Ratification of the Constitution by the State of Virginia

Virginia, being the tenth State to assent to the Constitution, did so in two steps. The first was the declaration of ratification. The second was a recommendation that a bill of rights be added to the Constitution, and that a list of amendments also be added in accordance with Article V. The debates over ratification in Virginia are the most well documented and probably the most important in understanding what the debates in most of the 13 States centered around. If you were to only read one States ratification debates, this would be the one to read.

"As a guide in expounding and applying the provisions of the Constitution, the debates and incidental decisions of the Convention can have no authoritative character... The legitimate meanings of the Instrument must be derived from the text itself; or if a key is to be sought elsewhere, it must be not in the opinions or intentions of the Body which planned & proposed the Constitution, but in the sense attached to it by the people in their respective State Conventions, where it received all the authority which it possesses."
~ James Madison
in a Letter to Thomas Ritchie, September 15, 1821

READ THE DEBATES HERE

 

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WE the Delegates of the people of Virginia, duly elected in pursuance of a recommendation from the General Assembly, and now met in Convention, having fully and freely investigated and discussed the proceedings of the Federal Convention, and being prepared as well as the most mature deliberation hath enabled us, to decide thereon, DO in the name and in behalf of the people of Virginia, declare and make known that the powers granted under the Constitution, being derived from the people of the United States may be resumed by them whensoever the same shall be perverted to their injury or oppression, and that every power not granted thereby remains with them and at their will: that therefore no right of any denomination, can be cancelled, abridged, restrained or modified, by the Congress, by the Senate or House of Representatives acting in any capacity, by the President or any department or officer of the United States, except in those instances in which power is given by the Constitution for those purposes: and that among other essential rights, the liberty of conscience and of the press cannot be cancelled, abridged, restrained or modified by any authority of the United States.

With these impressions, with a solemn appeal to the searcher of hearts for the purity of our intentions, and under the conviction, that, whatsoever imperfections may exist in the Constitution, ought rather to be examined in the mode prescribed therein, than to bring the Union into danger by a delay, with a hope of obtaining amendments previous to theratification:

We the said Delegates, in the name and in behalf of the people of Virginia, do by these presents assent to, and ratify the Constitution recommended on the seventeenth day of September, one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven, by the Foederal Convention for the Government of the United States; hereby announcing to all those whom it may concern, that the said Constitution is binding upon the said People, according to an authentic copy hereto annexed, in the words following:

A copy of the Constitution was included in the ratification document.

On motion, Ordered, That the Secretary of this Convention cause to be engrossed, forthwith, two fair copies of the form of ratification, and of the proposed Constitution of Government, as recommended by the Foederal Convention on the seventeenth day of September, one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven.

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MR. Wythe reported, from the Committee appointed, such amendments to the proposed Constitution of Government for the United States, as were by them deemed necessary to be recommended to the consideration of the Congress which shall first assemble under the said Constitution, to be acted upon according to the mode prescribed in the fifth article thereof; and he read the same in his place, and afterwards delivered them in at the clerk's table, where the same were again read, and are as followeth:

That there be a Declaration or Bill of Rights asserting and securing from encroachment the essential and unalienable rights of the people in some such manner as the following:

1st. That there are certain natural rights of which men when they form a social compact cannot deprive or divest their posterity, among which are the enjoyment of life, and liberty, with the means of acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.

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

3d. That the Government ought to be instituted for the common benefit, protection and security of the people; and that the doctrine of non-resistance against arbitrary power and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive to the good and happiness of mankind.

The Right of Self-Determination

by Scott Strzelczyk                                                                                      From: A Citizens View

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The proper question in any political system is who are the sovereigns? Is the President the Sovereign? Is Congress the Sovereign? Is a King the sovereign? Are the people the Sovereigns? Why is there so much confusion over the question of whether the Union is a democracy or a republic? These questions purposely ignore military dictatorships and totalitarian regimes legitimized by state sponsored violence or military power as sovereigns is a foreign concept under those political systems.



Drafting the Declaration

The answers to those questions seem to puzzle many commentators. Though the Union is a constitutional republic, for arguments sake, let us assume the Union was a democracy. It doesn’t alter the fundamental truth regarding sovereignty. The people are the sovereigns and the people are the source of all power in our political system. However, the system is not majority rule, nor it is a system of absolute power where might makes right. Our entire political system rests on a single fundamental principle — the consent of the governed; the right to self-governance and self-determination.

Self-determination means the right of the people to decide upon their own political status or form of government without outside influence. Consent of the governed is a phrase based upon the principle of self-determination. Any political society – government—that prohibits self-determination explicitly rejects popular sovereignty, and whether the form and style of government is a republic or a democracy is, therefore, completely irrelevant and inconsequential.

States were our initial political societies. The people of each state, through independent acts and without any outside influence, created a State. The people delegated certain powers to their State. Thirteen of these states were formally recognized as of July 4, 1776. In modern contemporaneous definitions states are countries or nations. The term, State, may have several definitions but for purposes of our governing documents and historical understanding it means “the people composing those political societies in their highest sovereign capacity”.

The people of each free, independent, and sovereign state organized their political society according to a written constitution. The people of each state decided which powers to delegate and which to retain. Thus, the principle of self-determination was firmly established in each and every state.

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Ratification of the Constitution by the State of New York

On July 26th, 1788, New York became the eleventh state to ratify the Constitution. The assent of Virginia and of New York was seen as essential to the success of the Constitution, and though they were tenth and eleventh to ratify, it is generally agreed that until they both ratified, succes was in doubt. New York's ratification message is the longest by far, and includes a declaration of rights and many suggested amendments to the Constitution.

 

 

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We, the delegates of the people of the state of New York, duly elected and met in Convention, having maturely considered the Constitution for the United States of America, agreed to on the 17th day of September, in the year 1787, by the Convention then assembled at Philadelphia, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, (a copy whereof precedes these presents,) and having also seriously and deliberately considered the present situation of the United States, — Do declare and make known, —

That all power is originally vested in, and consequently derived from, the people, and that government is instituted by them for their common interest, protection, and security.

That the enjoyment of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, are essential rights, which every government ought to respect and preserve.

That the powers of government may be reassumed by the people whensoever it shall become necessary to their happiness; that every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by the said Constitution clearly delegated to the Congress of the United States, or the departments of the government thereof, remains to the people of the several states, or to their respective state governments, to whom they may have granted the same; and that those clauses in the said Constitution, which declare that Congress shall not have or exercise certain powers, do not imply that Congress is entitled to any powers not given by the said Constitution; but such clauses are to be construed either as exceptions to certain specified powers, or as inserted merely for greater caution.