Conditions.

election, twenty days before the commencement thereof. Each of the said officers shall deliver to each person duly elected a representative a certificate of his election, and shall moreover transmit a general return to the clerk of the suprenie court of the district, to be by him laid before the convention: For every neglect of any of the duties hereby enjoined on such officer, he shall forfeit one hundred pounds, to be recovered by action of debt, by any person suing for the same. The said convention shall be held at Danville, on the fourth Monday of September, and as soon as two-thirds of the representatives shall be convened, they shall and may proceed, after choosing a president and other proper officers, and settling the proper rules of proceeding, to consider, and by a majority of voices, to determine, whether it be expedient for, and be the will of the good people of the said district, that the same be erected into an independent state, on the terms and conditions following:

First. That the boundary between the proposed state and Virginia, shall remain the same as at present separates the district from the residue of the commonwealth.q

Second. That the proposed state shall take upon itself a just proportion of the public debt of this common

wealth.

Third. That all private rights and interests in lands within the said district, derived from the laws of Virgi nia, prior to such separation, shall remain valid and secure under the laws of the proposed state, and shall be determined by the laws now existing in this state.

Fourth. That the lands within the proposed state of non-résident proprietors, shall not in any case be taxed higher than the lands of residents at any time prior to the admission of the proposed state to a vote by its delegates in congress, where such non-residents reside out of the United States; nor at any time either before or after such admission, where such non-residents reside within this commonwealth, within which this stipulation shall be reciprocal; or where such non-residents reside within any other of the United States, which shall declare the same to be reciprocal within its limits; nor shall a neglect of cultivation or improvement of any land within either the proposed state, or this commonwealth, belonging to non-residents, citizens of the other, subject such non-residents to forfeiture or other penal

ty, within the term of six years after the admission of the said state into the foederal union.

Fifth. That no grant of land, nor land warrant to be issued by the proposed state, shall interfere with any warrant heretofore issued from the land-office of Virginia, which shall be located on land within the said district now liable thereto, on or before the first day of September, one thousand seven hundred and eightyeight.

Sixth. That the unlocated lands within the said district, which stand appropriated by the laws of this commonwealth to individuals or descriptions of individuals, for military or other services, shall be exempt from the disposition of the proposed state, and shall remain subject to be disposed of by the commonwealth of Virginia, according to such appropriation, until the first day of September, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, and no longer; and thereafter the residue of all lands remaining within the limits of the said district, shall be subject to the disposition of the proposed

state.

Seventh. That the use and navigation of the river Ohio, so far as the territory of the proposed state, or the territory which shall remain within the limits of this commonwealth lies thereon, shall be free and common to citizens of the United States; and the respective jurisdictions of this commonwealth, and of the proposed state, on the river as aforesaid, shall be concurrent only with the states which may possess the opposite shores of the said river.

-Eighth. That in case any complaint or dispute shall at any time arise between the commonwealth of Vir ginia and the said district, after it shall be an independent state, concerning the meaning or execution of the foregoing articles, the same shall be determined by six commissioners, of whom two shall be chosen by each of the parties, and the remainder by the commissioners so first appointed.

III. And be it further enacted, That if the said convention shall approve of an erection of the said district into an independent state, on the foregoing terms and conditions, they shall and may proceed to fix a day posterior to the first day of September, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, on which the authority of this commonwealth, and of its laws, under the ex

ceptions aforesaid, shall cease and determine for ever, over the proposed state, and the said articles become a solemn compact, mutually binding on the parties, and unalterable by either without the consent of the other. Provided however, That prior to the first day of June, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, the United States in congress shall assent to the erection of the said district into an independant state, shall release this commonwealth from all its foederal obligations arising from the said district, as being part thereof; and shall agree that the proposed state shall immediately after the day to be fixed as aforesaid, posterior to the first day of September, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, or at some convenient time future thereto, be admitted into the foederal union. And to the end that no period of anarchy may happen to the good people of the proposed state, it is to be understood that the said convention shall have authority to take the necessary provisional measures for the election and meeting of a convention at some time prior to the day fixed for the determination of the authority of this commonwealth, and of its laws over the said district, and posterior to the first day of June, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, aforesaid, with full power and authority to frame and establish a fundamental constitution of government for the proposed state, and to declare what laws, shall be in force therein, until the same shall be abrogated or altered by the legislative authority acting under the constitution, so to be framed and established.

IV. This act shall be transmitted by the executive to the delegates representing this commonwealth in their endeacongress, who are hereby instructed to use vors to obtain from congress a speedy act, to the effect above specified.

CHAP. X.

An act punishing certain offences, and vesting the governor with cer tain powers.

1. WHEREAS it is the true interest and policy of this commonwealth, that the constitution, sovereignty, Preamble. and independence thereof, should at all times be maintained and supported, and it is highly criminal in any person or persons to alienate the citizens of the state from their attachment and allegiance to the same:

dent of Vir a, within

its limits.

II. Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, High treason, That every person or persons who shall erect or estab- to erect any government lish, or cause and procure to be erected or established, separate from any government separate from or independent of the and inpepengoverment of Virginia, within the limits thereof, unless by act of the legislature of this commonwealth for that purpose first obtained; or who shall in any such usurped government, hold or execute any office, legislative, executive, judiciary, or ministerial, by whatever name such office may be distinguished or called; or who shall swear or otherwise solemnly profess allegiance or fidelity to the same; or who shall under pretext of authority derived from or protection afforded by such usurped government, resist or oppose the due execution of the laws of this commonwealth; shall be adjudged guilty of high treason, and shall be proceeded against and punished in the same manner as other traitors may be proceeded against and punished by the laws now in force.

罩

ment.

III. And be it further enacted, That every person or to attempt who shall attempt to establish such government by any to establish such govern. other means than with the assent of the legislature of this commonwealth, and in pursuance of such attempts, shall join with any other person or persons in any overt act for promoting such attempts, or who shall by writing, or advised speaking, endeavour to instigate the people of this commonwealth to erect or estab→ Jish such government, without such assent as aforesaid, shall be adjudged guilty of a high crime and misdemeanor, and on conviction, shall be subject to such VOL. XII.

F

1

Power of

pains and penalties, not extending to life or member, as the court before whom the conviction shall be, shalf adjudge.

IV. And be it further enacted, That in case any governor and combination for establishing such government, shall su press such become so powerful as to obstruct the due execution of combination. the laws of this commonwealth in the ordinary course

Council to

of proceeding, within any county or counties thereof, it shall and may be lawful for the governor with the advice of the council, to call out the militia of this state to suppress such combination, and to employ them in the same manner as he may do by law in cases of invasion or insurrection.

Recital of the

certain

and Potow

mack compa.

CHAP. XI.

An act to amend the act intituled An act for vesting in George Washington, esq. a certain interest in the companies established for opening and extending the navigation of James and Potowmack rivers.

I. WHEREAS by an act, intituled "An act for ac, vesting vesting in George Washington, esq. a certain interest shares in the in the companies established for opening and extendJames River ing the navigation of James and Potowmack rivers," and reciting, that whereas it is the desire of the renies in tieo. presentatives of this commonwealth to embrace every Washington, suitable occasion of testifying their sense of the unexampled merits of George Washington, esq. towards his country; and it is their wish in particular, that those great works for its improvement, which, both as springing from the liberty which he has been so instrumental in establishing, and as encouraged by his patronage, will be durable monuments of his glory, may be made monuments also of the gratitude of his country:" It is

esq.