Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/182

168 could not therefore paſs an act tranſcendant to the powers of other legiſlatures. If the preſent aſſembly paſs an act, and declare it ſhall be irrevocable by ſubſequent aſſemblies, the declaration is merely void, and the act repealable, as other acts are. So far, and no farther authoriſed, they organized the government by the ordinance entitled a conſtitution or form of government. It pretends to no higher authority than the other ordinances of the ſame ſeſſion; it does not ſay, that it ſhall be perpetual that it ſhall be unalterable by other legiſlatures; that it ſhall be tranſcendant above the powers of thoſe, who they knew would have equal power with themſelves. Not only the ſilence of the inſtrument is a proof they thought it would be alterable, but their own practice alſo; for this very convention, meeting as a houſe of delegates in general aſſembly with the ſenate in the autumn of that year, paſſed acts of aſſembly in contradiction to their ordinance of government: and every aſſembly from that time to this has done the ſame. I am ſafe therefore in the poſition, that the conſtitution itſelf is alterable by the ordinary legiſlature. Though this opinion ſeems founded on the firſt elements of common ſenſe, yet is the contrary maintained by ſome perſons. 1. Becauſe ſay they, the conventions were veſted with every power neceſſary to make effectual oppoſition to Great-Britain. But to complete this argument, they muſt go on, and ſay further, that effectual oppoſition could not be made to Great-Britain, without eſtabliſhing a form of government perpetual and unal t erable by the legiſlature; which is not true. An oppoſition which at ſome time or other was to come to an end, could not need a perpetual