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Constitution of Virginia. 1852 323 (1852.1)

handle is hein.slavery/ssactsva0693 and id is 1 raw text is: CONSTITUTION OF VIRGINIA. Whereas the delegates and reprcsontatives of the good people of Vir- Prcmble. ginia, in Con lventiin assembled, oil the twenty- li Ith day of J3t1n in the year of our Lord oue thousand seven hoindred and seventy-six-reciting and declaring, that whereas George the Third, king of Great Britain aslid Ireland and elector of Hanover, before that tino entrusted with the exercise of the kingly office in the government of Virginia, had Cnlea- vored to pervert the sine into it detestable alid insuliliortahlo tyranny, by puttig his negative o laws the most wholesoeo sid necessary for the public gooi:d; by .deii ilg Ills governors permo ission to pass laws of ininediato and pressing importalce, unless suspcnded iii their operation for his assent, and wvlln so suspended, neglecting to attend to them for many years; by refusing to pass certain other laws, unless the persons to lie benefited by them would relinquish the inestimable right of repro- sentation in the legislature; by dissolving legislative assemlies repeat- edly and C onti nlally, for opposin g with iaily firmness his invasions of the rights of the people when ldissolved, by refusing to call others for a long space of time, thereby leavin g tlie political system without any legislative head ; by edeLvoring to irevent the ipolpulation of oiur coi- try, and for that purpiose obstrueting tie laws fur the nlaturalization of foreigners ; by keeping aiti(olng Us, ill time of peace, stanidinig armies and ships of war; by alceting to reader the military indellendent of and superior to the civil power ; I)', combining with others to subject us to a foreign jurisdiction, giving his assent to their pretended acts if legisla- tiol n, for quartering large Ibodies of armed tt'oops aniing uts, for cutting off our trade with all parts of tile world, for imposing taxes ol us with- out our consent, for de riving its of the henefits of the trial by jury, for transporting us heyonl seas to he tried for pretended ofi'rces, for sus- pending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislato for us in all cases whatsoever; by p)lunderng eor seas, rvaging oar coasts, burlig our towlis, and destroying tile lives of our people ; by inciting insurrections of our fellow subjects with the allurenients of forfeiture and confiscatio i; by prom ptihg our negroes to rise in arms amiong us-those very negroes, whoni0, by an ihiamai use of his negative, lie had refused its permission to exclude by law ; ihy en- deavoring to biniug on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless In- dian savages, whose kniowii rule of warfare is -,in undlstilgaished de- struction of all ages, sexes and conditions of existence; by transporting hither a large ariny of foreign iiereenaries to coillleto the work of death, desolation 011d tyranny, then already begani with circumstances of cr'uelty and perfidy univorthy the head of' a civilized nation ; by ain- swering our repeated petitions for redress with a repetition of injuries; and finally, by abandoning the helmn of government, and declaring us out of his allegiance and protection ; by which several acts of misrule, the government of this country, as hoforo exercised under the crown of Great Britain, was totally dissolved-did, therefore, haviig 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 policy should be speedily adopted, and in coipliance with the recommendation of tie general congrcss, ordain and delare a form of government if Virginia: And whereas a convention held on the first Monday in October, in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine, did noioso to the people of the commonwealth ni amended constitution or form of government, which was ratified by them :

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