the City of Philadelphia on the second day of
May next a provision which was preferable to a discussion of the
subject in Congress where it might be too much interrupted by the
ordinary business before them and where it would besides be deprived of
the valuable Counsels of sundry Individuals who are disqualified by the
Constitution or Laws of particular States or restrained by peculiar
circumstances from a Seat in that Assembly: And Whereas
the General Assembly of this Commonwealth taking into view the actual
situation of the Confederacy as well as reflecting on the alarming
representations made from time to time by the United States in Congress
particularly in their Act of the fifteenth day of February last can no
longer doubt that the Crisis is arrived at which the good People of
America are to decide the solemn question whether they will by wise and
magnanimous Efforts reap the just fruits of that Independence which
they have so gloriously acquired and of that Union which they have
cemented with so much of their common Blood, or whether by giving way
to unmanly Jealousies and Prejudices or to partial and transitory
Interests they will renounce the auspicious blessings prepared for them
by the Revolution, and furnish to its Enemies an eventual Triumph over
those by whose virtue and valor it has been accomplished: And Whereas
the same noble and extended policy and the same fraternal and
affectionate Sentiments which originally determined the Citizens of
this Commonwealth to unite with their Bretheren of the other States in
establishing a Fœderal Government cannot but be Felt with equal force
now as motives to lay aside every inferior consideration and to concur
in such farther concessions and Provisions as may be necessary to
secure the great Objects for which that Government was instituted and
to render the United States as happy in peace as they have been glorious in WarBe it therefore enacted
by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia that seven
Commissioners be appointed by joint Ballot of both Houses of Assembly
who or any three of them are hereby authorized as Deputies from this
Commonwealth to meet such Deputies as may be appointed and authorized
by other States to assemble in Convention at Philadelphia as above
recommended and to join with them in devising and discussing all such
Alterations and farther Provisions as may be necessary to render the
Fœderal Constitution adequate to the Exigencies of the Union and in
reporting such an Act for that purpose to the United States in Congress
as when agreed to by them and duly confirmed by the several States will
effectually provide for the same. And be it further enacted
that in case of the death of any of the said Deputies or of their
declining their appointments the Executive are hereby authorized to
supply such
Page:The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 Volume 3.djvu/564
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