Did the Virginia Declaration of Rights serve as a model for the Bill of Rights?
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Statement of rights adopted by the colony of Virginia in 1776, which served as the model for the U.S. Constitution's BILL OF RIGHTS. Show The Virginia Declaration of Rights is an important document in U.S. constitutional history. Adopted by the Virginia Constitutional Convention on June 12, 1776, its sixteen sections enumerated specific civil liberties that government could not legitimately take away. The declaration was adopted during the last months of British colonial rule. THOMAS JEFFERSON used parts of it in the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, and it later served as a model for the Bill of Rights that was added to the U.S. Constitution. In the spring of 1776 the Virginia Convention of Delegates convened in the colonial capitol of Williamsburg to decide the form of government Virginia should have and the rights its citizens should enjoy. The convention took place at a time when British attempts to tax and regulate the thirteen colonies had generated colonial resistance and a growing desire for political independence. The Virginia Declaration of Rights was largely the product of GEORGE MASON, a plantation owner, real estate speculator, and neighbor of GEORGE WASHINGTON. A strong believer in human liberty and limited government, Mason crafted a document that guaranteed the citizens of Virginia, upon achieving independence from Great Britain, all the civil liberties they had lost under British rule. In its opening sentence the declaration states that "all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights" which they cannot surrender, "namely, the enjoyment of life, and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety." Jefferson's famous phrase "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" in the Declaration of Independence was influenced by Mason and JOHN LOCKE, the English philosopher who first broached the idea of natural and inherent rights in the seventeenth century. The declaration of rights enumerates specific civil liberties, including FREEDOM OF THE PRESS, the free exercise of religion, and the INJUNCTION that "no man be deprived of his liberty, except by the law of the land or the judgement of his peers." Other provisions include a prohibition against excessive bail or CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENTS, the requirements of evidence and good cause before obtaining a SEARCH WARRANT to enter a place, the right to trial by jury, and the need for a "well regulated militia" to be "under strict subordination" to the civilian government. Many of these provisions were incorporated into the Bill of Rights. The Virginia Declaration of Rights was widely read and won an international reputation as an inspirational document. George Mason’s ideas helped to shape the Founding documents of the United States, but few Americans remember him today. The words he used when writing the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the Virginia Constitution of 1776 inspired the nation’s Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights. Mason was an associate of fellow Virginians George Washington, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson, the last of whom called Mason “a man of the first order of greatness.” Though he detested politics, Mason believed that it was his duty to protect the rights of his fellow citizens. He therefore entered public life and took an active role in shaping the governments of his state and nation. He was an eloquent advocate for individual freedom and states’ rights. He also spoke out against the institution of slavery, though he owned hundreds of slaves who toiled on his Gunston Hall plantation. Mason spent the last years of his life fighting to ensure that the newly minted Constitution would guarantee the rights of the people. Though the Bill of Rights was eventually approved, Mason was unsatisfied, believing that it failed to protect the people’s rights adequately. Faithful to his principles, he retired to his plantation a defeated man, choosing not to serve as Virginia’s first senator to avoid joining a government he feared could be the beginning of the end of liberty in the United States. Explore Mason’s contributions at the Constitutional Convention with our activity Madison’s Notes are Missing where you will travel back in time to ask questions of the Founders and report their findings in a news story. Famous Quotes
Save to My LibraryShare Founding PrincipleCivic Virtue, Natural/Inalienable Rights, Limited GovernmentPeriod Era1770s, 1780s, The FoundingTopicAmerican Revolution, FoundersVirtuesJustice Related Content
George Mason (1725-1792)5 Activities·60 Min In this lesson, students will study the life of George Mason. They will learn about Mason's views on rights, his objections to the Constitution, and his devotion to personal liberty and states' rights. How did the Virginia Declaration of Rights influence the Bill of Rights?The declaration was particularly influential on later state constitutions because it represented the first protection of individual human rights under state constitutions of the American revolutionary period.
Did Virginia support the Bill of Rights?The General Assembly ratified amendments three through twelve on December 15, 1791. Virginia was the eleventh state needed for ratification, and these ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution are known as the Bill of Rights.
Which Virginia document was later used as a model for the Bill of Rights?George Mason of Fairfax County, Virginia, wrote the Virginia Declaration of Rights, on which the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights are modeled. Mason refused to support the original Constitution because it failed to protect essential liberties.
What served as a model for the Constitution's Bill of Rights?The Bill of Rights, which is comprised of the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States, was inspired by several other documents. The model for it was likely the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which was written by George Mason of Virginia.
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