Furthermore, it is important to observe that, on this very question
then at issue in Virginia, two pamphlets, taking opposite sides, were,
just at that moment, attracting the notice of Virginians,--both
pamphlets being noble in tone, of considerable learning, very
suggestive, and very well expressed. The first, entitled "Thoughts on
Government," though issued anonymously, was soon known to be by John
Adams. It advocated the formation of state constitutions on the
democratic model; a lower house elected for a single year by the
people; this house to elect an upper house of twenty or thirty
members, who were to have a negative on the lower house, and to serve,
likewise, for a single year; these two houses to elect a governor, who
was to have a negative on them both, and whose term of office should
also end with the year; while the judges, and all other officers,
civil or military, were either to be appointed by the governor with
the advice of the upper house, or to be chosen directly by the two
houses themselves.[242] The second pamphlet, which was in part a reply
to the first, was entitled "Address to the Convention of the Colony
and Ancient Dominion of Virginia, on the subject of Government in
general, and recommending a particular form to their consideration."
It purported to be by "A native of the Colony." Although the pamphlet
was sent into Virginia under strong recommendations from Carter
Braxton, one of the Virginian delegates in Congress, the authorship
was then unknown to the public. It advocated the formation of state
constitutions on a model far less democratic: first, a lower house,
the members of which were to be elected for three years by the people;
secondly, an upper house of twenty-four members, to be elected for
life by the lower house; thirdly, a governor, to be elected for life
by the lower house; fourthly, all judges, all military officers, and
all inferior civil ones, to be appointed by the governor.[243]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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