Virginia Assembly

“ These resolutions, which Governor Fauquier had not seen, and which were perhaps never debated 76 in the House of Burgesses, were now circulated far and wide as part of the mature decision of the Virginia Assembly. On the 14th of September, Messrs. Randolph, Wythe, and Nicholas were appointed a committee to apprise the Assembly’s agent “of a spurious copy of the resolves of the last Assembly ... being dispersed and printed in the News Papers and to send him a true copy of the votes on that occasion.” ”

“ The resolution declares, first, that "it views the powers of the federal government as resulting from the compact to which the states are parties;" in other words, that the federal powers are derived from the Constitution and that the Constitution is a compact to which the states are parties.
Clear as the position must seem, that the federal powers are derived from the Constitution, and from that alone, the committee are not unapprized of a late doctrine which opens another source of federal powers, not less extensive and important than it is new and unexpected. ”

“ The legislative powers granted the Virginia Assembly in the Magna Charta, and continued with slight alterations after the revocation of the charter of the London Company, were very extensive. The Assembly could pass laws dealing with a vast variety of matters appertaining to the safety and welfare of the colony. Statutes were enacted in the session of 1619 touching upon Indian affairs, the Church, land patents, the relations of servants and landlords, the planting of crops, general morality in Virginia, the price of tobacco, foreign trade, etc. ”

“ At the same time, James Madison drew up similar resolutions which were introduced into the Virginia Assembly. The Virginia Resolutions are significant since they explain the theory of "strict construction" (that the federal government has only those powers specifically delegated to it) and they illustrate the strong "states' rights" feeling which existed in the State of Virginia. Virginia and Kentucky were the only two states to openly protest the Alien and Sedition Acts. Many of the northern states denied on this occasion the right of a state to judge a federal law. ”

“ For, as society naturally falls into the political divisions of the few and the many, or the majority and the minority, some part of every good representative government must be so constituted as to furnish a check to the mere democratic element. The Virginia plan, which proposed that both branches of the national legislature should be chosen by the people of the States, and that the executive should be appointed by the legislature, presented a democratic Assembly to be checked by a democratic Senate, and both of them by a democratic chief magistrate. ”

“ The house proceeded to take under their consideration the resolutions of the General Assembly of Virginia, relative to certain measures of the general government, transmitted to the legislature of this state, for their consideration: Whereupon,—
Resolved, That the General Assembly of the state of Vermont do highly disapprove of the resolutions of the General Assembly of Virginia, as being unconstitutional in their nature, and dangerous in their tendency. It belongs not to state legislatures to decide on the constitutionality of laws made by the general government ”

“ The American patriots now realized that they must act with vigor and firmness or lose all that they held most dear. The King and Parliament were determined to force the issue. When the Virginia Assembly met in May, 1774, Henry, Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee, and several others met in the Council Chamber in the Capitol to agree on some measure to arouse the people to a sense of the danger. ”

“ These vacancies the convention supplied by the appointment of loyal men. In the constitution they made an important alteration which prescribed the number of delegates necessary to constitute a quorum in the General Assembly. All State, county and town officials were required to take an oath of allegiance which pledged support of both the Federal Constitution and the restored government of Virginia. ”

“ It is, indeed, distressing to reflect that it ever should have been made a question, whether the Constitution, on the whole face of which is seen so much labor to enumerate and define the several objects of federal power, could intend to introduce in the lump, in an indirect manner, and by a forced construction of a few phrases, the vast and multifarious jurisdiction involved in the common law—a law filling so many ample volumes; a law overspreading the entire field of legislation ”

“ Congress, with a view of gaining the alliance of France, appointed three commissioners to that court: Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Jefferson declined the appointment, and it was then given to Dr. Arthur Lee.
Toward the close of this session of the Virginia Assembly, when Washington was retreating through the Jerseys, and when the cause of independence seemed almost desperate, several of the members, it is said, meditated, in imitation of the Roman Republic, the appointment of a dictator. ”

“ That the good people of this commonwealth, having ever felt, and continuing to feel, the most sincere affection for their brethren of the other states, the truest anxiety for establishing and perpetuating the union of all, and the most scrupulous fidelity to that Constitution which is the pledge of mutual friendship and the instrument of mutual happiness,—the General Assembly doth solemnly appeal to the like dispositions in the other states, in confidence that they will concur with this commonwealth in declaring, as it does hereby declare, that the acts aforesaid are unconstitutional ”

“ The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia confide so fully in the justice and wisdom of Congress upon the present occasion, as to hope that they will revise and amend the aforesaid act generally, and repeal in particular, so much of it as relates to the assumption of the state debts. ”

“ The first question here to be considered is, whether a spirit has, in sundry instances, been manifested by the federal government to enlarge its powers by forced constructions of the constitutional charter.
The General Assembly having declared their opinion, merely, by regretting, in general terms, that forced constructions for enlarging the federal powers have taken place, it does not appear to the committee necessary to go into a specification of every instance to which the resolution may allude. ”

“ Should this consequence be rejected, and the common law be held, like other laws, liable to revision and alteration by the authority of Congress, it then follows that the authority of Congress is coëxtensive with the objects of common law; that is to say, with every object of legislation; for to every such object does some branch or other of the common law extend. The authority of Congress would, therefore, be no longer under the limitations marked out in the Constitution. They would be authorized to legislate in all cases whatsoever. ”

“ From the very first the General Assembly showed itself an energetic and determined champion of the rights of the people. Time and again it braved the anger of the Governor and of the King himself, rather than yield the slightest part of its privileges. During the decade preceding the English Revolution only the heroic resistance of this body saved the liberal institutions of the colony from destruction at the hands of Charles II and James II.
The General Assembly was not only a legislative body, it was also a court of justice, and for many years served as the highest tribunal of the colony. ”

“ The War of Independence caused little change in Virginia's system of county government. The county court system was carried over into the state constitution of 1776 with only the oath of office changed to call for support and defense of the constitution and government of the Commonwealth of Virginia. [74] The General Assembly became the successor to most of the functions of the colonial House of Burgesses and Governor in Council, but significantly the principle of the separation of powers established for the commonwealth was not extended to the counties. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In July, 1768, in a letter to John Dickinson, of Pennsylvania, Mr. Lee suggested that not only select committees should be appointed by all the colonies, but that a private correspondence should be conducted between [661] the lovers of liberty in every province. The Virginia Assembly, in 1773, (about the same time with that of Massachusetts,) appointed a committee of correspondence, consisting of six members, of whom Mr. Lee was one. In the next year he was a delegate in the congress that met at Philadelphia. Patrick Henry spoke first, and he was followed by Richard Henry Lee. ”

“ 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. ”

“ These changes had such an effect in Virginia that, when afterward informed of a petition presented in the name of the assembly to parliament, "praying for the restoration of the ancient patents, and corporation government," the general assembly not only transmitted an explicit disavowal of it, but sent an address to the King, expressing their high sense of his favour towards them, and earnestly desiring to continue under his immediate protection. During the civil war, as well as after the establishment of the commonwealth, they continued firm in their attachment to the royal family. ”

“ But the burgesses of Virginia, unlike the people of England, stood fast by democratic principles, and, enacting that the supreme power should still reside in the General Assembly until there should arrive from England a commission, which the Assembly itself should adjudge to be lawful, proceeded to elect Sir William Berkeley as their governor ”

“ However difficult it may be to mark, in every case, with clearness and certainty, the line which divides legislative power from the other departments of power, all will agree that the powers referred to these departments may be so general and undefined, as to be of a legislative, not of an executive or judicial nature, and may for that reason be unconstitutional. ”

“ And though we well know that this Assembly, elected by the people for the ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no power to restrain the acts of succeeding Assemblies, constituted with powers equal to our own, and that therefore to declare this act irrevocable, would be of no effect in law, yet we are free to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present, or to narrow its operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It does not seem probable that the attempt of New York, to have another convention to make amendments, will succeed, though Virginia concurs in it. It is tolerably certain that Congress will propose amendments to the Assemblies, as even the friends of the constitution are willing to make amendments; some from a conviction they are necessary, others, from a spirit of conciliation. The addition of a bill of rights will, probably, be the most essential change. A vast majority of anti-federalists have got into the Assembly of Virginia, so that Mr. ”

“ The assembly adopted measures with a view at once to vindicate the supremacy of the law; to heal the wounded pride of the aged governor; to protect the country; to screen Bacon and his confederates from punishment, and to reform the abuses of the government. ”

“ Virginia itself offered them the opportunity, but it was they who seized it.
The group of well-to-do planters whom the Council represented, in the early years of the eighteenth century were far from numerous. "In every river there are from ten to thirty [Pg 152] men who by trade and industry have gotten very competent estates," wrote Colonel Quary. "Out of this number are chosen her Majesty's Council, the Assembly, the justices, and officers of the government." ”

“ As a result the Assembly showed a spirit of independence and a desire to rectify the people's grievances. A degree of democracy was introduced into local government by an act empowering the voters of each parish to elect two men to sit in the county courts in the making of by-laws. A limit was put to fees demanded by the collectors of customs and the clerks of the courts. The claim of the Green Spring Faction for compensation for their losses was referred to the next session. ”