military post of profit, except in any regiment or battalion of minute-men which may be hereafter established, shall not be capable of sitting or voting as a mem. ber of the general convention; and in all such cases, there shall be a new election of a member, to fill up the vacancy, in the same manner as if such person was naturally dead.

IX. And it is hereby farther declared and ordained, in general That all clergymen of the church of England, and all congress. dissenting ministers or teachers, shall be incapable of being elected as a delegate, or sitting and voting in convention. And any person who shall hereafter accept any office of profit, or pecuniary appointment, under the crown, or shall have procured himself to be elected by bribery, in giving money, or any public entertainment of meat or drink, or made any promise to do so to the electors, or by any other corrupt practices, shall be disqualified from sitting or voting in the gene ral convention, the general congress, council of safety, or county or corporation committees; and in all such cases, the same proceedings shall be had as if the person so accepting was naturally dead.

X. And whereas the mode hitherto pursued in elect Committee. ing committee-men in the several counties and corpo- men in coun rations in this colony, under the continental associa- ties, and cortion, has not been uniformly the same, and many in- how elected. porations, conveniencies have arisen by the supernumerary committee-men elected in some counties; and whereas also no limitation has been fixed for their continuing to discharge that duty, and they may assume to themselves a power of acting under their present appointments at all times in future, which is incompatible with the principles of representation, and the just controul that the electors ought to have over them: For the removing the present inconveniencies, and better regulating the elections of committee-men hereafter, It is hereby declared and ordained, That the freeholders of every county and corporation within this colony, and others who are by law qualified to vote at an election of burgesses, and the landholders in the district of West Augusta, as hereafter described, shall have the liberty and privilege of electing annually twenty-one of the most discreet, fit, and able men, of their county or corporation, being freeholders, to act as a committee for carrying into execution the association, and such other measures as the continental congress, or general convention of this cor VOL. IX. H

Rules for

such elcc

lony, have, or hereafter may, from time to time, direct and ordain, and forwarding all public expresses of importance, the expense of which shall be paid by the public. And the said committees shall have power to appoint out of their members a committee of correspondence, and such other sub-committees as may be found necessary, to superintend the different districts of their respective counties or corporations; with an appeal where any person shall think himself aggrieved, to the county or corporation committee at large, and accountable to them for all their proceedings.

XI. And for the more regular electing such com conducting mittee, It is hereby declared and ordained, That the foltions. lowing rules and methods shall be observed, that is to say: The elections of committee-men in the several counties and corporations within this colony shall be in the month of November annually, on the several days appointed by law for the holding of the county or corporation courts respectively, and at the places where such courts are accustomed to be held; at which elections, the freeholders, and others qualified as aforesaid, shall appear and deliver in to the chairman, or in case of his absence to the clerk of the committee, a list of such persons as may be judged the most discreet, fit, and able, to serve as committee-men as aforesaid, which several lists shall be fairly counted by the chairman, or clerk of the committee, in the presence of so many of the committee as may choose to attend the same, and publication shall be made of the several persons that appear to have a majority of votes, who are hereby declared, in such case, to be duly elected a committee to serve as aforesaid.

Qualifications of electors in Fincastle & West Au

gusta.

XII. And whereas the inhabitants of the county of Fincastle, and the district of West Augusta, although long possessed of their lands, under surveys, entries, or orders of council, have few of them obtained patents for the same, which have been obstructed without any default in them, who, having performed what is required on their part, have an equitable interest in their lands, and ought to share in the representation, in conventions and committees, with other landholders in this colony: Be it therefore declared and ordained, That every free white man who, at the time of elections for delegates or committee-men in the said county or district respectively, shall have been for one year preceding in possession of twenty-five acres of land with a house and

plantation thereon, or one hundred acres of land without a house or plantation, in such county or district, claiming an estate for life at least in the said land, in his own right, or in right of his wife, shall have a vote, or be capable of being chosen at such elections respectively, although no legal title in the land shall have been conveyed to such possessor. And to the end that no persons shall vote at such elections who are not qualified to do so, the committee of the county or corporation shall previously appoint three fit persons to superintend the election, who, being first sworn, shall determine all disputes about the right of a person to vote who shall offer any list; and if he shall be adjudg ed not to have such right, his list shall not be received.

XIII. And it is hereby declared and ordained, That Committees, a committee elected as aforesaid, or a majority of them, how organishall have full power to elect one of their body as chair- zed. man, to preside at all their meetings; and may appoint any person, willing to undertake the same, to officiate as clerk to them, who shall have such annual allowance as the committee shall think reasonable, to be levied by the court of the county or corporation, and may at any time, or times, during their appointment, convene themselves, and hear, consider, aud determine, on all such matters as may fall properly under their cognizance, according to the nature and intention of their institution; and shall keep a true and faithful journal of their proceedings, which shall be read by the clerk, and signed by the chairman, at every meeting of such committee. And moreover, in case of the death or resignation of the chairman, or clerk appointed as aforesaid, the said committee, or a majority of them, shall have full authority to fill up any vacancy occasioned thereby, by election or appointment, in manner as aforesaid. Provided nevertheless, That the committees elected as aforesaid shall, in all their inquiries and decisions, confine themselves within the line of duty prescribed by the continental congress and the general convention, and shall not assume to themselves any other power or authority whatever.

XIV. And for preventing the interruption to busi- Vacancy in ness that may frequently happen through the necessary president & or unavoidable absence of the chairman or clerk of the clerk, how committee, It is hereby declared and ordained, That supplied. when any meeting of a committee shall be regularly appointed, and it may so happen, through sickness or

Censures on those refus ing obedi

ence.

other causes, that the chairman or clerk shall fail to attend such meeting, the committee shall have the liberty, and full power, to choose or appoint, in manner as aforesaid, some other chairman or clerk to act pro tempore.

XV. And to the end this ordinance may be duly carried into execution, and the duties required of certain persons therein named faithfully discharged, It is hereby farther declared and ordained, That if any sheriff, mayor, chairman, or clerk of a committee, or any other person named herein who is required to do any particular act, or perform any certain duty, shall perversely, obstinately, or wilfully refuse or neglect to comply with the directions of this ordinance, such person so offending, and being adjudged guilty thereof by the committee of the county or corporation where such delinquency may happen, shall be deemed an enemy to American liberty and the welfare of this country, and be subject to the censures of the continental association, in such cases provided.

XVI. And it is hereby farther declared and ordained, That all and every other case or cases, matters or things, within the purview of this ordinance, and not hereby particularly provided for, shall be ordered, governed, judged, and decided, according to the law for regulating the elections of burgesses, and not other

wise.

CHAP. V.

An Ordinance for appointing commissioners to settle the accounts of the militia lately drawn out into actual service, and for making provision to pay the same, as well as the expense of raising and providing for the forces and minute-men directed to be embodied for the defence of this coZony.

WHEREAS his excellency the governor, at the Preamble. opening of the late general assembly, did, amongst other things, recommend that provision should be made for defraying the expenses of the late expedition against the Indians, and paying the militia drawn out into actual service; and, in pursuance of that recommendation, his majesty's council, and the house of burgesses, did pass a bill, as well for making such provision, as for discharging many other publick claims in the best and only method the circumstances of the country would admit of; but the governour thought fit to refuse bis assent to the said bill, whereby many of the inhabitants, particularly in the frontiers of this colony, are left in the greatest distress, from which there is no prospect of their being relieved but by the interposition of this

convention.

And whereas the house of burgesses afterwards judged it necessary to appoint certain commissioners for settling the accounts of the said militia, and did approve and confirm a report from their committee of publick elaims, by which the demands of many other public creditors were liquidated and ascertained, but, by reason of the low state of the public treasury, cannot be paid in any reasonable time without some farther provision;

Be it ordained, by the delegates and representatives of Commissionthe several counties and corporations within the colony ers to settle and dominion of Virginia, now met in General Conven- accounts for tion, and it is hereby ordained by the authority of the the late exsame, That Archibald Cary, William Cabell, William pedition against the Fleming, John Winn, and John Nicholas, gentlemen, indians.