This Bill of Rights was incorporated in every subsequent constitution
of Virginia and is to-day a part of her organic law. Two months after
its first adoption came the Declaration of American Independence. The
words of Mason: "That all men are by nature equally free and
independent," are re-echoed in the words of Jefferson, "That all men
are created equal," and both declare that among the inalienable rights
of man are "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
To these principles, Virginia acknowledged allegiance; to the Bill of
Rights, by the unanimous vote of her Constitutional Convention; and to
the Declaration of Independence by the united voices of her delegates
in the Continental Congress. The institution of slavery could not
square with these great canons. Henceforth its existence in Virginia
could be justified only by the difficulties and dangers attending its
abolition.
These recitals bring us down to the close of Virginia's life as a
colony, and the assumption by her people of the rights and obligations
of statehood. In the more than one hundred and fifty years of her
colonial existence—despite protests, appeals and statutes—the
inflowing tide from Africa had continued, so that out of a population
of some six hundred thousand souls, over two-fifths were negro slaves.
It was amid such conditions that Virginia met the problems incident to
her birth into statehood, bore her part in founding the Republic,
furnished her quota of soldiers to resist the armies of Great Britain,
and held with fixed determination her ever advancing border line
against the craft and courage of the Red Men.
-----
Footnote 3:
_History of the Negro Race in America_, Williams, Vol. 1, p. 119.
Footnote 4:
_History of Slavery in Virginia_, Ballagh, p. 34.
Footnote 5:
_History of the Negro Race in America_, Williams, Vol. 1, p. 133.
Footnote 6:
A letter from the celebrated Colonel William Byrd of "Westover" to
Lord Egmont, under date of July 12, 1736, will serve to illustrate
this fact. Colonel Byrd writes, "Your Lord's opinion concerning Rum
and Negroes is certainly very just, and your excluding both of them
from your colony of Georgia will be very happy....
I wish, my Lord, we could be blessed with the same prohibition. They
import so many negroes here that I fear this colony will some time
or other be confirmed by the name of New Guinea. I am sensible of
the many bad consequences of multiplying the Ethiopians amongst us.
They blow up the pride and ruin the Industry of our White People,
who seeing a Rank of poor creatures below them, detest work for fear
it should make them look like slaves. Then that poverty which will
ever attend upon Idleness disposes them as much to pilfer as it does
the Portuguese....
But these private mischiefs are nothing if compared to the publick
danger. It were therefore worth the consideration of a British
Parliament, my Lord, to put an end to this unchristian traffick of
making merchandise of our Fellow Creatures. At least, the further
importation of them into our Colony should be prohibited lest they
prove as troublesome and dangerous elsewhere as they have been
lately in Jamaica.... All these matters duly considered, I wonder
the Legislature will Indulge a few ravenous traders to the danger of
the Publick Safety." (From Unpublished Byrd Manuscripts at Lower
Brandon, Va.)
Footnote 7:
_History of United States_, Bancroft, Vol. III, p. 410.
Footnote 8:
_Burke's Works_, Little, Brown & Co.'s. Ed., Vol. II, p. 135.
Footnote 9:
_Journal of House of Burgesses_, p. 131, and _Tucker's Blackstone_,
appendix, note H. Vol. II, p. 351.
Footnote 10:
_Defense of Virginia_, Dabney, p. 48.
Footnote 11:
_History of United States_, Bancroft, Vol. IV, p. 445.
Footnote 12:
_Writings of Thomas Jefferson_, P. L. Ford, 1892, p. 28.
Footnote 13:
_Abraham Lincoln, A History_, Nicolay & Hay, Vol. I, p. 314.
Footnote 14:
_Suppression of the Slave Trade_, DuBois, p. 43.
Footnote 15:
_Idem_, p. 43.
Footnote 16:
_Writings of Thomas Jefferson_, Ford, 1892, Vol. I, p. 440.
Footnote 17:
_Suppression of the Slave Trade_, DuBois, p. 45.
Footnote 18:
_Idem_, p. 43.
Footnote 19:
_Idem_, p. 47.
Footnote 20:
_Hening's Statutes_, Vol. IX, pp. 112-113.
Footnote 21:
_Idem_, p. 109.
Footnote 22:
_History of United States_, Bancroft, Vol. IV, p. 419.