Legislature of Virginia

“ LEGISLATIVE POWER is the power to legislate or make LAWS, hence the General Assembly is the LEGISLATURE of Virginia. COMMONWEALTH, which means COMMON WELL-BEING, or common good, is a name sometimes given to a State or country which has a republican form of government—that is, a government in which the people are the supreme power, and in which all the people have common (that is, equal) interests and common rights. CONSISTING means formed or made up of. ”

“ If more authorities were wanting, I might refer to the Legislature of Virginia. The present expunging resolution is in exact conformity with their instructions to their Senators. As a matter of taste, I cannot say that I much admire their plan, though I entertain no doubt but that it is perfectly constitutional. That State is highly literary; and I think I have established that their Legislature, when they used the word expunge, without intending thereby to effect an actual obliteration of the journal, justly appreciated the meaning of the language which they employed. ”

“ The Virginia General Assembly was in session when the circular letter arrived in April 1768. The house formed a committee headed by Bland to draw up another petition to the king, memorial to the lords, and remonstrance to the commons. Moderate in tone, but forceful in defense of Virginian's rights, the 1767 Remonstrance protested parliament's passage of the tax package and perhaps most forcefully denounced parliament's action in closing the New York legislature for opposing the Mutiny Act. ”

“ He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature; a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only. ”

“ Now in oldest Virginia the colonial assembly, when instituted in 1619, the earliest legislature of civilized men in the western hemisphere, was patterned after the old English county court, and it was natural that its units should be conceived as hundreds and in some instances called so. Moreover, there are indications that at times the hundred was regarded as a military division, and also as the smallest area for the administration of justice, as in the law passed in 1624 providing that Charles City and Elizabeth City should hold monthly courts. ”

“ In some of the American States the delegates and senators are so chosen, as that the first represent the persons, and the second the property of the State. But with us wealth and wisdom have equal chance for admission into both houses. We do not therefore derive from the separation of our Legislature into two houses, those benefits which a proper complication of principles is capable of producing, and those which alone can compensate the evils which may be produced by their dissensions. ”

“ That the ordinary Legislature may alter the constitution itself. On the discontinuance of assemblies, it became necessary to substitute in their place some other body, competent to the ordinary business of government, and to the calling forth the powers of the State for the maintenance of our opposition to Great Britain. Conventions were therefore introduced, consisting of two delegates from each county, meeting together and forming one house, on the plan of the former house of Burgesses, to whose places they succeeded. ”

“ Some delegates favoured the immediate formation of a new state, but the more far-sighted members argued that as the ordinance had not yet been voted upon by the people, and Virginia was still in the Union, such action would be revolutionary, since the United States Constitution provides that no state may be divided without its consent. Therefore it was voted that in case the ordinance should be adopted (of which there was little doubt) another convention including the members-elect of the legislature should meet at Wheeling on the 11th of June. ”

“ That he should have shown no anxiety to limit the vague powers of Legislature and Executive was less surprising, because these powers were henceforward to remain in the hands of his own party; but the Judiciary was in the hands of Federalists, whose constitutional theories were centralization itself. The essence of Virginia republicanism lay in a single maxim: The Government shall not be the final judge of its own powers. ”

“ Virginia played a leading rôle in the War of 1812, and up to 1835 her influence in the new Western and North-Western states was overwhelming. But the steady growth of slavery in the East and of a virile democracy in the West neutralized this influence and compelled the assembling of the constitutional convention of 1829, whose purpose was to revise the fundamental law in such a way as to give the more populous counties of the West their legitimate weight in the legislature. ”

“ When the Virginia legislature met, the replies of the other states were referred to a committee, of which Madison was chairman. The report of that committee, [51] since known as Madison's Report, after carefully considering each of the resolutions of the preceding year, recommended a reaffirmation of them. This action was taken after the counter-resolutions offered by the Federalist minority had been voted down by a vote of ninety-eight to fifty-seven. The vote may be regarded as a fair approximation to the division of public opinion in Virginia. ”

“ There is no repugnancy between the acts of Virginia against selling lottery tickets within that State, and the power granted to Congress to legislate over the District of Columbia. There can be none; for the line of the District completely separates them. The act passed by Congress is confined to the District; the act of the State legislature is confined to the State: How can there be any repugnancy? A power to legislate over Virginia cannot come into collision with a power to legislate over the District, unless those to whom they are entrusted pass the limits of their jurisdiction. ”

“ On May 29 Randolph, on behalf of the Virginia delegation, submitted to the convention 15 propositions as a plan of government. Despite the fact that the delegates were limited by their instructions to a revision of the Articles, Virginia had really recommended a new instrument of government. For example, provision was made in the Virginia plan for the separation of the three branches of government; under the Articles executive, legislative, and judicial powers were vested in the Congress. Furthermore the legislature was to consist of two houses rather than one. ”

“ When the legislature shall have settled the exact limits of federal power, and the precise boundaries of state rights—if indeed these things can be done in our time—or when we shall have laid the broad and permanent foundation of a system of internal improvement,—we hope then at least to see Virginia treading in the paths of other states, and turning her attention to her own vast, and in some respects, hidden resources. ”

“ Seizing Madison's description of the new Government as partly National and partly Federal, Henry brought to bear all his power of satire. He was "amused" at Madison's "treatise of political anatomy.... In the brain it is national; the stamina are federal; some limbs are federal, others national." Absurd! The truth was, said Henry, that the Constitution provided for "a great consolidation of government." Why not abolish Virginia's Legislature and be done with it? This National Government would do what it liked with Virginia. ”

“ Accordingly, the convention of Virginia proposed, to amend the Constitution by inserting therein the following, among other clauses:
"That all power is naturally vested in, and consequently derived from, the People; that magistrates, therefore, are their trustees and agents, and at all times amenable to them."
"That the People have a right peaceably to assemble together to consult for the common good, or to instruct their representatives; and that every freeman has a right to petition the Legislature for redress of grievances." ”

“ The Virginia doctrine of instructions is thus laid down by the Judge. “I understand that doctrine to be, that the instructions of a State Legislature to a Senator of the United States, are an authoritative lawful command, which he is bound implicitly to obey, and which he cannot disobey without a violation of his official duty as a Senator, imposing upon him the obligation to resign his place if he cannot, or will not, conform to the will of his Legislature.” ”

“ One of these shall be called, The House of Delegates, and consist of two Representatives, to be chosen for each county, and for the district of West-Augusta, annually, of such men as actually reside in, and are freeholders of the same, or duly qualified according to law, and also of one Delegate or Representative, to be chosen annually for the city of Williamsburgh, and one for the borough of Norfolk, and a Representative for each of such other cities and boroughs, as may hereafter be allowed particular representation by the legislature ”

“ I pray constantly for courage at home. Let Massachusetts be true and firm, and keep our friends from division.
The news from Virginia continues to reveal the same tendency,—secession, unless constitutional guaranties are secured for Slavery. Without some change, contrary to all legislative and other declarations, Virginia must go out.
I hope that our Legislature will not pause in offering its guaranty to the bonds of the National Government. It ought to be done at once.
Did I ever tell you how much I enjoyed and admired your old musket speech? It was well conceived and admirably done. ”

“ Judges of the City Court of Records are chosen by the joint vote of both Houses for terms of eight years. Judges may be removed by the concurrent vote of both Houses. There is an Attorney-General elected by the voters to serve for four years. The Legislature provides for the appointment or election of justices of the peace.
Local Government. In magisterial districts one supervisor is elected—the supervisors of all the districts constituting a Board of Supervisors for the county and having power to lay the county and district levies, etc. ”

“ The legislative, executive and judicial departments shall be separate and distinct, so that neither shall 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 justices of the peace shall be eligible to the Legislature. ”

“ Virginia and the First Continental Congress
On August 30, Washington, Henry, and Pendleton set out from Mount Vernon for Philadelphia. There they met their fellow Virginians and delegates from every colony except Georgia whose governor had prevented the legislature from sending delegates. The Massachusetts men, conscious that many colonists considered them radical, impulsive, and even crude, determined to operate behind the scenes, deferring to the Virginians whom Adams called "the most spirited and consistent of any delegation". ”

“ The commercial and economic status of the old Commonwealth improved every day. The General Assembly drew up a bill calling upon the suffragans of Virginia to decide whether a convention should be called or not. They, the voters, decided that one should be called, whereupon the Legislature so enacted, and the election was held. In the year 1903 the convention to frame a new Constitution assembled in the hall of the House of Delegates in the old Capitol in the city of Richmond. ”

“ Through both these sets of resolutions—that on the Missouri question and that on the Bank decision—ran the intimation of forcible resistance to National authority. Introduced at practically the same time, drawn and advocated by the same men, passed by votes of the same members, these important declarations of the Virginia Legislature were [Pg 327] meant to be and must be considered as a single expression of the views of Virginia upon National policy. ”

“ The Beginning of the Reconstruction. p.41
active and bitter criticism. It is true that Virginia had had no share in these legislative proceedings when Congress met on December 4, 1865, but her legislature speedily adopted vagrant laws which placed her in the same class, in the Northern opinion, with the other Confederate States.
The new assembly, which passed the vagrant acts, met on December 4, 1865. It was a representative body and accordingly conservative. Some members, indeed, had served under the Confederate government. ”

“ The General Assembly may also provide by special act for the organization, government, and powers of any county, city, town, or regional government, including such powers of legislation, taxation, and assessment as the General Assembly may determine, but no such special act shall be adopted which provides for the extension or contraction of boundaries of any county, city, or town. ”

“ It is the proper function, indeed the obligation, of the judiciary to give effect to the obvious purpose of the Legislature, and to that end "words used may be expanded or limited according to the manifest reason and obvious purpose of the law. ”

“ Upon election by the General Assembly, a new justice or judge shall begin service of a full term.
All justices of the Supreme Court and all judges of other courts of record shall be residents of the Commonwealth and shall, at least five years prior to their appointment or election, have been admitted to the bar of the Commonwealth. Each judge of a trial court of record shall during his term of office reside within the jurisdiction of one of the courts to which he was appointed or elected ”