CONSTITUTION OF VIRGINIA

WHEREAS, pursuant to an act of the General Assembly of Virginia, approved March the fifth, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred, the question, "shall there be a convention to revise the Constitution and amend the same?" was submitted to the electors of the State of Virginia, qualified to vote for members of the General As sembly, at an election held throughout the State on the fourth Thursday in May, in the year nineteen hundred, at which election a majority of the electors so qualified voting at said election did decide in favor of a convention for such purpose; and,

WHEREAS, the General Assembly at its next session did provide by law for the election of delegates to such convention, in pursuance whereof the members of this convention were elected by the good people of Virginia, to meet in convention for such purpose.

We, therefore, the people of Virginia, so assembled in Convention through our representatives, with gratitude to God for His past favors, and invoking His blessings upon the result of our deliberations, do ordain and establish the following revised and amended Constitution for the government of the Commonwealth.

ARTICLE I.

Bill of Rights.

A DECLARATION OF RIGHTS, MADE BY THE REPRE

SENTATIVES OF THE GOOD PEOPLE OF VIRGINIA ASSEMBLED IN FULL AND FREE CONVENTION, WHICH RIGHTS DO PERTAIN TO THEM AND THEIR POSTERITY, AS THE BASIS AND FOUNDATION OF GOVERNMENT.

Equality and rights of men.

Section 1. That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.

People the source of power.

Sec. 2. That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them.

Government instituted for common benefit.

Sec. 3. That government is, or ought to be, instituted for. the common benefit, protection and security of the people, nation or community; of all the various modes and forms of government, that is best, which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually secured against the danger of maladministration; and, whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, inalienable, and indefeasable right to reform, alter or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal.

No man entitled to exclusive emoluments or privileges; offices not to be hereditary.

Sec. 4. That no man, or set of men, is entitled to exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges from the community, but in consideration of public services; which not being descendible, neither ought the offices of magistrate, legislator or judge to be hereditary.

Legislative, executive and judicial departments of States should be separate; elections should be periodical.

Sec. 5. That the legislative, executive, and judicial departments of the State should be separate and distinct; and that the members thereof may be restrained from oppression, by feeling and participating the burthens of the people, they should, at fixed periods, be reduced to a private station, return into that body from which they were originally taken, and the vacancies be supplied by regular elections, in which all or any part of the former members shall be again eligible, or ineligible, as the laws may direct.

Elections to be free.

Sec. 6. That all elections ought to be free; and that all men, having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and attachment to, the community, have the right of suffrage, and cannot be taxed, or deprived of, or damaged in, their property for public uses, without their own consent, or that of their representatives duly elected, or bound by any law to which they have not, in like manner, assented for the public good.

Laws should not be suspended.

Sec. 7. That all power of suspending laws, or the execution of laws, by any authority, without consent of the representatives of the people, is injurious to their rights, and ought not to be exercised.