CHAPTER VII.

VIRGINIA'S DECLARATION OF RIGHTS AND CONSTITUTION.

1776.

George Mason, detained by sickness from attending the Convention at an earlier day, arrived at Williamsburg on the 17th of May, as has been seen, and took his seat in the Convention on the following morning. The committee to prepare a Declaration of Rights and Constitution, aş first named on the 15th of May, consisted of twenty-eight members, among whom were Meriwether Smith, James Mercer, Robert Carter Nicholas, Patrick Henry, Richard Bland, Thomas Ludwell Lee, Dudley Digges, John Blair, John Page, and Edmund Randolph. Madison was added to the committee on the 16th and George Mason on the 18th, each one on the day that he took his seat in the Convention. Colonel Mason was placed on four other committees on the 18th; that of Propositions and Grievances; that of Privileges and Elections; the committee appointed to prepare and bring in an ordinance to encourage woollen, linen, and other manufactories; and the one appointed to prepare and bring in an ordinance to encourage the making of salt, saltpetre, and gunpowder. A letter was received from the Virginia delegates in Congress calling the attention of the Convention to a difficulty which had arisen between some gentlemen who had taken up lands on the Ohio near Pittsburg and the Indians of the vicinity. Of the committee of eighteen appointed to examine into the affair, Patrick Henry, James Mercer, and George Mason were members. On Monday, the

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27th of May, Colonel Cary, the chairman of the committee to prepare a constitution, reported that "the committee had accordingly prepared a Declaration of Rights, which he read in his place." It was read a second time at the clerk's table, and ordered to be referred to a committee of the whole Convention. The following Wednesday was appointed as the day when the Convention should take it into consideration, and in the meantime it was to be printed for the perusal of the members. It came before the Convention, then went back to the committee, and was again under discussion by the former on the 3d, 4th, and 5th of June. On the 10th several amendments were made to it by the Convention, and on the 12th it passed the Convention on a third reading nem. con. This paper, it is well known, was drafted by George Mason.

The same day that this important instrument received the assent of the Convention, provision was made for supplying the treasury of the colony, which had now to do its part in the war for establishing the people in the enjoyment of the rights just promulgated. The following resolutions passed the Convention on the 12th of June:

"Resolved, That the sum of one hundred thousand pounds, for the purpose of supplying the regular forces and militia to be employed on the frontiers, and others which may remain on the pay of the colony, for building vessels, and pay and provisions for the seamen and marines in the navy, and all other public claims, ought to be raised by an additional tax of one shilling and three pence on tithables and of one shilling per hundred acres on land, payable in the year 1777, and each of the six following years. Resolved, That Treasury notes to the amount of the said sum of 100,000/ ought to be issued upon the credit of the said taxes, redeemable on the first day of January, 1784, and that 70,000/ of such notes be issued in dollars, or parts of dollars."

Archibald Cary, Robert Carter Nicholas, George Mason, and nine other gentlemen were appointed a committee to prepare and bring in an ordinance pursuant to these resolutions." 'Journal of the Convention.

2 Ibid.

On the 20th of June the Convention appointed delegates to Congress for the coming year, which was in effect renewing the appointment of five of those already in office-Wythe, Nelson, Jefferson, and the two Lees. Two days afterwards, Mr. Digges from the Committee of Safety informed the Convention of their decision as to the disposition of the prisoners lately taken by Captains James and Richard Barron, being two hundred and seventeen Scotch Highland regulars. The non-commissioned officers and cadets they thought should be sent to some secure place on the frontiers, and there kept as prisoners of war; the seamen should be engaged to serve in a cruiser or galley, if willing, and it would be prudent, they considered, to dispose the privates over the middle counties, one in a family, as prisoners of war yet employed on wages. On the 24th of June, Colonel Cary reported a plan of government for this colony, which was read the first time. The same day, the following important resolutions passed the Assembly, in reference to the claim of Richard Henderson, George Morgan, and others.

"Whereas divers petitions from the inhabitants of the Western Frontiers have been presented to this Convention, complaining of exhorbitant demands on them for lands claimed by persons pretending to derive titles from Indian deeds and purchases, Resolved, that all persons actually settled on any of the said lands ought to hold the same without paying any pecuniary or other consideration whatever to any private person or persons, until the said petitions, as well as the validity of the title under such Indian deeds or purchases shall have been considered and determined on by the Legislatures of this country; and that all persons who are now actually settled on any unlocated or unappropriated lands in Virginia, to which there is no other just claim, shall have the pre-emption or preference in the grants of such lands. Resolved, that no purchases of lands within the chartered limits of Virginia shall be made under any pretence whatever, from any Indian tribe or nation without the approbation of the Legislature."

On the 4th of July commissioners were appointed, by a resolution of the Convention to collect and take the evi

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dence on behalf of the government of Virginia against the several persons pretending to claim lands under deeds and purchases from the Indians.' Edmund Randolph says of

this action of the Convention:

"On the petition of one Richard Henderson and his associates, a great question in the law of nations as applied to America was agitated and decided by the Convention; whether a purchase by individuals, of lands, to which the Indians claimed title by their manner of occupancy was binding upon Virginia, within whose limits they lay. She in terms annulled every such purchase, not confirmed by the government, existing at the time.""

On the 26th the plan of government was read a second time and debated upon in the Convention. It was taken up again on the two following days, and several amendments were made and agreed to on the 28th. On the 29th it was read the third time, and passed by a unanimous resolve. This plan of government or Constitution, in its original draft-like the Bill of Rights of which it formed the sequel-was from the pen of George Mason. On this day also the governor was appointed by ballot, Patrick Henry receiving the largest number of votes. A committee was appointed to wait upon the new governor and notify him of his election, and George Mason was made its chairman. He was also named first on a committee to prescribe the oaths of office to be taken by the governor and privy council. Colonel Mason on the 1st of July informed the Convention that the governor had been notified of his appointment, and returned an answer which he presented. A committee was appointed to devise a proper seal for the commonwealth. It was composed of four members: Richard Henry Lee, George Mason, Robert Carter Nicholas, and George Wythe. On the 5th of July, the last day of the Convention, Colonel Mason reported this seal, and George Wythe and John Page were desired to superintend the execution of it."

1 Ibid.

2 MS. History of Virginia.

2

3 Journal of the Convention.

The only letter of George Mason's that is to be found, written at this time, is one to his friend Martin Cockburn, dated the 23d of June, the day before the plan of government was reported to the Convention. There is nothing in it concerning the important work on which he had been engaged. Doubtless the letter to Mr. Massey, of which Colonel Mason speaks, contained particulars as to his recent labors. The "Gutridges" (Goodrichs), to whom George Mason makes reference, are thus described by Edmund Randolph :

"Virginia committed but few errors in the selection of men to whom she committed her interests. But she was not equally fortunate in the repudiation of a father and his three sons, of the name of Goodrich. They were so original and happy in their genius of ship-building that from the construction of vessels adapted to all the waters of this colony, many cargoes escaped capture and relieved the most urgent wants of the navy and the people. But upon a doubt, whether upon some occasion they had acted correctly, they were suspected of being unfaithful to the country and forced into the condition of enemies. Their hostility was not to be appeased. Their faculties were so applied as to enable them to intercept every vessel which they could discover in the shallowest water and most intricate navigation. It was said that the whole British navy had scarcely made prizes of Virginia ownership to an equal amount with theirs. Fertile as revolutions generally are in characters equal to every growing necessity, Virginia never repaired the loss which she sustained in these men. They had explored every vulnerable point and weakness in Virginia, and their hatred kept pace with their knowledge."1

Lord Dunmore, who had left Hampton Roads the first of June, was entrenched, at this time, with five hundred men, on Gwynn's Island, in the Chesapeake Bay, opposite Matthews County.

DEAR SIR:

WILLIAMSBURG, June 23d, 1776.

I received your obliging favor yesterday per post, which, not having time to answer then, I take the opportunity of doing to-day per Captain Westcot. The business you mention shall be

1MS. History of Virginia.