Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/220

 196 SKETCHES OF THE

ther Smith, Mr. Mercer, Mr. Henry Lee, Mr. Trea- surer, Mr. Henry, Mr. Dandridge, Mr. Gilmer, Mr. Bland, Mr. Digges, Mr. Carrington, Mr. Thomas Lud- well Lee, Mr. Cabell, Mr. Jones, Mr. Blair, Mr. Flem- ing, Mr. Tazewell, Mr. Richard Gary, Mr. Bullitt, Mr. Watts, Mr. Banister, Mr. Page, Mr. Starke, Mr. David Mason, Mr. Adams, Mr. Read, and Mr. Thomas Lewis; to whom were afterwards successively added, Mr. Madi- son, ]Mr. Rutherford, Mr. Watkins, Mr. George Mason, Mr. Harvie, Mr. Curie, and Mr. Holt.

On Wednesday, the 12th of June following, that declaration of rights which stands prefixed to our statutes, was reported and adopted without a dissenting voice; as was also, on Saturday the 29th of the same month, the present plan of our government.*

The salary of the governor to be appointed under the new constitution, was immediately fixed by a resolution of the house at one thousand pounds per annum ; and

constitution of Virginia, and that which was afterwards prefixed to the de- claration of independence of the United States, is of itself sufficient to esta- bfish the fact that they are from the same pen. But the constitution of Vir- ginia preceded the declaration of independence, by nearly a month ; and was wholly composed and adopted while Mr. Jefferson is known to have been out of the state, attending the session of congress at Philadelphia. From these facts alone, a doubt might naturally aiise whether he was, as he has always been reputed, the author of that celebrated instrument, the declaration of American independence, or at least a recital of grievances which ushers it in ; or whether this part of it at least, had not been borrow- ed from the preamble to the constitution of Virginia. To remove this doubt, it is proper to state, that there now exists among the arcliives of this state, an original rough draught of a constitution for Virginia, in the hand-writing of Mr. Jefferson, containing this identical preamble, and which was for- warded by him from Philadelphia, to his friend Mr. Wythe, to be submitted to the committee of the house of delegates. The body of the constitution is taken principal))' from a plan proposed by Mr. George Mason ; and had been adopted by the committee before the arrival of Mr. Jefferson's plan : his preamble however, was prefixed to the instrument; and some of the modi- fications proposed by him, introduced into the body of it.
 * The striking similitude between the recital of wrongs prefixed to the

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