The Virginia Declaration of Rights (part 1)

In May of 1776 the 5th Virginia convention met at the capitol building.

They voted to declare independence from Great Britton. Then immediately realized that you can’t just declare yourself independent. You would leave Virginia without a government. So the first order of business… create a new government. None of them had ever created a government before so when they created the government of Virginia…. they did it wrong.

They actually thought the best way to form a government was to define the rights of the citizens and then form a government to protect those rights. It’s a great idea but that’s not how governments are formed.

Governments are traditionally formed the other way around (like our federal government) When a small group of men seize power (in Philadelphia). Those men form a government (create a constitution) then tell the citizens what rights they will allow them to have (begrudgingly add the bill of rights).

But in Virginia they decided on the rights of citizens first and then formed a government that answers to the people.

It instilled in the new nation the idea that the Government’s main function is to protect the rights of it’s citizens.