The Declaration of Independence, Lesson 7: State Declarations of Rights and the Road to the Bill of Rights

Williamsburg, Spring 1776

On May 15, 1776, the Virginia convention at Williamsburg did two things in one resolution. It "Resolved, unanimously" to instruct Virginia's delegates in Philadelphia to propose independence, and it appointed a committee to prepare "a Declaration of Rights, and such a plan of Government as will be most likely to maintain peace and order in this Colony, and secure substantial and equal liberty to the people."¹ The resolution lists the declaration of rights first and the plan of government second.

The committee was chaired by Archibald Cary, and the original list of 28 included Patrick Henry and Edmund Randolph. George Mason, a planter from Fairfax County who was not on that list, was added and took the pen. James Madison is not on the Avalon list either, though he is generally reported to have served on the committee, and this lesson did not find the entry that added him.¹ The result, adopted on June 12, 1776, came three weeks before Congress approved the Declaration of Independence and was widely printed afterward.²³

Mason's First Draft

Mason wrote his first draft in roughly the second half of May 1776. The Papers of George Mason date it about May 20 to 26. Its first article said that all men are "born equally free and independant," and its article on religion called for "the fullest Toleration in the Exercise of Religion."⁴ Virginia's own charters had promised settlers the liberties of Englishmen.⁵ This lesson did not find in a source it opened which texts Mason had in front of him, so it reports what he wrote and what Virginia adopted.

The committee reported an eighteen-article draft on May 27, 1776.⁶ Newspapers printed it quickly. The Virginia Gazette carried it on June 1, the Pennsylvania Evening Post on June 6 (misdated May 24), the Pennsylvania Ledger on June 8 and the Pennsylvania Gazette on June 12.⁶ That is a small piece of evidence about how fast a text moved in 1776. Philadelphians, including members of Congress, could read a Virginia committee draft within days of its release, before the Declaration of Independence was drafted. This lesson could not confirm in a source it opened that Jefferson read the committee draft, so it does not say he did.

Changes on the Floor

The convention made several changes. The most discussed is to Article 1. Mason's draft said men were "born equally free and independant." The convention changed it to "by nature equally free and independent" and added the words "when they enter into a state of society." The addition is credited to Edmund Pendleton, after Robert Carter Nicholas warned that the original wording might be read to free the enslaved people of Virginia.⁶ Edmund Randolph's recorded view was that "slaves not being constituent members of our society could never pretend to any benefit from such a maxim."⁶ The record shows delegates reading the principle as universal enough to cause alarm. The convention then edited the text so that the claim would not reach a certain class of people.

Anyone teaching this passage should present both facts. The article is among the clearest statements of equal natural rights written before the Declaration, and the convention that approved it kept slavery in place by editing the words, not by repealing the principle. Later readers used the principle against slavery. The lesson on the Declaration after 1776 traces some of them.

The convention adopted the declaration unanimously on June 12, 1776, by the dating of Avalon and Encyclopedia Virginia. The Princeton Jefferson Papers exhibit gives June 11. The lesson on state constitutions notes the discrepancy, and it remains unresolved here.⁷

Two Declarations in One Summer

Virginia's Declaration of Rights and the Declaration of Independence were written within weeks of each other, and readers have long compared them. Article 1 of Virginia's text speaks of men "by nature equally free and independent" with "inherent rights," and the second paragraph of the national Declaration speaks of men "created equal" with "unalienable Rights." Article 3 gives the majority a right to "reform, alter or abolish" a failing government, and the Declaration says the people have a right "to alter or to abolish" one.²⁸

The Papers of Thomas Jefferson at Princeton say that scholars including Pauline Maier and Danielle Allen "have demonstrated the connections" between the Declaration's second paragraph and article 1 of the Virginia text.⁹ This lesson did not read their books and cannot say how direct the connection was. Jefferson himself wrote on May 8, 1825, to Henry Lee, nearly fifty years later, that the Declaration's purpose was "to place before mankind the common sense of the subject," and that it drew on "the harmonising sentiments of the day."¹⁰ That letter is a recollection written decades afterward, and it does not name Mason. The wording of the Declaration itself is covered in the clause-by-clause lesson, and the drafting history in the lesson on the drafts.

Madison and the Free Exercise of Religion

James Madison, then 25, proposed two amendments to the religion article. The first would have secured absolute religious freedom, and Patrick Henry introduced it in the convention. Delegates at once asked whether it would end the Church of England's establishment in Virginia. Henry "disclaimed such an object," according to Edmund Randolph, and with Henry backing away the amendment failed.¹¹

Madison's second try gave "a degree of religious freedom without disestablishing the Church," in the words of the Founders Online editors. Its key phrase went into the final article. Where Mason had written that all men are entitled to "the fullest Toleration in the Exercise of Religion," the convention wrote "the free exercise of Religion." The editors read Madison's wording as the broader one.¹¹ Toleration describes what a government may allow. Free exercise describes what a person may do. Madison's later work on the First Amendment (see the First Amendment module) builds on this change.

The committee draft without Madison's change also circulated. According to the Founders Online account, the committee draft stayed in print as the official text for about fifty years, so older printings may give the earlier wording.¹¹ Anyone quoting the article should check which version the source prints.

The Sixteen Articles

The adopted declaration has sixteen articles, printed in the order the convention gave them.² Read in sequence, they move from principle to structure to individual protection and back to principle. Quotations below are short, and the full text is on the Avalon Project page cited in the footnotes.

Articles 1 to 3: equality, consent and the right to change a government

Article 1 says all men "are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity." It names "the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety." Article 2 says all power "is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people," and that magistrates "are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them." Article 3 says government exists "for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people," and that when a government proves inadequate, "a majority of the community hath an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter or abolish it."²

Two features of article 3 deserve attention. The right belongs to "a majority of the community," and it is exercised "in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal." The text sets a standard for change and does not describe a mechanism, which is why the same language could later be read as a justification for revolution and as a justification for ordinary constitutional amendment.

Articles 4 to 7: no hereditary office, separate powers, consent to law

Article 4 bars "exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges" except for public service and declares that offices of magistrate, legislator or judge ought not to be hereditary. Article 5 separates the legislative and executive powers from the judicial, and calls for officeholders to be returned to private life at fixed periods and replaced through "frequent, certain, and regular elections." Article 6 calls for free elections, extends the vote to "all men, having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and attachment to, the community," and says no one can be taxed or "bound by any law to which they have not, in like manner, assented." Article 7 condemns any suspension of laws by authority "without consent of the representatives of the people."²

Article 6 is worth reading next to the actual Virginia suffrage rules. The constitution adopted two weeks later kept the 1736 land requirement, which limited the vote to free white men with 100 acres of unsettled land, or 25 acres with a house and plantation.⁷ The article's own phrase about "permanent common interest" gave the legislature room to define who qualified, and the legislature kept the property rule.

Articles 8 to 11: criminal procedure, bail, warrants and juries

Article 8 gives an accused person the right "to demand the cause and nature of his accusation," to be "confronted with the accusers and witnesses," to call for evidence in his favor, and to "a speedy trial by an impartial jury of his vicinage," whose unanimous consent is needed for a verdict. It adds that no man can "be compelled to give evidence against himself" and that no one is deprived of liberty "except by the law of the land or the judgement of his peers." Article 9 bars excessive bail and fines and "cruel and unusual punishments." Article 10 condemns general warrants that let an officer search "suspected places without evidence of a fact committed" or seize persons "not named." Article 11 calls the "ancient trial by jury" in property cases one that "ought to be held sacred."²

A reader who knows the Bill of Rights will find the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Amendments, and the Fourth, in these four articles, in earlier and somewhat different words. Nothing in the Virginia text mentions a right to counsel, and none mentions a grand jury. The lesson on the Fourth through Eighth Amendments traces the later wording.

Articles 12 to 14: press, militia and a single government

Article 12 says "the freedom of the press is one of the greatest bulwarks of liberty and can never be restrained but by despotic governments." Article 13 describes "a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms" as "the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state," warns that standing armies in peacetime "should be avoided as dangerous to liberty," and says the military should be "under strict subordination to, and be governed by, the civil power." Article 14 declares a "right to uniform government," so that no separate government can be set up inside Virginia's limits.² The militia article is the closest Virginia came to the arms language that appears in the Second Amendment, and the lesson on the Second Amendment takes up the later text.

Articles 15 and 16: virtue and religion

Article 15 says no free government or "the blessings of liberty" can be preserved "but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles." Article 16 holds that religion, "or the duty which we owe to our Creator and the manner of discharging it," can be directed by "reason and conviction, not by force or violence," that all men are equally entitled to "the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience," and that all owe each other "Christian forbearance, love, and charity."²

The Virginia text does not list a right of assembly or petition. It also says nothing about how the courts would enforce any article. The adopted constitution came two weeks later, and the declaration was not a separate legal code with its own remedies.⁷ Idaho Code section 33-1602, on teaching the founding in public schools, uses nearly the same phrase as article 15.¹²

The Other Declarations, 1776 to 1784

Virginia's declaration began a series. Five states adopted separate declarations of rights in 1776: Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and North Carolina. Vermont followed in 1777, Massachusetts in 1780 and New Hampshire in 1784.¹³

Pennsylvania, 1776

Pennsylvania's declaration has sixteen articles. It protects speech and press (article 12), a right to bear arms for "the defence of themselves and the state" (article 13), assembly and instruction of representatives (article 16) and the right to emigrate (article 15).¹⁴ Franklin presided over the convention that wrote it.

Maryland, 1776

Maryland's declaration has 42 articles and is the longest of the period. It protects the separation of powers and the independence of judges, condemns monopolies and, in article 35, requires belief in the Christian religion for office.¹⁵ A committee draft came out on August 27, 1776, and a second on September 17. The convention finished on November 11.¹⁵

Delaware, 1776

Delaware adopted its declaration on September 11, 1776, and its constitution on September 20. The Institute for Justice reports that its declaration borrowed heavily from a Maryland draft.¹⁶

North Carolina, 1776

North Carolina's declaration has 25 articles. Its text borrows across state lines. The "law of the land" phrase comes from Maryland, the "ought to be free" wording from Virginia and its arms provision from Pennsylvania.¹³¹⁷ A modern reader can use the pattern to see how state drafters copied one another, and sometimes the borrowing changed a word.

Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire

Vermont's 1777 constitution begins with a declaration whose first article bars holding men past 21 or women past 18 as servants or slaves.¹⁸ Massachusetts put a 30-article declaration at the head of its 1780 constitution. Its article I begins "All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights," and its article XXX, on separation of powers, speaks of "a government of laws and not of men."¹⁹ New Hampshire added a bill of rights in 1784.¹³

States without a separate declaration

New Jersey, Georgia, New York and South Carolina wrote no separate declaration in 1776 or 1777, though their constitutions protected some rights in the text. Georgia, for example, protected free exercise, habeas corpus, the press and the jury.²⁰ New York protected worship and kept the common law.²¹ Anthony Sanders summarizes these provisions.²²

Declaration and Frame: Two Ways to Build

The states did not agree on how to package a declaration of rights. Virginia adopted its declaration on June 12 as a stand-alone text and its frame of government on June 29, so the principles came first and stood apart.⁷ Pennsylvania's convention bound a 16-article declaration and a 47-section frame into one constitution on September 28, 1776.¹⁴ Maryland's convention worked on its 42-article declaration through the fall and finished with the constitution on November 11, 1776.¹⁵ Massachusetts in 1780 made the declaration Part the First of the constitution and the frame Part the Second.¹⁹

The packaging had consequences. A declaration adopted separately could be read as a statement of principle, and a declaration inside the constitution could be read as law. This lesson did not find, in a source it opened, a list of early cases deciding which reading courts took in each state, so it makes no claim about how often the early declarations were enforced.

The packaging also affected amendment. Virginia's constitution had no amendment clause, so its declaration could not be changed by any set procedure.⁷ Pennsylvania built a Council of Censors to review, every seventh year from 1783, whether the constitution had been kept.¹⁴ Delaware entrenched certain articles in article 30.¹⁶

Massachusetts Article I in Court

The best-known early test of a declaration of rights in court, among the states in this lesson, is the Massachusetts litigation over Quock Walker. Between 1781 and 1783, cases involving Walker tested whether the "free and equal" language of Article I ended slavery in the state. Chief Justice William Cushing gave a charge to a jury in 1783 that is usually read as holding that it had.²³ The wording, which came from the same stock of ideas as Virginia's article 1, became a working rule in a Massachusetts trial, in a way the Virginia article never did.¹⁹

This lesson relies on the State Court Report summary for the Walker cases and did not read the case reports or Cushing's charge itself. Anyone citing the cases should check the primary record.

Philadelphia, September 12, 1787

The Constitutional Convention had no bill of rights until the last week. On September 12, 1787, five days before the work ended, Mason said he "wished the plan had been prefaced with a Bill of Rights." He added that "with the aid of the State declarations, a bill might be prepared in a few hours," and that it "would give great quiet to the people." Elbridge Gerry moved for a committee, and Mason seconded. Roger Sherman answered that the state declarations "are not repealed," and that a federal bill was unneeded.²⁴

The motion lost. Madison's notes record every state delegation voting no (New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia), with Massachusetts not voting.²⁴ Madison wrote his notes at the time and revised them later, so a reader who needs the exact tally should compare editions.

Sherman's answer rested on the state declarations: they remained in force, so he saw no gap to fill. The ratification debates tested that view.

The Argument Over a Bill of Rights, 1787 to 1788

The Convention's silence became the main objection in the ratification debates. Jefferson, writing from Paris to Madison on December 20, 1787, put it in one sentence: "a bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth."²⁵ Madison replied on October 17, 1788. He called the declarations in the state constitutions "parchment barriers" and wrote that "Repeated violations of these parchment barriers have been committed by overbearing majorities in every State." He also wrote that "My own opinion has always been in favor of a bill of rights."²⁶

On January 2, 1789, Madison told George Eve, a Virginia constituent, which rights he thought should be added. The letter lists rights of conscience, press and jury, and a ban on general warrants.²⁷

The state conventions that ratified the Constitution did so, in many cases, with recommendations. Massachusetts proposed nine amendments on February 6, 1788.²⁸ South Carolina passed four resolves on May 23.²⁹ New Hampshire, on June 21, proposed twelve, including "Congress shall make no Laws touching Religion" and an arms clause.³⁰ Virginia, on June 26 and 27, proposed a declaration of rights of 20 articles and 20 amendments. Its first article echoes Mason's 1776 article 1, and it listed assembly, instruction and petition (15), speech and press (16), arms (17) and religion (20).³¹ New York ratified on July 26, 1788.³² North Carolina took until November 21, 1789, and ratified with a declaration of rights and amendments, and Rhode Island came in on May 29, 1790.³³³⁴ Connecticut had ratified earlier, by a vote of 128 to 40.³⁵

The Virginia proposal shows how closely the debate tied back to 1776. A document written in Mason's hand twelve years earlier had become a template for the proposals sent to the first Congress.

Madison Proposes Amendments, June 8, 1789

Madison took the work on himself in the First Congress. On June 8, 1789, he introduced nine proposals. He said he wished "to quiet that anxiety which prevails in the public mind," and he noted that "the great mass of the people who opposed it, disliked it because it did not contain effectual provision" for their rights. He pointed to the "declarations of rights which are added to the several state constitutions" as models.³⁶

His fifth proposal read "No state shall violate the equal rights of conscience, or the freedom of the press, or the trial by jury in criminal cases." It would have restrained the states, which the final Bill of Rights did not do. Madison also made an argument about courts: "independent tribunals of justice will consider themselves in a peculiar manner the guardians of those rights."³⁶ This lesson could not confirm in a source it opened which chamber struck the fifth proposal, and it does not say.

The timeline from there is short. The House agreed to seventeen amendments on August 24, 1789. The Senate passed twelve on September 9. Congress sent twelve to the states on September 25, 1789.³⁷³⁸ Vermont ratified on November 3, 1791, and Virginia was the last state needed on December 15, 1791, which made ten of the twelve part of the Constitution.³⁷

Three States, 1939

Three states had not formally ratified in 1791. In 1939, for the 150th anniversary, Massachusetts ratified on March 2, Georgia on March 24, and Connecticut on April 12 and 13.³⁹ Georgia had rejected the amendments in December 1789, and Connecticut's two houses had deadlocked over how many of the twelve to ratify, and on October 16, 1790 its House of Representatives agreed to a bill rejecting all of them, after which the Council postponed the matter.³⁹ The votes changed nothing in the law, because the amendments were already in force.

What This Lesson Could Not Confirm

• Whether the Virginia declaration was adopted on June 11 or June 12, 1776.
• Whether Jefferson read the committee draft before he drafted the Declaration of Independence.
• Which chamber removed Madison's fifth proposal in 1789.
• Exact counts of amendments proposed by New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island, which this lesson does not give.
• The full text of each state's 1776 declaration beyond the articles cited in the footnotes.
• The Quock Walker cases and Chief Justice Cushing's 1783 charge, which this lesson knows only through a secondary summary.
• The "fifty years" figure for the circulation of the committee draft, which comes from the Founders Online account only.

Key Documents

The table lists the documents this lesson relies on. Dates follow the texts and sources in the footnotes.

Idaho's Declaration of Rights

Idaho's Constitution opens with a declaration of rights in article I, the same way Virginia's and Massachusetts's do. Section 1 declares that "All men are by nature free and equal, and have certain inalienable rights, among which are enjoying and defending life and liberty; acquiring, possessing and protecting property; pursuing happiness and securing safety." Section 2 locates political power in the people, with the right "to alter, reform or abolish" the government. Section 3 declares the Union inseparable.⁴⁰

The rest of article I reads like a catalog of the rights Virginia and the other 1776 states set down. Section 4 protects religious liberty. Section 9 protects speech, section 10 assembly and the right "to instruct their representatives," section 11 the right to keep and bear arms, section 13 the guarantees for criminal defendants, section 17 protection against unreasonable searches and section 18 open courts, "without sale, denial, delay." Section 20 bars a property qualification for voting, with exceptions, and section 21 reserves rights not listed. Sections 22 and 23 add victims' rights and the right to hunt, fish and trap.⁴¹ The Virginia text of 1776 had a similar closing idea, in article 15, that liberty is preserved only through "frequent recurrence to fundamental principles," and Idaho Code section 33-1602 uses nearly the same phrase.¹²

State law also puts these documents in the classroom. Section 33-1602 lists among key documents students must understand the Declaration of Independence, the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776, the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 and the Idaho Constitution, with the Federalist papers and the Northwest Ordinance. One subsection names the Massachusetts 1780 preamble and Federalist Nos. 9, 10, 39, 51, 63, 70 and 78, and another names article I, sections 1, 2 and 3 of the Idaho Constitution.¹² The statute was amended in 2025 and again in 2026, so the numbering of its subsections may have changed since this lesson was written. Check the current text before citing a subsection.¹²

Idaho ratified its constitution on November 5, 1889, and became a state on July 3, 1890.⁴² This lesson did not confirm the dates of the 1889 convention itself.

Using this in reporting and civic life

The reporter writing about a new "rights" amendment

Reporter Nell Aldous is covering a proposal to add a clause to the state constitution. She notes that Idaho's article I already guarantees several of the rights proposed, and she compares the new wording with Virginia's article 15 principle that rights are kept through "frequent recurrence to fundamental principles," because a source in the proposal uses the same phrase.²¹² She names the state constitution article and section she is quoting, and links the legislature's page.⁴⁰

The teacher building a unit

Teacher Carlos Dunmore plans a week on the declarations of rights. He gives students two versions of Virginia's article on religion, Mason's "fullest Toleration" and the adopted "free exercise," and asks which gives the citizen more.¹¹ He tells students that the committee draft circulated for decades as the official text, and he tells them the sources that were not available to check.

The council member and a charter amendment

Council member Rhea Castellan hears a resident say the Bill of Rights "limits the states." She explains that Madison proposed in 1789 that no state violate the equal rights of conscience, the press and the criminal jury, that this proposal was not in the final Bill of Rights, and that the Fourteenth Amendment later changed the question.³⁶ She points the resident to the lesson on the Civil War amendments for the rest.

The editor fact-checking a quotation

Editor Joel Prentiss gets a column quoting "the committee draft" of the Virginia Declaration as if it were the law. He checks: the committee draft had 18 articles and the adopted text has sixteen, and the religion article differs.⁶² He asks the columnist to quote the adopted text.

The commissioner and the open-courts clause

County commissioner Beatrix Lund hears a complaint that a filing fee keeps poor residents out of small-claims court. She reads Idaho Constitution article I, section 18, which says courts shall be open to every person and that justice shall be administered "without sale, denial, delay."⁴¹ The wording has a family resemblance to the Massachusetts and other early declarations, but she does not claim a particular ancestor. She asks the clerk what the fee schedule is and what waiver rules exist, and she takes no position until she has the answer.

The newspaper's anniversary feature

A small newspaper plans a feature for the anniversary of the Virginia declaration. The features editor, Ines Maddox, assigns three checks. The date: June 12, with a note that one source says June 11.⁷ The text: the adopted sixteen articles, not the eighteen-article committee draft.⁶ The quotations: short, exact and linked to the Avalon Project page.²

Related lessons: Colony and State Constitutions; The First Amendment; The Fourth through Eighth Amendments.

Related Lessons

Lesson 3, The Drafts; Lesson 5, The Text, Clause by Clause; Lesson 6, Colony and State Constitutions; Lesson 8, The Declaration After 1776. For the amendments that grew from the debate, see the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, the Fourth through Eighth, and Amending the Constitution.

Sources & Further Reading

Primary Sources

• Avalon Project, Virginia Declaration of Rights
• Constitution Society, Mason's first draft
• Encyclopedia Virginia, committee draft, May 27, 1776
• Founders Online, Madison's amendments to the Declaration of Rights
• Avalon Project, Madison's notes, September 12, 1787
• Founders Online, Jefferson to Madison, December 20, 1787
• Founders Online, Madison to Jefferson, October 17, 1788
• Founders Online, Madison's speech, June 8, 1789
• Avalon Project, Virginia ratification, 1788
• National Archives, The Bill of Rights
• Idaho Legislature, Idaho Constitution art. I
• Idaho Legislature, Idaho Code 33-1602

Secondary Sources and Further Reading

• Colonial Williamsburg, The Virginia Declaration of Rights
• Institute for Justice, Virginia: The First Draft Heard Around the World
• Institute for Justice, Maryland
• Institute for Justice, North Carolina
• Teaching American History, Four Stages of the Bill of Rights
• Center for the Study of the American Constitution, Connecticut ratifies in 1939

Footnotes

1. Avalon Project, Virginia Resolutions for Independence, May 15, 1776, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/const02.asp. The convention "Resolved, unanimously" to instruct its delegates, and named a committee to prepare "a Declaration of Rights, and such a plan of Government as will be most likely to maintain peace and order in this Colony, and secure substantial and equal liberty to the people."
2. Avalon Project, Virginia Declaration of Rights, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/virginia.asp. Sixteen articles; "Adopted unanimously June 12, 1776."
3. Colonial Williamsburg, The Virginia Declaration of Rights, https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/discover/sources/revolutionary-documents/the-virginia-declaration-of-rights/.
4. Papers of George Mason (Robert A. Rutland, ed.), First Draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, as posted at Constitution Society, https://www.consource.org/document/first-draft-of-the-virginia-declaration-of-rights-1776-5/. Mason's first draft is dated about May 20 to 26, 1776. Article 1 reads "born equally free and independant" and the religion article speaks of "fullest Toleration in the Exercise of Religion."
5. Avalon Project, The First Charter of Virginia, April 10, 1606, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/va01.asp. The clause quoted says the king's subjects and their children born in the colonies "shall HAVE and enjoy all Liberties, Franchises, and Immunities" as if "abiding and born, within this our Realm of England."
6. Encyclopedia Virginia, The Virginia Declaration of Rights, Committee Draft, May 27, 1776, https://encyclopediavirginia.org/primary-documents/the-virginia-declaration-of-rights-committee-draft-may-27-1776/. The committee reported 18 articles on May 27. The page records printings in the Virginia Gazette (June 1), the Pennsylvania Evening Post (June 6, misdated May 24), the Pennsylvania Ledger (June 8) and the Pennsylvania Gazette (June 12), the change to Article 1 and Edmund Randolph's comment about slaves "not being constituent members of our society."
7. Encyclopedia Virginia, The Virginia Constitution of 1776, https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/the-virginia-constitution-of-1776/. Source for the dates (Declaration of Rights June 12, constitution June 29, Henry's oath July 6), the structure, the suffrage rule, the length of about 3,450 words, and the observation that only Pennsylvania and Georgia briefly dispensed with two houses. The Princeton Jefferson Papers exhibit on the Declaration of Rights gives June 11 for the vote on the Declaration, a one-day discrepancy this lesson could not resolve.
8. National Archives, Declaration of Independence: A Transcription, https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript.
9. Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Princeton University, Virginia Declaration of Rights, https://jeffersonpapers.princeton.edu/declaration-of-independence/virginia-declaration-rights/. The page lists Danielle Allen, Our Declaration (2014) and Pauline Maier, American Scripture (1997), and gives June 11 for the Virginia vote.
10. Founders Online, Thomas Jefferson to Henry Lee, May 8, 1825, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/98-01-02-5212.
11. Founders Online, Madison's Amendments to the Declaration of Rights, May 29 to June 12, 1776, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-01-02-0054-0000; and Encyclopedia Virginia, https://encyclopediavirginia.org/primary-documents/madisons-amendments-to-the-declaration-of-rights-may-29-june-12-1776/. The editors report that Henry introduced Madison's first amendment, that Henry "disclaimed such an object" as disestablishment (according to Edmund Randolph) and that the amendment failed; Madison's "free exercise of Religion" replaced Mason's "fullest Toleration."
12. Idaho Legislature, Idaho Code sec. 33-1602, https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title33/T33CH16/SECT33-1602. The history line on the page ends "am. 2025, ch. 279" and "am. 2026, ch. 317." Check the current text before relying on a subsection number.
13. Anthony Sanders, Institute for Justice, June 2026, https://ij.org/?p=258361. Used for the sequence of declarations of rights after Virginia: Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and North Carolina in 1776, Vermont in 1777, Massachusetts in 1780 and New Hampshire in 1784, and for the borrowing between them noted in the Institute's series (North Carolina took "law of the land" from Maryland, "ought to be free" from Virginia and its arms clause from Pennsylvania).
14. Avalon Project, Constitution of Pennsylvania, September 28, 1776, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/pa08.asp. Source for the sixteen-article Declaration of Rights, the forty-seven sections of the Frame, the one-house Assembly, the Supreme Executive Council, the franchise (section 6), the religious declaration (section 10), open doors (section 13), publication of bills (section 15), schools (section 44) and the Council of Censors (section 47).
15. Avalon Project, Maryland Constitution of 1776, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/ma02.asp; and Institute for Justice, Maryland: You Want Rights, We've Got Rights, https://ij.org/cje-post/maryland-you-want-rights-weve-got-rights/. Source for the convention dates of August 14 to November 11, 1776, the 42 articles of the Declaration, the Senate of 15 chosen by electors, the governor's property qualification and the religious qualification for office.
16. Avalon Project, Delaware Constitution of 1776, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/de02.asp; and Institute for Justice, Delaware: Inviolate Rights in a Violate Time, https://ij.org/cje-post/delaware-inviolate-rights-in-a-violate-time/. The Institute gives September 11 for the Declaration of Rights and September 20, 1776 for the constitution. The Avalon text prints "Friday, September 10" and a proclamation on September 21, which cannot both be right because September 20, 1776 fell on a Friday. This lesson uses September 20.
17. Avalon Project, North Carolina Constitution of 1776, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/nc07.asp; and Institute for Justice, North Carolina: Waiting Until Rights Are Right, https://ij.org/cje-post/north-carolina-waiting-until-rights-are-right/.
18. Avalon Project, Constitution of Vermont, July 8, 1777, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/vt01.asp.
19. Massachusetts Legislature, Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, https://malegislature.gov/Laws/Constitution. The original wording of Articles I, II, III and XXX and of Part II is quoted from this page. Article I was changed from "All men" to "All people" by Amendment CVI (1976).
20. Avalon Project, Constitution of Georgia, 1777, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/ga02.asp. This lesson did not find a Protestant qualification in the text it read, and did not verify the year the constitution was replaced.
21. Avalon Project, Constitution of New York, 1777, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/ny01.asp. The preamble recites the Declaration of Independence and the convention's approval of July 9, 1776.
22. Anthony Sanders, Institute for Justice, Rights in 1776 Without Declarations, April 7, 2026, https://ij.org/cje-post/rights-in-1776-without-declarations-declarations-of-rights-after-1776/. A summary of rights provisions in states whose 1776 constitutions had no separate declaration.
23. Mass Moments, Massachusetts Approves State Constitution, https://massmoments.org/moment-details/massachusetts-approves-state-constitution.html; and State Court Report, The Massachusetts Constitution, https://statecourtreport.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/massachusetts-constitution-oldest-united-states-and-often-ahead-its-time. Sources for the convention of September 1, 1779, Adams's drafting, the town votes, the ratification of June 1780, the October 25, 1780 start, the Quock Walker cases and Chief Justice Cushing's 1783 charge. The sources give June 15 or 16 for the declaration of ratification. The State Court Report page also mentions a rejected 1778 draft, which this lesson could not confirm elsewhere.
24. Avalon Project, Madison's Notes of the Debates, September 12, 1787, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_912.asp. Mason "wished the plan had been prefaced with a Bill of Rights," said "with the aid of the State declarations, a bill might be prepared in a few hours," and said it "would give great quiet to the people." Sherman answered that state declarations "are not repealed." Madison's notes record every state voting no on Gerry's motion for a committee, with Massachusetts abstaining. Madison wrote the notes at the time but revised them later.
25. Founders Online, Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, December 20, 1787, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-12-02-0454.
26. Founders Online, James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, October 17, 1788, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-11-02-0218.
27. Founders Online, James Madison to George Eve, January 2, 1789, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-11-02-0297.
28. Avalon Project, Massachusetts Ratification, February 6, 1788, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/ratma.asp. Nine proposed amendments.
29. Avalon Project, South Carolina Ratification, May 23, 1788, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/ratsc.asp. Four resolves.
30. Avalon Project, New Hampshire Ratification, June 21, 1788, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/ratnh.asp. Twelve proposed amendments, including "Congress shall make no Laws touching Religion" and an arms clause.
31. Avalon Project, Virginia Ratification, June 26 to 27, 1788, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/ratva.asp. A proposed declaration of rights of 20 articles and 20 amendments. Article 15 covers assembly, instruction and petition, article 16 speech and press, article 17 arms and article 20 religion.
32. Avalon Project, New York Ratification, July 26, 1788, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/ratny.asp.
33. Avalon Project, North Carolina Ratification, November 21, 1789, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/ratnc.asp. A declaration of rights plus amendments.
34. Avalon Project, Rhode Island Ratification, May 29, 1790, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/ratri.asp.
35. Avalon Project, Connecticut Ratification, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/ratct.asp. The vote was 128 to 40.
36. Founders Online, James Madison, Speech in Congress Proposing Constitutional Amendments, June 8, 1789, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-12-02-0126.
37. Teaching American History, Four Stages of the Bill of Rights, https://teachingamericanhistory.org/resource/four-stages/. The House agreed to 17 amendments on August 24, 1789, the Senate passed 12 on September 9, Virginia was the last state needed on December 15, 1791, and Vermont ratified on November 3, 1791.
38. National Archives, The Bill of Rights: A Transcription, https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/bill-of-rights-transcript. Twelve amendments were sent to the states on September 25, 1789.
39. Center for the Study of the American Constitution, Better Late Than Never: Connecticut Ratifies the U.S. Bill of Rights, https://csac.history.wisc.edu/2021/04/23/better-late-than-never-connecticut-ratifies-the-u-s-bill-of-rights-12-13-april-1939/. Massachusetts ratified on March 2, 1939, Georgia on March 24 and Connecticut on April 12 and 13. Georgia had rejected the amendments in December 1789, and Connecticut's two houses deadlocked over how many of the twelve to ratify (the House approved eleven on October 27, 1789), and on October 16, 1790 the House agreed to a bill rejecting all of them, after which the Council postponed the matter.
40. Idaho Legislature, Idaho Constitution art. I, sec. 1, https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idconst/ArtI/Sect1; and sec. 2, https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idconst/ArtI/Sect2.
41. Idaho Legislature, Idaho Constitution art. I, sections 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 13, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22 and 23, at https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idconst/ArtI/Sect4 (and the same address with Sect3, Sect9, Sect10, Sect11, Sect13, Sect17, Sect18, Sect20, Sect21, Sect22 or Sect23). Quotations: section 10, "to instruct their representatives"; section 18, courts open "without sale, denial, delay."
42. Idaho State Historical Society, Constitutional Convention and Ratification, https://history.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/0476_Constitutional-Convention-and-Ratification.pdf. Gives November 5, 1889 for ratification and July 3, 1890 for statehood.