c. [The Third Virginia Convention, pursuant to the call in the closing recommendation of the Second, met July 17, 1775, and adopted the forms of a legislative body, giving bills three readings, etc. The first resolution read. ...
"That this Convention will observe, in their debates and proceedings, the same Rules and Orders as are established in the House of Burgesses of this Colony." Cf. with the corresponding Resolution of the Second Convention above; note significance of the two additional words. That significance is brought out clearly in the postscript of a letter from George Mason to a friend, August 22:
"P. S. Every ordinance goes thro' all the Formalities of a Bill in the House of Burgesses, has three Readings, etc. before it is passed, and in every respect wears the Face of Law,—Resolves, as recommendations, being no longer trusted to. ..." (Virginia Calendar of State Papers, I, 269.)
Thus the Third Convention was a "government" in style as well as in fact. It held two busy sessions; and, in January, 1776, though its "year" was not up, it adjourned, to give place to a new Convention freshly instructed from the people.]
FOOTNOTES:
[121] A letter from Richard Henry Lee to Samuel Warren (June 23) states that he had intended to present such a resolution in the Assembly, but, on advice of friends, waited for the completion of important business,—and then came the dissolution. Washington went from this meeting, over which he had presided, to dine with Lord and Lady Dunmore. The tone of Virginia intercourse with the governor remains suave for some time.
[122] The resolutions so reported on June 20 to the Virginia committee, had been adopted on the 15th. Rhode Island, therefore, was the first colony to appoint delegates. The resolutions, of course, are given also in the Rhode Island Colonial Records.
[123] This final clause refers to a provision withdrawing from trial in colonial courts any servants of the government accused of violence in the performance of duty. The list of offending statutes is repeated, somewhat less impressively but more specifically, in the Continental Congress's Declaration (130 c).