It usually passes without note, even in the Old Dominion, but May 15, 2008
will be the 232nd anniversary of what James Madison called Virginia's
declaration of independence.  It was on May 15, 1776 that the revolutionary
May Convention adopted three resolutions:  one calling for a declaration of
rights, one calling for a republican constitution, and one calling for
federation with whichever colonies would have it and treaties with
whichever foreign countries would have them.  At day's end, Madison said,
they took down the Union Jack from over the old capitol at Williamsburg and
ran up a continental union flag.  On June 29, Patrick Henry was sworn in as
the first governor of republican Virginia.

While the Declaration of Rights of 1776 sometimes does attract attention,
Virginia was alone among the colonies in establishing a *permanent*
republican constitution before July 4, 1776.  That's why Virginia's
congressmen were alone in being given unconditional instructions from their
legislature to declare independence; other colonies' either were told to
declare independence in case other colonies did or were given no
instructions at all.

Governor William Branch Giles lamented in the constitutional convention of
1829-30 that while May 15 should be celebrated in Virginia as July 4 is in
the rest of the country, it generally goes unremarked.

I recount these events in _Virginia's American Revolution..._.

Kevin Gutzman

Kevin R. C. Gutzman, J.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor of History
Western Connecticut State University
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