The Fifth Virginia Convention was a meeting of the Patriot legislature of Virginia held in Williamsburg from May 6 to July 5, 1776. This Convention declared Virginia an independent state and produced its first constitution and the Virginia Declaration of Rights.
The previous Fourth Virginia Convention had taken place in Williamsburg, in December 1775. In Philadelphia, the Second Continental Congress appointed George Washington commander of the Continental Army troops that then surrounded Boston, and Virginia patriots defeated an advancing British expeditionary force at the Battle of Great Bridge southeast of Norfolk.
The newly elected delegates to the Fifth Virginia Convention re-elected Edmund Pendleton as its president on his return from Philadelphia as presiding officer of the First Continental Congress. The membership could be thought of as belonging to one of three groups: radicals from western Virginia, who had agitated for independence from Britain even before 1775; philosophers of the American Enlightenment; and wealthy planters, largely from the east. A malapportionment of delegates granted disproportionate influence to this latter group. [1]
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The Convention convened from May 6 to July 5, 1776, at the colonial capitol in Williamsburg. It elected Edmund Pendleton its presiding officer after his return as president of the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia.
There were three parties in the Fifth Convention. The first was mainly made up of wealthy planters, who sought to continue their hold on local government as it had grown up during colonial Virginia's history. These included Robert Carter Nicholas Sr., who opposed the Declaration of Independence from King George III. It dominated the convention by a malapportionment that lent an advantage to the slaveholding east. This party likely ensured the continuation of slavery at a time when other states had already begun ending it with gradual emancipation. [2] It ensured the continued self-perpetuating gentry rule of county government with a franchise limited by property requirements underpinning the republican form of state government. [3] The second party was made up of the intellectuals of the Enlightenment-era lawyers, physicians, and aspiring young men. These included the older generation of George Mason, George Wythe, Edmund Pendleton, and the younger Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. [4] The third party was a minority of young men mainly from western Virginia in present-day West Virginia. This party was led by Patrick Henry and others who supported independence from Britain prior to 1775. [5]
On May 15, the Convention declared that the government of Virginia as "formerly exercised" by King George III in Parliament was "totally dissolved" in light of the King's repeated injuries and his "abandoning the helm of government and declaring us out of his allegiance and protection". [6] The Convention adopted a set of three resolutions: one calling for a declaration of rights for Virginia, one calling for the establishment of a republican constitution, and a third calling for federal relations with whichever other colonies would have them and alliances with whichever foreign countries would have them. It also instructed its delegates to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to declare independence. Virginia's congressional delegation was the only one under unconditional positive instructions to declare independence; Virginia was already independent of Parliament as the "fourth realm" of British Empire, but its convention did not want their state, in the words of Benjamin Franklin, to "hang separately."
According to James Madison's correspondence for that day, Williamsburg residents marked the occasion by taking down the Union Jack from over the colonial capitol and running up a continental union flag, keeping the Union Jack of the British Empire in the canton and adding the thirteen red and white stripes of the self-governing East India Company. [7]
On June 7, Richard Henry Lee, one of Virginia's delegates to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, carried out the instructions to propose independence in the language the convention had commanded him to use: that "these colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states." The resolution was followed in Congress by the adoption of the American Declaration of Independence, which reflected its ideas. [8]
The convention amended, and on June 12 adopted, George Mason's Declaration of Rights, a precursor to the United States Bill of Rights. On June 29, the convention approved the first Constitution of Virginia. The convention selected Patrick Henry as the first governor of the new Commonwealth of Virginia, and Henry was inaugurated as governor on June 29, 1776, allowing Virginia to establish a functioning republican constitution a few days before the Second Continental Congress declared their independence on July 4, 1776. [9]
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The delegates to the Virginia Convention of 1776 – elected in 1776 (One hundred and thirty-two members, two from each county, and one each from the Boroughs of Jamestown, Williamsburg, Norfolk, and the College of William and Mary) [10]
Peyton Randolph was an American politician and planter who was a Founding Father of the United States. Born into Virginia's wealthiest and most powerful family, Randolph served as speaker of Virginia's House of Burgesses, president of the first two Virginia Conventions, and president of the First Continental Congress. He also served briefly as president of the Second Continental Congress.
The Continental Congress was a series of legislative bodies, with some executive function, for the thirteen colonies of Great Britain in North America, and the newly declared United States before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War. The Continental Congress refers to both the First and Second Congresses of 1774–1781 and at the time, also described the Congress of the Confederation of 1781–1789. The Confederation Congress operated as the first federal government until being replaced following ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Until 1785, the Congress met predominantly at what is today Independence Hall in Philadelphia, though it was relocated temporarily on several occasions during the Revolutionary War and the fall of Philadelphia.
Benjamin Harrison V was an American planter, merchant, and politician who served as a legislator in colonial Virginia, following his namesakes' tradition of public service. He was a signer of the Continental Association, as well as the United States Declaration of Independence, and was one of the nation's Founding Fathers. He served as Virginia's governor from 1781 to 1784.
Patrick Henry was an American politician, planter and orator who declared to the Second Virginia Convention (1775): "Give me liberty, or give me death!" A Founding Father, he served as the first and sixth post-colonial Governor of Virginia, from 1776 to 1779 and from 1784 to 1786.
George Mason was an American planter, politician, Founding Father, and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, one of three delegates present who refused to sign the Constitution. His writings, including substantial portions of the Fairfax Resolves of 1774, the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776, and his Objections to this Constitution of Government (1787) opposing ratification, have exercised a significant influence on American political thought and events. The Virginia Declaration of Rights, which Mason principally authored, served as a basis for the United States Bill of Rights, of which he has been deemed a father.
Edmund Pendleton was an American planter, politician, lawyer, and judge. He served in the Virginia legislature before and during the American Revolutionary War, becoming the first speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates. Pendleton attended the First Continental Congress as one of Virginia's delegates alongside George Washington and Patrick Henry, signed the Continental Association, and led the conventions both wherein Virginia declared independence (1776) and adopted the United States Constitution (1788).
The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia.
George Wythe was an American academic, scholar and judge who was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. The first of the seven signatories of the United States Declaration of Independence from Virginia, Wythe served as one of Virginia's representatives to the Continental Congress and the Philadelphia Convention and served on a committee that established the convention's rules and procedures. He left the convention before signing the United States Constitution to tend to his dying wife. He was elected to the Virginia Ratifying Convention and helped ensure that his home state ratified the Constitution. Wythe taught and was a mentor to Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, Henry Clay and other men who became American leaders.
The Second Continental Congress was the late-18th-century meeting of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that united in support of the American Revolution and its associated Revolutionary War, which established American independence from the British Empire. The Congress created a new country that it first named the United Colonies, and in 1776, renamed the United States of America. The Congress began convening in Philadelphia, on May 10, 1775, with representatives from 12 of the 13 colonies, after the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
The Founding Fathers of the United States, commonly referred to simply as the Founding Fathers, were a group of late 18th century American revolutionary leaders who united the Thirteen Colonies, oversaw the War of Independence from Great Britain, established the United States, and crafted a framework of government for the new nation.
The Virginia Conventions have been the assemblies of delegates elected for the purpose of establishing constitutions of fundamental law for the Commonwealth of Virginia superior to General Assembly legislation. Their constitutions and subsequent amendments span four centuries across the territory of modern-day Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky.
The United Colonies was the name used by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia to describe the emerging nation comprising the Thirteen Colonies in 1775 and 1776, before and as independence was declared. Continental currency banknotes displayed the name 'The United Colonies' from May 1775 until February 1777, and the name was being used as a colloquial phrase to refer to the colonies as a whole before the Second Congress met, although the precise place or date of its origin is unknown.
Robert Carter Nicholas was a Virginia lawyer, patriot, legislator and judge. He served in the Virginia House of Burgesses and its successor, the Virginia House of Delegates. He became the last treasurer of the Colony of Virginia, and sat on the first High Court of Chancery, one of the predecessors of the Supreme Court of Virginia.
The Virginia Ratifying Convention was a convention of 168 delegates from Virginia who met in 1788 to ratify or reject the United States Constitution, which had been drafted at the Philadelphia Convention the previous year.
Joseph Prentis was a Virginia politician. He represented Williamsburg in the Virginia House of Delegates, and served as that body's Speaker from 1786 until 1788. From 1788 until his death, Prentis was a judge in the General Court of Virginia.
The history of Virginia in the American Revolution begins with the role the Colony of Virginia played in early dissent against the British government and culminates with the defeat of General Cornwallis by the allied forces at the Siege of Yorktown in 1781, an event signaled the effective military end to the conflict. Numerous Virginians played key roles in the Revolution, including George Washington, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson.
The Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829–1830 was a constitutional convention for the state of Virginia, held in Richmond from October 5, 1829 to January 15, 1830.
The Virginia gubernatorial election of 1776 was the first gubernatorial election of the newly independent Commonwealth of Virginia. It was held on June 29, 1776, forty-five days after the adoption of the Lee Resolution by the Fifth Virginia Convention asserting the independence of the United Colonies from Great Britain. The election was conducted under the provisions of the Constitution of Virginia, which had been adopted by the convention the same day and went into effect immediately. Patrick Henry, a leading advocate for independence who had served as a delegate to the First Continental Congress, was elected governor by a majority vote, defeating Thomas Nelson Jr. and John Page.
The Augusta County Committee of Safety was the shadow government of patriots from Augusta County, Virginia prior to and throughout the American Revolution. One of many such revolutionary committees of safety, the Augusta County committee is notable for writing the first known policy proposal to create a permanent independent state government and federal union of American colonies. The paper was presented by Thomas Lewis at the Fifth Virginia Convention on May 10, 1776, preceding the United States Declaration of Independence by more than 50 days.
The Augusta Declaration, or the Memorial of Augusta County Committee, May 10, 1776, was a statement presented to the Fifth Virginia Convention in Williamsburg, Virginia on May 10, 1776. The Declaration announced the necessity of the Thirteen Colonies to form a permanent and independent union of states and national government separate from Great Britain, with whom the Colonies were at war.
