46511Editorial Note: Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms (Jefferson Papers)
The Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms was one of several addresses issued by Congress in the summer of 1775 with the object of justifying to the American people and to the world the necessity for armed resistance. The authorship of this Declaration was the subject of a needless and largely fruitless controversy throughout the nineteenth century. These facts make it...
46512Editorial Note: The Virginia Constitution (Jefferson Papers)
The three drafts of Jefferson’s proposed bill outlining the “fundamental constitutions of Virginia,” here brought together for the first time, are so important in the light they cast upon Jefferson’s early ideas of government and upon the drafting of the Declaration of Independence that they require special comment and a particular form of presentation. Each of the three drafts printed below...
46513Editorial Note: The Declaration of Independence (Jefferson Papers)
A full analysis of the many textual changes made in the Declaration of Independence from the time it was drafted by Jefferson to the time of its final adoption by Congress has been made in the following: John H. Hazelton, The Declaration of Independence: Its History , N.Y., 1906; Carl Becker, The Declaration of Independence. A Study in the History of Political Ideas , N.Y., 1922 and 1942; and...
46514Editorial Note: Notes and Proceedings on Discontinuing the Establishment of the Church of England (Jefferson Papers)
The importance of Jefferson’s legislative activity in 1776 in behalf of religious tolerance and the confused state of his own documentary records of this effort, together with the paucity of the legislative record, make it necessary to present the documents in a different arrangement and with a more particular comment than has hitherto been attempted. All of the documents listed above and...
46515Editorial Note: Bills for Dividing Fincastle County (Jefferson Papers)
The involved and at times impenetrable legislative history of these two Bills requires special comment. For this was not merely another county division: it was the first great collision between Jefferson and the powerful land speculators. During the two years preceding this session of the Assembly, Jefferson’s statements in the Summary View , in his correspondence with Pendleton, and in his...
46516Editorial Note: Drafts of Bills Establishing Courts of Justice (Jefferson Papers)
The remodeling of the judiciary was among Jefferson’s first objects as he embarked in Oct. 1776 on one of the most far-reaching legislative reforms ever undertaken by a single person. His ideas concerning an independent judiciary for the new commonwealth had been set forth in his proposed Constitution. Though the principal elements of his judicial system had at least been recognized in the...
46517Editorial Note: The Petition of Thomas Johnson (Jefferson Papers)
The documents brought together in this grouping require special comment. The issue with which they deal resulted directly from the inclusion in the Virginia Constitution of 1776 of an article drawn from colonial experience. That Constitution (q.v. under date of 13 June 1776) contained the following provision: “All laws shall originate in the House of Delegates, to be approved or rejected by...
46518Editorial Note: Notes and Documents relating to the Transylvania and Other Claims for Lands under Purchases from the … (Jefferson Papers)
The documents here presented, together with many others in Jefferson’s papers concerning land claims and policies in the West, were gathered by Jefferson partly because of his aim to use the great tracts of land “on the western waters” for the benefit of small farmers, for encouragement of immigration and population, for stabilization of credit, and for strengthening the bonds of union (see...
46519Editorial Note: Bills for Establishing a Land Office and for Adjusting and Settling Titles (Jefferson Papers)
These two Bills, despite the attention they have received from careful historians, remain a neglected milestone in public land policy. Abernethy has asserted that “the land office act of 1779 was a colossal mistake. In 1776 Jefferson had advocated the granting of tracts of fifty acres to each family lacking that amount. This would have been an improvement on the colonial head-right system, and...
46520Editorial Note: Revisal of the Laws 1776–1786 (Jefferson Papers)
It is an extremely difficult task to bring into proper focus, to say nothing of fully encompassing, the far-reaching revision of the laws that Jefferson and other leading Virginians embarked upon in the autumn of 1776. This is chiefly because the revision of the laws itself never came into focus. It was a long-drawn-out movement, ending in something of an anti-climax, and never became embodied...