Page:A Declaration of the People's Natural Right to a Share in the Legislature (1775) (IA declarationofpeo00shar).djvu/219

 otherwise, if we were to confider “what would have been the Answer” (or rather what really were the Claims) of the one Legislature, without considering, at the same time, the real Answer of the other, to such vain and unjust pretensions, we should lay ourselves open to the charge of partiality!

The judicious Author of a late “Appeal to the Justice and Interests of the People of Great-Britain, in the present Disputes with America," has reported the Answer of the Virginian Legislature on that occasion. “Upon the dissolution of the Monarchy,” (says he,) the Commonwealth dispatched a Governor, with a squadron, to take possession of Virginia. He was permitted to land, upon Articles, of which the following is one, and decisively shews what were their original ideas of their Rights. Article 4th. VIRGINIA shall