§3. All annual appointments of civil officers in this state shall be made in the third week of December, in every year, in the same manner as the constitution and form of government now directs.-Passed 1811, ch. 211-confirmed November, 1812.

[For further Amendments to the Constitution of Maryland, see page 413, &c.]

CONSTITUTION OF VIRGINIA.

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. Unanimously adopted, June 12th, 1776. 1. THAT all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.

2. That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them.

3. That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or community of all the various modes and forms of government, that is best, which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually secured against the danger of maladministration; and that, when any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal.

4. That no man, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges from the community, but in consideration of public services; which not being descendible, neither ought the offices of magistrate, legislator, or judge to be hereditary.

5. That the legislative and executive powers of the state should be separate and distinct from the judiciary; and that the members of the two first may be restrained from oppression, by feeling and participating the burthens of the people, they should, at fixed periods, be reduced to private station, return into that body from which they were originally taken, and the vacancies be supplied by frequent, certain, and regular elections, in which all, or any part of the former members, to be again eligible, or ineligible as the laws shall direct.

6. That elections of members to serve as representatives of the people, in assembly, ought to be free; and that all men having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and attachment to, the com

munity, have the right of suffrage, and cannot be taxed or deprived of their property for public uses, without their own consent, or that of their representatives so elected, nor bound by any law to which they have not, in like manner, assented, for the public good.

7. That all power of suspending laws, or the execution of laws, by any authority, without consent of the representatives of the people, is injurious to their rights, and ought not to be exercised.

8. That, in all capital or criminal prosecutions, a man hath a right to demand the cause and nature of his accusation, to be confronted with the accusers and witnesses, to call for evidence in his favour, and to a speedy trial by an impartial jury of his vicinage, without whose unanimous consent he cannot be found guilty; nor can he be compelled to give evidence against himself; that no man be deprived of his liberty except by the law of the land, or the judgment of his peers.

9. That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

10. That general warrants, whereby an officer or messenger may be commanded to search suspected places without evidence of a fact committed, or to seize any person or persons not named, or whose offence iş not particularly described and supported by evidence, are grievous and oppressive, and ought not to be granted.

11. That, in controversies respecting property, and in suits between man and man, the ancient trial by jury is preferable to any other, and ought to be held sacred.

12. That the freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments.

13. That a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defence of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided, as dangerous to liberty; and that, in all cases, the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.

14. That the people have a right to uniform government; and, therefore, that no government separate from, or independent of, the government of Virginia, ought to be erected or established within the limits thereof.

15. That no free government, or the blessing of liberty, can be preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue, and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.

16. That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience and that it is the mutual duty of all to practise Christian forbearance love, and charity towards each other.

AN AMENDED CONSTITUTION

OR FORM OF GOVERNMENT FOR VIRGINIA.

ADOPTED JANUARY

14TH, 1830.

WHEREAS the delegates and representatives of the good people of Vir ginia, in convention assembled, on the twenty-ninth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six; re citing and declaring, that whereas, George the Third, king of Great Britain and Ireland, and elector of Hanover, before that time intrusted with the exercise of the kingly office in the government of Virginia, had endeavoured to pervert the same into a detestable and insupportable tyranny, by putting his negative on laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good; by denying his governors permission to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation for his assent, and when so suspended, neglecting to attend to them for many years; by refusing to pass certain other laws unless the persons to be benefited by them would relinquish the inestimable right of representation in the legislature, by dissolving legislative assemblies repeatedly and continually, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions of the rights of the people; when dissolved, by refusing to call others for a long space of time, thereby leaving the political system without any legislative head; by endeavouring to prevent the population of our country, and for that purpose obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners; by keeping among us, in time of peace, standing armies and ships of war; by affecting to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power, by combining with others to subject us to a foreign jurisdiction, giving his assent to their pretended acts of legislation, for quartering large bodies of armed troops among us, for cutting off our trade with all parts of the world, for imposing taxes on us without our consent, for depriving us of the benefits of the trial by jury, for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences, for suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever; by plundering our seas, ravaging our coasts, burning our towns, and destroying the lives of our people; by inciting insurrections of our fellow-subjects with the allurements of forfeiture and confiscation; by prompting our Legroes to rise in arms among us, those very negroes whom, by an inhuman use of his negative, he had refused us permission to exclude by law; by endeavouring to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions of existence; by transporting hither a large army of foreign mercenaries, to complete the work of death, desolation, and tyranny, then already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy unworthy the head of a civilized nation; by answering our repeated petitions for redress with a repetition of injuries; and finally, by abandoning the helm of government, and declaring us out of his allegiance and protection: by which several acts of misrule, the government of this country, as before exercised under

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the crown of Great Britain, was totally dissolved: did, therefore, having maturely considered the premises, and viewing with great concern the deplorable condition to which this once happy country would be reduced, unless some regular adequate mode of civil polity should be speedily adopted, and in compliance with the recommendation of the general congress, ordain and declare a form of government of Virginia.

And whereas the general assembly of Virginia, by an act passed on the tenth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine, entitled, an act to organize a convention, did authorize and provide for the election, by the people, of delegates and representatives, to meet and assemble, in general convention, at the capital in the city of Richmond, on the first Monday of October, in the year last aforesaid, to consider, discuss, and propose a new constitution, or alterations and amendments to the existing constitution of this commonwealth, to be submitted to the people, and to be by them ratified or rejected.

We, therefore, the delegates and representatives of the good people of Virginia, elected and in convention assembled, in pursuance of the said act of assembly, do submit and propose to the people the following amended constitution and form of government for this commonwealth, that is to say:

ARTICLE 1.

The Declaration of Rights made on the 12th June, 1776, by the representatives of the good people of Virginia, assembled in full and free convention, which pertained to them and their posterity, as the basis and foundation of government; requiring in the opinion of this convention no amendment, shall be prefixed to this constitution, and have the same relation thereto as it had to the former constitution of this commonwealth.

ARTICLE 2.

The legislative, executive, and judiciary departments shall be separate and distinct, so that neither exercise the powers properly belonging to either of the others; nor shall any person exercise the powers of more than one of them at the same time, except that the justices of the county courts shall be eligible to either house of assembly

ARTICLE 3.

1. The legislature shall be formed of two distinct branches, which together shall be a complete legislature, and shall be called the general assembly of Virginia.

2. One of these shall be called the house of delegates, and shall consist of one hundred and thirty-four members, to be chosen, annually, for and by the several counties, cities, towns, and boroughs, of the commonwealth; whereof thirty-one delegates shall be chosen for and by the twenty-six counties lying west of the Alleghany mountains: twentyfive, for and by the fourteen counties lying between the Alleghany and Blue Ridge of mountains; forty-two for and by the twenty-nine counties lying east of the Blue Ridge of mountains and above tide-water, and thirty-six, for and by the counties, cities, towns, and boroughs

lying upon tide-water, that is to say: Of the twenty-six counties ving west of the Alleghany, the counties of Harrison, Montgomery, Monongalia, Ohio, and Washington, shall each elect two delegates; and the counties of Brooke, Cabell, Grayson. Greenbrier, Giles, Kanawha, Lee, Lewis, Logan, Mason, Monroe. Nicholas, Pocahontas, Preston. Ran dolph, Russell, Scott. Tazewel. Tyler, Wood, and Wythe, shall each elect one delegate. Of the fourteen counties Iving between the Alleghany and Blue Ridge, the counties of Frederick and Shenandoah, shall each elect three delegates; the counties of Augusta, Berkely, Botetourt, Hampshire, Jefferson, Rockingham, and Rockbridge, shall each elect two delegates; and the counties of Alleghany, Bath, Hardy, Morgan, and Pendleton, shall each elect one delegate. Of the twenty-nine counties lying east of the Blue Ridge and above tide-water, the county of Loudoun shall elect three delegates; the counties of Albemarle, Bedford, Brunswick, Buckingham, Campbell, Culpeper, Fauquier, Franklin, Halifax, Mecklenburg, and Pittsylvania, shall each elect two delegates; and the counties of Amelia, Amherst, Charlotte, Cumberland, Dinwid die, Fluvanna, Goochland, Henry, Louisa, Lunenburg, Madison, Nelson, Nottoway, Orange, Patrick, Powhatan, and Prince Edward, shall each elect one delegate. And of the counties, cities, towns, and boroughs lying on tide-water, the counties of Accomack and Norfolk shall each elect two delegates; the counties of Caroline, Chesterfield, Essex, Fairfax, Greenesville, Gloucester, Hanover, Henrico, Isle of Wight, King and Queen, King William, King George, Nansemond, Northumberland, Northampton, Princess Anne, Prince George, Prince William, Southampton, Spottsylvania, Stafford, Sussex, Surry, and Westmoreland, and the city of Richmond, the borough of Norfolk, and the town of Petersburg, shall each elect one delegate; the counties of Lancaster and Richmond shall together elect one delegate; the counties of Matthews and Middlesex shall together elect one delegate; the counties of Elizabeth City and Warwick shall together elect one delegate; the counties of James City and York, and the city of Williamsburg, shall together elect one delegate; and the counties of New Kent and Charles City shall together elect one delegate.

3 The other house of the general assembly shall be called the senate, and shall consist of thirty-two members, of whom thirteen shall be chosen for and by the counties lying west of the Blue Ridge of mountains, and nineteen for and by the counties, cities, towns, and boroughs lying east thereof; and for the election of whom, the counties, cities, towns, and boroughs shall be divided into thirty-two districts, as hereinafter provided. Each county of the respective districts, at the time of the first election of its delegate or delegates under this constitution, shall vote for one senator; and the sheriffs or other officers holding the election for each county, city, town, or borough within five days at farthest after the last county, city, town, or borough election in the district, shall meet at some convenient place, and from the polls so taken in their respective counties, cities, towns, or boroughs, return as a senator the person who shall have the greatest number of votes in the whole district. To keep up this assembly by rotation, the districts shall be equally divided into four classes, and numbered by lot. At the end of one year after the first general election, the eight members elected by the first division shall be displaced, and the vacancies thereby occasioned, supplied from