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every county for the election of so many delegates as they are au thorised to fend to the general affembly, which elections fhall be held, and writs returned, as the laws fhall have provided in the cafe of elections of delegates to affembly, mutatis, mutandis, and the faid delegates fhall meet at the ufual place of holding affemblies, three months after date of fuch writs, and fhall be acknowl edged to have equal powers with this prefent convention. The faid writs shall be figned by all the members approving the fame. To introduce this government, the following fpecial and temporary provifion is made.

This convention being authorised only to amend those laws which conftituted the form of government, no general diffolution of the whole fyftem of laws can be supposed to have taken place: but all laws in force at the meeting of this convention, and not inconfiftent with this constitution, remain in full force, fubject to alterations. by the ordinary legislature.

The prefent general affembly fhall continue till the 42d day after the last Monday of November in this prefent year. On the faid laft Monday of November in this present year, the feveral counties shall by their electors, qualified as provided by this constitution, elect delegates, which for the present shall be, in number, one for every militia of the faid county, according to the lateft returns in poffeffion of the governor, and shall also choose fenatorial electors in proportion thereto, which fenatorial electors fhall meet on the 14th day after the day of their election, at the court-house of that county of their prefent diftrict, which would stand first in an alphabetical arrangement of their counties, and shall choose fenatora in the proportion fixed by this conftitution. The elections and returns fhall be conducted, in all circumftançes not hereby particularly prescribed, by the fame perfons and under the fame forms, as prescribed by the present laws in elections of fenators and delegates of affembly. The faid fenators and delegates fhall conftitute the firft general affembly of the new government, and fhall specially apply themselves to the procuring an exact return from every coun

ty of the number of its qualified electors, and to the settlement of the number of delegates to be elected for the enfuing general af fembly.

The prefent governor fhall continue in office to the end of the term for which he was elected.

All other officers of every kind fhall continue in office as they would have done had their appointment been under this conftitution, and new ones, where new are hereby called for, shall be ape pointed by the authority to which fuch appointment is referred. One of the prefent judges of the general court, he confenting thereto, fhall by joint ballot of both houfes of affembly, at their first meeting, be transferred to the high court of chancery,

No. III.

An ACT for establishing RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, paffed in the Af fembly of Virginia, in the beginning of the year 1786.

WELL aware that Almighty God hath created the

mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrify and meannefs, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do; that the impious prefumption of legiflators and rulers, civil as well as ecclefiaftical, who, being themfelves but fallible and uninfpired men have affumed dominion over the faith of others, fetting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as fuch endeavouring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greateft part of the world, and through all time; that to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is finful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to fupport this or that teacher of his own religious perfuafion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular paftor whofe morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most perfuafive to righteousness, and is withdrawing from the ministry thofe temporal rewards, which proceeding from an approbation of their perfonal conduct are an additional incitement to earneft and unremitting labors for the inftruction of mankind; that our civil

rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, more than our opinions, in phyfics or geometry; that therefore the profcrib ing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of truft and emolument, unless he profefs or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which in common with his fellow citizens he has a natural right; that it' tends alfo to corrupt the principles of that very religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing, with a monopoly of worldly honours and emoluments, those who will externally profefs and conform to it; that though indeedthese are criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are thofe innocent who lay the bait in their way; that to fuffer the civil magiftrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profeffion or propagation of principles, on fuppofition of their ill tendency, is a dangerous fallacy, which at once deftroys all religious liberty, because he being of courfe judge of that tendency, will make his opinions the rule of judgment, and approve or condemn the fentiments of others only as they shall fquare with or differ from his own; that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government, for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order; and finally, that truth is great and will prevail if left to herfelf, that she is the proper and fufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition difarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceafing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.

Be it therefore enacted by the General Affembly, That no man shall be compelled to frequent or fupport any religious worship, place or miniftry whatsoever, nor fhall be enforced, reftrained, molefted, or burthened in his body or goods, nor fhall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profefs, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the fame fhall in no wife diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.

And though we well know that this affembly, elected by the people for the ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no power to restrain the acts of fucceeding affemblies, conftituted with powers equal to our own, and that therefore to declare this act irrevocable, would be of no effect in law, yet we are free to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby afferted are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter paffed to repeal the prefent or narrow its operation, fuch act will be an infringement of natural right.

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