“Resolved unanimously, that the delegates appointed to represent this Colony in General Congress, be instructed to propose to that respectable body to declare the United Colonies FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, absolved from all allegiance to or dependence upon the Crown or Parliament of Great Britain, and that they give the assent of this Colony to such declaration, and to whatever measures may be thought proper and necessary by the Congress for forming foreign alliances, and a confederation of the Colonies, at such time, and in the manner, as to them shall seem best; Provided, that the power of forming government for, and the regulations of the internal concerns of, each Colony be left to the respective Colonial Legislatures. “Resolved unanimously, that a committee be appointed 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.” On June 11, 1776, a committee, at the head of which was Thomas Jefferson, was appointed by Congress in Philadelphia to prepare a “Declaration of Independence”; and on July 1st, R. H. Lee’s resolution of independence was adopted, and on July 4th the immortal Declaration by Thomas Jefferson. Nor was this all that Virginia did. It having been determined to procure a Declaration of Rights and a written constitution for the State, the Convention, on May 15th, appointed a committee of thirty-one, at the head of which was Archibald Cary, to do the work. Many projects were submitted, but the Declaration of Rights and the State constitution prepared by the master-hand of George Mason, “swallowed up all the rest.” The former document, adopted June 12, 1776, contained all that was valuable in Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights of 1689, and much more; for it stands without a rival as a summary of the rights of man and also of the principles of free government. The latter document,--the constitution,--adopted on June 29, 1776, unlike the similar constitutions established by South Carolina and other colonies, declared the connection with Great Britain “totally dissolved,” furnishing in this way the first example in this country of a written constitution of a free and independent State. Thus, in the language of John Adams of Massachusetts, Virginia “has the glory with posterity of beginning with the resolutions against the Stamp Act, and of concluding with the acts of the Convention of May, 1776, the great American Revolution”; and Williamsburg was the scene of these great proceedings in the annals of the world. [Illustration: MARY CARY, WASHINGTON’S EARLY LOVE.]