Congress, but from acceptance by the citizens of the States for which they are made. Of these instruments, therefore, no less than of the constitutions of the thirteen original States, we may say that although subsequent in date to the Federal Constitution, they are, so far as each State is concerned, de jure prior to it. Their authority over their own citizens is nowise derived from it. Nor is this a mere piece of technical law. The antiquity of the older States as separate commonwealths, running back into the heroic ages of the first colonization of America and the days of the Revolutionary War, is a potent source of the local patriotism of their inhabitants, and gives these States a sense of historic growth and indwelling corporate life which they could not have possessed had they been the mere creatures of the Federal Government.

JAMES BRYCE, The American Commonwealth1 300, 301.

SCHOULER (1897)

Expressed in concise and admirable language, the Virginia Bill of Rights (whose sixteen sections we have thus condensed) was broad and universal in sentiment, breathing the spirit of human brotherhood, without a hint of race or class subjection. The declaration served well for example to the other twelve states; and, so proud of this instrument have Virginians remained that they affixed it unchanged to their new constitution of 1830, and, amending it but slightly for the constitution of 1850, incorporated it once more intact in the new framework of 1864.

JAMES SCHOULER, Constitutional Studies. III. 33, 34.

FISHER (1897)

Virginia's constitution was finished June 29. 1776, a few months after South Carolina's. It was made by a convention of forty-five members of the house of burgesses, and has prefixed to it a bill of rights, adopted June 12, 1776, the first part of which has the language of the opening paragraph of the Declaration of Independence. The rest of the bill of rights is remarkable as being very full and complete and containing more provisions than had ever appeared before in the colonies. Besides the ordinary bill-of-rights provisions, the bill contains 1 Copyright, 1896, by the Macmillan Co.

some political maxims, and among these is the first statement in our constitutions of the principle that the legislative, executive, and judicial departments of government should be separate, and that the same persons should never exercise the powers of any two of them.

S. G. FISHER, The Evolution of the Constitution of the United States. 75.

THORPE (1898)

Before the close of the seventeenth century America was at the threshold of a new civil experience, the distinguishing feature of which was the formulation of the "ancient and undoubted rights of the people of the colonies." A like process was going on in England. The famous Bill of Rights of 1688 is contemporaneous with like measures in the colonies. Americans are more familiar with the political speculations that dominated the country in 1776 than with those equal in influence, that dominated it nearly a century earlier. One clause of the English bill of 1688 survives in its original form in the Constitution of the United States, and in many State constitutions; but it was not accompanied in the seventeenth century by those provisions with which it is now associated. . . .

When the transition from colonies to commonwealths came, it seems, at first glance, almost instantaneous. The State constitutions of 1776 seem struck off at a single stroke in a sense that is not true of the national Constitution. A little reflection, however, will demonstrate that the constitutions, state and national, which distinguish America during the last quarter of the eighteenth century are in no sense political miracles or the product of chance or sudden ideas. These instruments must be taken, in the aggregate, as the written form of a political organism long growing and essentially homogeneous. They give the political fabric a common pattern. They register the civil experience, not of the colonists only, but of the people of other and earlier times. They may be called chapters in the Bible of politics contributed by democracy in America. Therefore, they must be considered together as a political unit, whose details are local applications of a few common principles contained in the bill of rights

The typical declaration is that of Virginia of 1776, which, by

repeated adoption, has long since become common civil property. It consists of sixteen articles, all of which rest for authority on the doctrine of natural rights proclaimed in the opening clause. Men cannot be deprived of their rights, nor can they deprive their posterity of them; all power is vested in the people, and is derived from them. Consequently, their representatives are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them. As government is instituted for the common benefit, it must be organized in the form that is best "capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually secured against the dangers of maladministration." The next State to act was Virginia, which, in April, 1776, elected forty-five delegates to a provincial convention. They met at Williamsburg on the 6th of the following May, and on the 29th of June promulgated the first constitution of the commonwealth. This convention, like that of South Carolina of 1778, was a Revolutionary gathering, chosen to supplant the ancient House of Burgesses, and to establish a government that would organize all the forces of the state in opposition to Great Britain. It was not specifically empowered to make a constitution. The frame of gov ernment it adopted was destined, however, to continue in force until 1830. This constitution is famed for its bill of rights, drawn up by George Mason.

F. N. THORPE, Constitutional History of the American People.1 34, 35, 37–49.

CHANNING (1898)

THE STATE CONSTITUTIONS, 1775, 1776. - Another important step in bringing about the change in sentiment noted in the preceding section, was the necessity for making new provisions for government in the several colonies. In some cases, as in Virginia and New Hampshire, the departure of the royal governors left the people without any government; in other cases, as in Massachusetts, resistance to the royal authorities made new arrangements necessary. In the last-named colony, a revolutionary body termed the Provincial Congress had assumed charge of the government of the province. The people, however, were restless, and those in power turned to the Continental Congress for advice. On June 9, 1775, that body 1 Copyright, 1898, by Harper & Brothers.

voted, that as no obedience was due to the act of Parliament altering the charter of the colony of Massachusetts, nor to a governor who would not obey the direction thereof, he should be considered as absent and the colony were advised to proceed under the charter without a governor "until a governor of his Majesty's appointment will consent to govern the colony according to the charter." . . . Among the first colonies to act under this suggestion was Virginia, which was at the moment governed by a convention elected by the people. It adopted (June, 1776) a constitution which consisted of three parts: a Bill of Rights by George Mason, a Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson, and a Frame of Government. The first of these contains an admirable exposition of the American theory of government, equalled in that respect only by the Declaration of Independence of July, 1776, and by the Bill of Rights drawn by John Adams and prefixed to the Massachusetts constitution of 1780. The clause in the Virginia Bill of Rights declaring for freedom of religion was the earliest enunciation on that subject during the Revolutionary era; it was probably the work of Madison and Patrick Henry. None of these early constitutions was submitted to the people for ratification, with the exception of that of Massachusetts (1780), which was also drafted by a body especially chosen by the people for that purpose.

EDWARD CHANNING, Students' History of the United States. 198, 199, 200.

CHAPTER XIV

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

SUGGESTIONS

THE Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, in the State House (Independence Hall), May 10, 1775. The King's Proclamation declaring the Colonies in rebellion, and calling for volunteers to force them to submit to taxation without representation, and other unjust measures, finally convinced the delegates to Congress of the impossibility of our continuing our allegiance to the English Crown. This document was authorized by the staunch patriots who met together in Philadelphia, in June of 1776, to consider the resolution of the 7th, when the Second Continental Congress resolved "That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states." John Adams of Massachusetts seconded the motion. Later, a committee of five Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and Robert R. Livingston of New York was appointed to draft the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson drew up the paper, though a few alterations were made in it by the Committee and by Congress. It was adopted on the evening of July 4, 1776, and signed by John Hancock, President of Congress, and Charles Thomson, Secretary. On August 2, 1776, it was signed by the members, representing the thirteen states.

-

The text and comments upon the famous Declaration of Independ ence are but a beginning for the intensive work that may be done upon the document. Each article may be illustrated by referring to the earlier pieces; and it will be well for each student who is making a thorough study of the subject to look for fresh examples which will strengthen the letter of this declaration. Here again, as in the period of the Stuarts, we find a group of men standing behind the event and its issue, who in themselves were not only exponents of their era, but who helped to shape it. The principles laid down by these patriots formed a basis for civil and federal ideas which influenced the constitutional development of succeeding generations.

For Outlines and Material, see Appendix A.