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resources, are insufficient for the publick exigencies, nor then, until Congress shall have first made a requisition upon the states, to assess, levy and pay their respective proportions of such requisition, agreeably to the census fixed in the said constitution, in such way and manner as the legislature of the state shall think best; and in such case, if any state shall neglect, then Congress may assess and levy such state's proportion, together with the interest thereon at the rate of six per cent. per annum, from the time of payment, prescribed in such requisition.

v. That Congress shall erect no company of merchants with exclusive advantages of commerce.

VI. That no person shall be tried for any crime by which he may incur an infamous punishment, or loss of life, until he first be indicted by a grand jury, except in such cases as may arise in the government and regu lation of the land and naval forces.

VII. All common law cases between citizens of different states, shall be commenced in the common law courts of the respective states, and no appeal shall be allowed to the federal court, in such cases, unless the sum or value of the thing in controversy amount to three thousand dollars.

VIII. In civil actions between citizens of different states, every issue of fact arising in actions at common law, shall be tried by jury, if the parties or either of them request it.

1x. Congress shall at no time consent that any person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall accept any title of nobility, or any other title or office, from any king, prince, or foreign state.

x. That no standing army shall be kept up in time

of peace, unless with the consent of three-fourths of the members of each branch of Congress; nor shall soldiers in time of peace be quartered upon private houses, without the consent of the owners.

XI. Congress shall make no laws touching religion, or to infringe the rights of conscience.

XII. Congress shall never disarm any citizen, unless such as are or have been in actual rebellion.

And the convention do, in the name and in behalf of the people of this state, enjoin it upon their representatives in Congress, at all times until the alterations and provisions aforesaid have been considered agreeably to the fifth article of the said constitution, to exert all their influence, and use all reasonable and legal methods to obtain a ratification of the said alterations and provisions, in such manner as is provided in the said article.

And that the United States in Congress assembled may have due notice of the assent and ratification of the said constitution by this convention, it is Resolved, That the assent and ratification aforesaid be engrossed on parchment, together with the recommendation and injunction aforesaid, and with this resolution; and that John Sullivan, Esq. president of the convention, and John Langdon, Esq. president of the state, transmit the same, countersigned by the secretary of convention, and the secretary of the state, under their hands and seals, to the United States in Congress assembled.

JOHN SULLIVAN, Pres. of the Conv. [L. s.] JOHN LANGDON, Pres. of the State. [L. s.] By Order,

JOHN CALF, Sec'ry of Convention.

JOSEPH PEARSON, Sec'ry of State.

VIRGINIA, TO WIT:

WE, the delegates of the people of Virginia, duly elected in pursuance of a recommendation from the general assembly, and now met in convention, having fully and freely investigated and discussed the proceedings of the federal convention, and being prepared as well as the most mature deliberation hath enabled us to decide thereon--Do, in the name and in behalf of the people of Virginia, declare and make known, that the powers granted under the constitution, being derived from the people of the United States, may be resumed by them, whensoever the same shall be perverted to their injury or oppression, and that every power not granted thereby, remains with them, and at their will: that therefore no right of any denomination, can be cancelled, abridged, restrained, or modified, by the Congress, by the senate, or house of representatives, acting in any capacity, by the president, or any department, or officer of the United States, except in those instances in which power is given by the constitution for those purposes and that among other essential rights, the liberty of conscience, and of the press, cannot be cancelled, abridged, restrained, or modified, by any authority of the United States. With these impressions, with a solemn appeal to the Searcher of hearts, for the purity of our intentions, and under the conviction that whatsoever imperfections may exist in the constitution, ought rather to be examined in the mode prescribed therein, than to bring the union into danger, by a delay, with a hope of obtaining amendments previous to

the ratification-We the said delegates, in the name and in behalf of the people of Virginia, do, by these presents, assent to and ratify the constitution recommended on the seventeenth day of September, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, by the federal convention, for the government of the United States, hereby announcing to all those whom it may concern, that the said constitution is binding upon the said people, according to an authentick copy hereto annexed, in the words following. [See constitution.]

Done in convention, this twenty-sixth day of June, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight.

By Order of the Convention.

EDM. PENDLETON, President. [L. s.]

VIRGINIA, TO WIT:

SUBSEQUENT AMENDMENTS agreed to in convention, as necessary to the proposed constitution of government for the United States, recommended to the consideration of the Congress which shall first assemble under the said constitution, to be acted upon according to the mode prescribed in the fifth article thereof-videlicet:

That there be a declaration or bill of rights, asserting and securing from encroachment, the essential and unalienable rights of the people, in some such manner as the following:

1. That there are certain natural rights, of which men, when they form a social compact, cannot deprive or divest their posterity, among which are the enjoy

ment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.

n. 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.

1. That government ought to be instituted for the common benefit, protection and security of the people; and that the doctrine of non-resistance against arbitrary power and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.

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

v. That the legislative, executive and judiciary powers of government should be separate and distinct; and that the members of the two first may be restrained from oppression by feeling and participating the publick burdens, they should, at fixed periods, be reduced to a private station, return into the mass of the people, and the vacancies be supplied by certain and regular elections; in which all or any part of the former members to be eligible or ineligible, as the rules of the constitution of government and the laws shall direct.

VI. That elections of representatives in the legislature ought to be free and frequent, and all men having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest, with

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