Fifth Virginia Convention


The Fifth Virginia Convention was a meeting of the Patriot legislature of Virginia held in Williamsburg from May 6 to July 5, 1776. This Convention declared Virginia an independent state and produced its first constitution and the Virginia Declaration of Rights.

Background and composition

The previous Fourth Virginia Convention had also taken place in Williamsburg, in December 1775. George Washington had been appointed in Philadelphia from the First Continental Congress as commander of Continental troops surrounding Boston, and Virginia patriots defeated an advancing British expeditionary force at the Battle of Great Bridge southeast of Norfolk.
The newly elected delegates to the Fifth Virginia Convention re-elected Edmund Pendleton as its president on his return from Philadelphia as presiding officer of the First Continental Congress. The membership could be thought of as belonging to one of three groups: radicals from western Virginia, who had agitated for independence from Britain even before 1775; philosophers of the American Enlightenment; and wealthy planters, largely from the east. A malapportionment of delegates granted disproportionate influence to this latter group.

Meeting

The Convention sat from May 6 to July 5, 1776, meeting at the Capitol in Williamsburg. It elected Edmund Pendleton its presiding officer after his return as president of the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. There were three parties in the Fifth Convention. The first was mainly made up of wealthy planters, who sought to continue their hold on local government as it had grown up during colonial Virginia's history. These included Robert Carter Nicholas Sr. who opposed the Declaration of Independence from King George. It dominated the convention by a malapportionment that lent an advantage to the slaveholding east. One historian maintained that this party ensured the continuation of slavery at a time when other states began gradual emancipation. It ensured the continued self-perpetuating gentry rule of county government with a franchise limited by property requirements underpinning the republican form of state government. The second party was made up of the intellectuals of the Enlightenment: lawyers, physicians and "aspiring young men". These included the older generation of George Mason, George Wythe, Edmund Pendleton, and the younger Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. The third party was a minority of young men mainly from western Virginia. This party was led by Patrick Henry and included "radicals" who had supported independence earlier than 1775.
On May 15, the Convention declared that the government of Virginia as "formerly exercised" by King George in Parliament was "totally dissolved" in light of the King's repeated injuries and his "abandoning the helm of government and declaring us out of his allegiance and protection". The Convention adopted a set of three resolutions: one calling for a declaration of rights for Virginia, one calling for the establishment of a republican constitution, and a third calling for federal relations with whichever other colonies would have them and alliances with whichever foreign countries would have them. It also instructed its delegates to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to declare independence. Virginia's congressional delegation was thus the only one under unconditional positive instructions to declare independence; Virginia was already independent of Parliament as the "fourth realm" of British Empire, but its convention did not want their state, in the words of Benjamin Franklin, to "hang separately." According to James Madison's correspondence for that day, Williamsburg residents marked the occasion by taking down the Union Jack from over the colonial capitol and running up a continental union flag, keeping the Union Jack of the British Empire in the canton and adding the thirteen red and white stripes of the self-governing British East India Company.

Outcomes

On June 7, Richard Henry Lee, one of Virginia's delegates to Congress, carried out the instructions to propose independence in the language the convention had commanded him to use: that "these colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states." The resolution was followed in Congress by the adoption of the American Declaration of Independence, which reflected its ideas.
The convention amended, and on June 12 adopted, George Mason's Declaration of Rights, a precursor to the United States Bill of Rights. On June 29, the convention approved the first Constitution of Virginia. The convention chose Patrick Henry as the first governor of the new Commonwealth of Virginia, and he was inaugurated on June 29, 1776. Thus, Virginia had a functioning republican constitution before July 4, 1776.

Notable attendees and chart of delegates

The delegates to the Virginia Convention of 1776 – elected in 1776
County/CityNameComments
AccomacSouthey Simpson
AccomacIsaac Smith
AlbemarleCharles Lewis
AlbemarleGeorge Gilmerfor Thomas Jefferson
AmeliaJohn Tabb
AmeliaJohn Winn
AmherstWilliam Cabell
AmherstGabriel Penn
AugustaThomas Lewis
AugustaSamuel McDowell
West AugustaJohn Harvie
West AugustaCharles Simms
BedfordJohn Talbot
BedfordCharles Lynch
BerkeleyRobert Rutherford
BerkeleyWilliam Drew
BotetourtJohn Bowyer
BotetourtPatrick Lockhart
BrunswickFrederick Maclin
BrunswickHenry Tazewell
BuckinghamCharles Patteson
BuckinghamJohn Cabell
CarolineHon. Edmund PendletonPresiding officer
CarolineJames Taylor
CharlotteArchibald Cary
CharlotteBenjamin Watkins
Charles CityWilliam Acrill
Charles CitySamuel Harwoodfor Benjamin Harrison
ChesterfieldHon. Paul Carrington
ChesterfieldThomas Read
CulpeperFrench Strother
CulpeperHenry Field
CumberlandJohn Mayo
CumberlandWilliam Fleming
DinwiddieJohn Banister
DinwiddieBolling Starke
DunmoreAbraham Bird
DunmoreJohn Tipton
Elizabeth CityWilson Miles Cary
Elizabeth CityHenry King
EssexMeriwether Smith
EssexJames Edmundson
FairfaxJohn West, Jr.
FairfaxGeorge MasonBill of Rights
FauquierMartin Pickett
FauquierJames Scott
FrederickJames Wood
FrederickIsaac Zane
FincastleArthur Campbell
FincastleWilliam Russell
GloucesterThomas Whiting
GloucesterLewis Burwell
GoochlandJohn Woodson
GoochlandThomas M. Randolph
HalifaxNathaniel Terry
HalifaxMicajah Watkins
HampshireJames Mercer
HampshireAbraham Hite
HanoverPatrick Henry
HanoverJohn Syme
HenricoNathaniel Watkinson
HenricoRichard Adams
Isle of WightJohn S. Wills
Isle of WightCharles Fulgham
James CityRobert C. Nicholas
James CityWilliam Norvell
King and QueenGeorge Brook
King and QueenWilliam Lyne
King GeorgeWilliam Fitzhugh
King GeorgeJoseph Jones
King WilliamWilliam Aylett
King WilliamRichard Squire Taylor
LancasterJames Seldon
LancasterJames Gordon
LoudounFrancis Peyton
LoudounJosias Clapman
LouisaGeorge Meriwether
LouisaThomas Johnson
LunenburgDavid Garland
LunenburgLodowick Farmer
MecklenburgJoseph Speed
MecklenburgBennett Goode
MiddlesexEdmund Berkeley
MiddlesexJames Montague
NansemondWillis Riddick
NansemondWilliam Cowper
New KentWilliam Clayton
New KentBartholomew Dandridge
NorfolkJames Holt
NorfolkThomas Newton
NorthamptonNathaniel L. Savage
NorthamptonGeorge Savage
NorthumberlandRodham Kenner
NorthumberlandJohn Cralle
OrangeJames Madison, Jr.
OrangeWilliam Moore
PittsylvaniaBenjamin Lankford
PittsylvaniaRobert Williams
Prince EdwardWilliam Watts
Prince EdwardWilliam Booker
Prince GeorgeRichard Bland
Prince GeorgePeter Poythress
Prince WilliamHenry Lee
Prince WilliamCuthbert Bullitt
Princess AnneWilliam Robinson
Princess AnneJohn Thoroughgood
RichmondHudson Muse
RichmondCharles McCarty
SouthamptonEdwin Gray
SouthamptonHenry Taylor
SpotsylvaniaMann Page
SpotsylvaniaGeorge Thornton
StaffordThomas Ludwell Lee
StaffordWilliam Brent
SurryAllen Cocke
SurryNicholas Faulcon
SussexDavid Mason
SussexHenry Gee
WarwickWilliam Harwood
WarwickHon. Richard Cary
WestmorelandRichard Lee
WestmorelandJohn A. Washingtonfor Richard Henry Lee
YorkDudley Digges
YorkThomas Nelson, Jr.William Digges
JamestownChampion Travis
WilliamsburgEdmund Randolphfor George Wythe
Norfolk BoroughWilliam Roscow Wilson Curle
College of William and MaryJohn Blair