On this day 250 years ago in Williamsburg, the committee of the Virginia Convention charged with drafting a Declaration of Rights completed its work and began circulating the draft Declaration within Virginia and to other colonies the next day. The draft Declaration was almost entirely the work of George Mason with only a few edits and additions by Thomas Ludwell Lee and other members of the committee. Mason drafted the Declaration of Rights at his room in the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg, adding another reason for that building to claim itself a birthplace of the nation and for you to visit.

The final version of the Declaration of Rights that was adopted a few weeks later by the Virginia Convention differed in some respects from Mason’s draft, but the draft was widely circulated throughout America and Europe during and after the Revolution. The language of the draft Declaration of Rights influenced and was to some extent copied in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, the constitutions the other states, and in the founding documents of other countries. The draft Declaration of Rights would have more influence on the course of the Revolution than the final version which actually became law in Virginia but was not circulated in publication outside Virginia for another fifty years after its adoption.

The first three rights set forth in the Declaration of Rights are the most fundamental and remain applicable today:

That all Men are born equally free and independant, and have certain inherent natural Rights, of which they can not by any Compact, deprive or divest their Posterity; among which are the Enjoyment of Life and Liberty, with the Means of acquiring and possessing Property, and pursueing and obtaining Happiness and Safety.

That Power is, by God and Nature, vested in, and consequently derived from the People; that Magistrates are their Trustees and Servants, and at all times amenable to them.

That Government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common Benefit and Security of the People, Nation, or Community. Of all the various Modes and Forms of Government, that is best, which is capable of producing the greatest Degree of Happiness and Safety, and is most effectually secured against the Danger of mal-administration. And that whenever any Government shall be found inadequate, or contrary to these Purposes, a Majority of the Community had an indubitable, inalianable and indefeasible Right to reform, alter or abolish it, in such Manner as shall be judged most conducive to the Public Weal.

Sources: Selby at 102; https://gunstonhall.org/the-virginia-declaration-of-rights-first-draft/; Broadwater, Jeff, George Mason, Forgotten Founder, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press (2006) at 81-91; Rutland, Robert A., George Mason and the War for Independence, , Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press (1961) at 49-61; Rutland, Robert A., George Mason: Reluctant Statesman, Williamsburg: Virginia Independence Bicentennial Commission (1976) at 47-51; “Declaration of Rights and Form of Government of Virginia [Editorial Note],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-01-02-0054-0000. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, vol. 1, 16 March 1751 – 16 December 1779, ed. William T. Hutchinson and William M. E. Rachal. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1962, pp. 170–172.]; “George Mason’s Proposed Declaration of Rights, [ca. 20–25 May 1776],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-01-02-0054-0001. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, vol. 1, 16 March 1751 – 16 December 1779, ed. William T. Hutchinson and William M. E. Rachal. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1962, pp. 172–173.];