. The magazine of American history with notes and queries. during the Revolution. From an antique print.) III. All further political connection between Virginia and Great Britainwas declared to be totally dissolved. IV. A Constitution for the Commonwealth of Virginia was adoptedwithout conditions looking to its abrogation, and asserting the claim ofabsolute sovereignty— the first written Constitution of a free State in theannals of the world. The incidents surrounding this great proclamation of human rights,and the real characters of the men who made it, deserve attention. It isdoubtful whethe
. The magazine of American history with notes and queries. during the Revolution. From an antique print.) III. All further political connection between Virginia and Great Britainwas declared to be totally dissolved. IV. A Constitution for the Commonwealth of Virginia was adoptedwithout conditions looking to its abrogation, and asserting the claim ofabsolute sovereignty— the first written Constitution of a free State in theannals of the world. The incidents surrounding this great proclamation of human rights,and the real characters of the men who made it, deserve attention. It isdoubtful whether many besides students are familiar with the subject; THE VIRGINIA DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 371 and, worse still, the men themselves have been persistently misrepre-sented. Historians, as well as the writers of polemic, have conspired tocaricature them, and the student, in order to arrive at the truth, is com-pelled to clear away a great mass of misstatements. Virginia historianshave led the way in casting slurs upon their ancestors. Mr. Jefferson. a^y^^^2^^^ began the work. He described the planters in favor of deliberateaction as mere cyphers of aristocracy, who were behind the times ; andMr. Wirt, in his Life of Henry, gladly took up the cry that the opponentsof the great orator were laggards. Mr. Burk, a passionate radical andadmirer of Jefferson, echoed the same views; Mr. Campbell and othersfollowed him; and Mr. Grigsby violently repudiated the idea that theplanter or cavalier element amounted to anything in Virginia society or 372 THE VIRGINIA DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE affairs. Miserable figment! outrageous calumny ! he exclaimed, withindignation ; the Cavalier was a compound slave—a slave to the Kingand a slave to the Church! I look with contempt on the miserablefigment which seeks to trace the distinguishing points of the Virginiacharacter to the influence of those butterflies of the British aristocracy,who came over to the colony to feed on whatever crumbs t
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