declaration of Independence there; and it appointed com mittees at once to draw up a constitution for Virginia herself as an independent State. This was done some days before the recommendation of Congress for State constitutions was known in Virginia. The bill of rights (the first part of the constitution) was reported by the committee May 27, and adopted by the convention June 12. The "frame of government" was adopted June 29. To it at the last moment was prefixed a third part of the constitution, a declaration of independence for Virginia, earlier than the Continental Declaration. Rights The Virginia Bill of Rights was the first document of the kind in our history, and it remains one of our greatest The Virginia state papers. Three or four States at once copied Bill of it, and all the bills of rights during the Revolutionary period show its influence. Some provisions, such as those against excessive bail, cruel or unusual punishments, arbitrary imprisonment, and the like, go back to ancient English charters, even for their wording. Recent grievances suggested certain other clauses, the prohibition of "general warrants" (page 171), the insistence upon freedom of the press, and the emphasis upon the idea that a jury must be "of the vicinage" (page 193). More significant still, this immortal document opens with a splendid assertion of human rights. English bills of rights had insisted upon the historic rights of Englishmen, but had said nothing of any rights of man: they had protested against specific grievances, but had asserted no general principles. Such principles, however, had found frequent expression in English literature, and thence had become household phrases with American political thinkers.1 Now, these fundamental principles, upon which American government rests, were written by George Mason into this Virginia bill of rights, a fact which distinguishes that document 1 Cf. Otis' words, page 171 above. About 1760 this democratic English literature began to affect deeply a few French thinkers, like Rousseau. These men stated the old English principles with a new French brilliancy; and it is sometimes hard to say whether the American leaders drew their doctrines from the French or the older English sources. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 215 from any previous governmental document in the world. Two or three weeks later, Jefferson incorporated similar principles, clothed in phrase both more eloquent and more judicious, in the opening paragraphs of the Continental Declaration of Independence. Among the principles of the Virginia document are the statements: "That all men are by nature equally free1 and independent, and have certain inherent rights. 66 That all power is . . . derived from the people. "That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit of the people and that when any government shall be found inadequate ... a majority of the community hath an indubitable, inalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it. . . . “That no free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved . . but... by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles. "That . . . all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience." The Ameri can Declara Independ tion of 1776 June 7, soon after the Virginia instructions of May 15 reached Philadelphia, the Virginia delegation in the Continental Congress moved that the united colonies be declared "free and independent States." Brief debate followed; but action was postponed, to permit uninstructed delegates to consult their As- ence, July 4, semblies. Meantime, Congress appointed a committee to prepare a fitting "Declaration" for use if the motion should prevail. Happily it fell to Thomas Jefferson to pen the document; and his splendid faith in democracy gave the Declaration a convincing eloquence which has made it ever since a mighty power in directing the destiny of the world. 1 According to Edmund Randolph, the phrase equally free was objected to as inconsistent with slavery. Such objectors were quieted with the amazing assurance that "slaves, not being constituent members of our society, could never pretend to any benefit from such a maxim." In Massachusetts, similar words in her bill of rights of 1780 were held later by her courts to have abolished slavery within her limits, though that result was not thought of when the clause was adopted. By July 1, all delegations except New York's had either received positive instructions to vote for independence or had at least been released from former restrictions against doing so; and the matter was again taken up. The first vote was divided; but on the next day (July 2) the motion for independence was carried by the vote of twelve States. - A ORIGINAL DRAFT OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE in Jefferson's handwriting, written, he tells us, "without reference to book or pamphlet."photograph from a facsimile in the Boston Public Library. The formal Declaration, reported by the committee, was then considered in detail, and adopted on July 4. On the 9th, a new (Fourth) Provincial Congress for New York gave the assent of that State. 44 acces The delegates from New York had written home for instructions (June 10), but the Third New York Convention New York's replied that it could not presume to give authority. A "Fourth Convention" was called at once, to act upon the matter. This was virtually a referendum. The new convention did not meet until July 9, and so the delegates from New York at Philadelphia took no part in the votes. sion' John Adams regarded the vote of July 2 as the decisive "TIMES THAT TRY MEN'S SOULS" 217 step. On the 3d of July he wrote to his wife: "The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time foreward forever more.' Military events in '76 were indecisive. In the spring, after nearly a year's siege, Washington forced the English out of Boston, but he was unable to prevent their Military occupying New York. Defeated badly at Long events in '76 Island and White Plains, his sadly lessened troops withdrew through New Jersey into Pennsylvania; but a few weeks later he cheered the Patriots by the dashing winter victories of Trenton and Princeton. In the darkest of the dark days before those victories, Thomas Paine Thomas thrilled America with The Crisis. This pamphlet Paine's was a mighty factor in filling the levies and dis- The Crisis pelling despondency. Pages of it were on men's tongues, and the opening sentence has passed into a byword,“These are the times that try men's souls." II. THE NEW STATE CONSTITUTIONS Said Meantime the revolution in governments went on. John Adams toward the close of '76, "The manufacture of governments is as much talked of as was the manufacture of saltpeter before." In the six months between the Declaration of Independence and the Battle of Trenton, seven States followed Virginia in adopting written constitutions. Georgia was hindered for a time by the predomi- Constitunance of her Tories; and New York, because she tions in the was held by the enemy. These States followed in Thirteen '77. The remaining three States had already set up provisional governments. In Massachusetts and New States Hampshire, these remained in force for some years. South Carolina adopted a regular constitution in '78. No popular ratification Thanks to the political instinct of the people, the institution of these new governments, even in the midst of war and invasion, was accomplished quietly. As to Virginia, Jefferson wrote (August 13, '77), — “The people seem to have laid aside the monarchic, and taken up republican government, with as much ease as would have attended the throwing off an old and putting on a new suit of clothes." No one of the first eleven constitutions was voted on by the people. In most cases the "conventions" that adopted them had no express authority to do so; and some of those conventions had been elected months outside New before there was any talk of independence. For the most part, the constitutions were enacted precisely as ordinary laws were. In Virginia Jefferson urged a referendum on the constitution, arguing that otherwise it could be repealed by any legislature, like any other statute. But this doctrine was too advanced for his State. A "union of mechanics" in New York, too, protested vigorously but vainly against the adoption of a constitution by a provincial convention without "the inhabitants at large" being permitted to "exercise the right God has given them. . . to approve or reject" it. England In New England, on the other hand, thanks to the training of the town meeting, the sovereignty of the people was understood by every artisan and farmer, as elsewhere only by lonely thinkers. (The New York "mechanics,' just quoted, were mainly of New England birth or descent.) The legislatures of Rhode Island and Connecticut did adopt the old charters as constitutions (without change), without reference to the people, because it was held that the people had already sanctioned them by long acquiescence. But in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, where new constitutions were to be adopted, there was no serious thought of acting without a popular referendum. Indeed, that was not enough. The people of these States demanded also a popular initiative in the matter. |