Fifth Virginia Convention

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.

Background and composition

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]

Meeting

George Wythe, an influential Enlightenment-era lawyer
George Mason, author of the Virginia Bill of Rights
Thomas Jefferson at the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia
Patrick Henry, an early proponent of independence and the American Revolution

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]

Outcomes

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]

Notable attendees and chart of delegates

{{columns-list|colwidth=22em|

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]

County/City	Name	Comments
Accomac	Southey Simpson
Accomac	Isaac Smith
Albemarle	Charles Lewis
Albemarle	George Gilmer	for Thomas Jefferson
Amelia	John Tabb
Amelia	John Winn
Amherst	William Cabell
Amherst	Gabriel Penn
Augusta	Thomas Lewis
Augusta	Samuel McDowell
West Augusta	John Harvie
West Augusta	Charles Simms
Bedford	John Talbot
Bedford	Charles Lynch
Berkeley	Robert Rutherford
Berkeley	William Drew
Botetourt	John Bowyer
Botetourt	Patrick Lockhart
Brunswick	Frederick Maclin
Brunswick	Henry Tazewell
Buckingham	Charles Patteson
Buckingham	John Cabell
Caroline	Hon. Edmund Pendleton	Presiding officer
Caroline	James Taylor
[[Chesterfield County, Virginia	Archibald Cary
[[Chesterfield County, Virginia	Benjamin Watkins
Charles City	William Acrill
Charles City	Samuel Harwood	for Benjamin Harrison
Chesterfield	Hon. Paul Carrington
Chesterfield	Thomas Read
Culpeper	French Strother
Culpeper	Henry Field
Cumberland	John Mayo
Cumberland	William Fleming
Dinwiddie	John Banister
Dinwiddie	Bolling Starke
Dunmore	Abraham Bird
Dunmore	John Tipton
Elizabeth City	Wilson Miles Cary
Elizabeth City	Henry King
Essex	Meriwether Smith
Essex	James Edmundson
Fairfax	John West, Jr.
Fairfax	George Mason	Bill of Rights
Fauquier	Martin Pickett
Fauquier	James Scott
Frederick	James Wood
Frederick	Isaac Zane
Fincastle	Arthur Campbell
Fincastle	William Russell
Gloucester	Thomas Whiting
Gloucester	Lewis Burwell
Goochland	John Woodson
Goochland	Thomas M. Randolph
Halifax	Nathaniel Terry
Halifax	Micajah Watkins
Hampshire	James Mercer
Hampshire	Abraham Hite
Hanover	Patrick Henry
Hanover	John Syme
Henrico	Nathaniel Watkinson
Henrico	Richard Adams
Isle of Wight	John S. Wills
Isle of Wight	Charles Fulgham
James City	Robert C. Nicholas
James City	William Norvell
King and Queen	George Brook
King and Queen	William Lyne
King George	William Fitzhugh
King George	Joseph Jones
King William	William Aylett
King William	Richard Squire Taylor
Lancaster	James Seldon
Lancaster	James Gordon
Loudoun	Francis Peyton
Loudoun	Josiah Clapham
Louisa	George Meriwether
Louisa	Thomas Johnson
Lunenburg	David Garland
Lunenburg	Lodowick Farmer
Mecklenburg	Joseph Speed
Mecklenburg	Bennett Goode
Middlesex	Edmund Berkeley
Middlesex	James Montague
Nansemond	Willis Riddick
Nansemond	William Cowper
New Kent	William Clayton
New Kent	Bartholomew Dandridge
Norfolk	James Holt
Norfolk	Thomas Newton
Northampton	Nathaniel L. Savage
Northampton	George Savage
Northumberland	Rodham Kenner
Northumberland	John Cralle
Orange	James Madison, Jr.
Orange	William Moore
Pittsylvania	Benjamin Lankford
Pittsylvania	Robert Williams
Prince Edward	William Watts
Prince Edward	William Booker
Prince George	Richard Bland
Prince George	Peter Poythress
Prince William	Henry Lee
Prince William	Cuthbert Bullitt
Princess Anne	William Robinson
Princess Anne	John Thoroughgood
Richmond	Hudson Muse
Richmond	Charles McCarty
Southampton	Edwin Gray
Southampton	Henry Taylor
Spotsylvania	Mann Page
Spotsylvania	George Thornton
Stafford	Thomas Ludwell Lee
Stafford	William Brent
Surry	Allen Cocke
Surry	Nicholas Faulcon
Sussex	David Mason
Sussex	Henry Gee
Warwick	William Harwood
Warwick	Hon. Richard Cary
Westmoreland	Richard Lee
Westmoreland	John Augustine Washington	for Richard Henry Lee
York	Dudley Digges
York	Thomas Nelson, Jr.	William Digges
Jamestown	Champion Travis
Williamsburg	Edmund Randolph	for George Wythe
Norfolk Borough	William Roscow Wilson Curle
College of William and Mary	John Blair

References

^ Grigsby 1855, p.110, 67
^ Grigsby 1855, p.110, 67
^ Tartar 2013, p. 115
^ Grigsby 1855, p.110, 6
^ Grigsby 1855, p.110, 148
^ The Avalon Project at Yale Law School, "Constitution of Virginia; June 29, 1776" viewed April 14, 2016.
^ Andrews 1937, p. 327. The flag for the perpetual union of the United States would feature a circle constellation of thirteen stars fixed in the heavens of a blue canton along with thirteen red and white stripes.
^ Heinemann 2008, p. 124, 126
^ Heinemann 2008, p. 124, 126
^ Pulliam 1901, p. 18-19

Bibliography

Andrews, Matthew Page (1937). Virginia, the Old Dominion. Doubleday, Doran & Company. ASIN B0006E942K.
Grigsby, Hugh Blair (1855). The Virginia Convention of 1776. Da Capo Press, NY. ISBN 978-1-4290-1760-2.
Heinemann, Ronald L. (2008). Old Dominion, New Commonwealth: a history of Virginia, 1607-2007. University of Virginia Press. ISBN 978-0-8139-2769-5.
Pulliam, David Loyd (1901). The Constitutional Conventions of Virginia from the foundation of the Commonwealth to the present time. John T. West, Richmond. ISBN 978-1-2879-2059-5.
Tartar, Brent (2013). The Grandees of Government: the origins and persistence of undemocratic politics in Virginia. University of Virginia Press. ISBN 978-0-8139-3431-0.

External links

Dunaway, W. F. (1904). The Virginia Conventions of the Revolution. The Virginia Law Register.

[1] Grigsby 1855, p.110, 67

[2] Grigsby 1855, p.110, 67

[3] Tartar 2013, p. 115

[4] Grigsby 1855, p.110, 6

[5] Grigsby 1855, p.110, 148

[6] The Avalon Project at Yale Law School, "Constitution of Virginia; June 29, 1776" viewed April 14, 2016.

[7] Andrews 1937, p. 327. The flag for the perpetual union of the United States would feature a circle constellation of thirteen stars fixed in the heavens of a blue canton along with thirteen red and white stripes.

[8] Heinemann 2008, p. 124, 126

[9] Heinemann 2008, p. 124, 126

[10] Pulliam 1901, p. 18-19

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Fifth Virginia Convention

Background and composition

Meeting

Outcomes

Notable attendees and chart of delegates

See also

References

Bibliography

External links

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