TRACING THE LINEAGE: TEXTUAL AND CONCEPTUAL SIMILARITIES IN THE REVOLUTIONARY-ERA STATE DECLARATIONS OF RIGHTS OF VIRGINIA, MARYLAND, AND DELAWARE by Dan Friedman∗ ∗ Associate City Solicitor and Chief of Litigation, Baltimore City Department of Law. Lecturer and Adjunct Faculty Member, University of Maryland School of Law. B.A., University of Maryland (1988); J.D., University of Maryland School of Law (1994). The views expressed in this article are the author’s own, and do not reflect the views of the City Solicitor, the Baltimore City Department of Law, or the City of Baltimore. Many thanks to Richard C. Boldt, Roger S. Friedman, Synthia J. Shilling, John Parker Sweeney, Robert F. Williams, and Thurman W. Zollicoffer, Jr. For Laure, Sam, and Eli. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. THE EVENTS IN THE STATES: VIRGINIA, MARYLAND, AND DELAWARE..................................................................................................................... 2 A. Virginia .................................................................................................................. 2 B. Maryland ............................................................................................................... 6 C. Delaware ................................................................................................................ 8 II. IDENTIFYING THE PROPER SEQUENCE OF EVENTS AND CORRECTING OLD ERRORS...................................................................................... 9 III. TRACING THE LINEAGE—TEXTUAL AND CONCEPTUAL SIMILARITIES .............................................................................................................. 18 A. Provisions that are textually identical, or nearly identical, in all three drafts: Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware ............................................. 20 1. Compact Theory of Government .............................................................. 20 2. Government Instituted for “Common Benefit” or “the Good of the Whole”............................................................................................ 21 3. “…trustees and servants…”...................................................................... 22 4. Right to “Reform, Alter, or Abolish” Government................................... 24 5. “Free and Frequent” Elections.................................................................. 26 6. Prohibiting the “Suspending of Laws” ..................................................... 28 7. Prohibiting “Retrospective Laws” ............................................................ 29 8. Rights of Criminally Accused................................................................... 31 9. Prohibiting “Excessive Bail” and “Cruel” and/or “Unusual Punishment”.............................................................................................. 39 10. Prohibiting General Warrants ................................................................... 41 11. Preserving “Freedom of the Press”........................................................... 42 12. Governing the Militia................................................................................ 45 B. Provisions that are not textually similar, but that contain similar ideas in all three drafts: Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware .............................................................................................................. 48 i 1. Religious Toleration and Freedom: Free Exercise and Disestablishment....................................................................................... 48 2. Prohibitions against Plural Office Holding............................................... 56 3. The “Independency and Uprightness” of Judges...................................... 58 C. Provisions that are textually identical, or nearly identical, between Virginia and Maryland, but not Delaware ........................................ 60 1. Prohibiting Hereditary Titles .................................................................... 60 2. Separation of Powers ................................................................................ 62 3. No Taxation (or Legislation) Without Representation ............................. 64 4. Right to “Trial By Jury”............................................................................ 66 5. “Rotation … in Office”............................................................................. 67 D. Provisions that are textually identical, or nearly identical, between Virginia and Delaware, but not Maryland ........................................ 68 E. Provisions that are textually identical, or nearly identical, between Maryland and Delaware, but not Virginia ........................................ 69 1. “Legislature ought to be Frequently Convened” ...................................... 69 2. “Right to Petition the Legislature”............................................................ 70 3. Right to “Internal Government and Police”.............................................. 72 4. Open Courts/Right to a Remedy............................................................... 75 5. Prohibition against the Quartering of Soldiers ......................................... 79 6. Right to the “Common Law of England” ................................................. 82 7. Prohibiting Importation of Slaves............................................................. 83 8. Reaffirming Prior Statutes ........................................................................ 84 9. Constitutional Amendment and Revision ................................................. 85 F. Provisions that are unique to Virginia.............................................................. 87 1. “All Men Are Born Equally Free…”........................................................ 87 2. “Right to Uniform Government” .............................................................. 88 ii 3. “Frequent Recurrence to Fundamental Principles” .................................. 89 G. Provisions that are unique to Maryland........................................................... 91 1. “Freedom of Speech … in the Legislature”.............................................. 91 2. “Place for the Meeting of the Legislature” ............................................... 93 3. Prohibition against “Levying of Taxes by the Poll”................................. 93 4. Prohibition against “Sanguinary Laws”.................................................... 94 5. Prohibition against Bills of Attainder ....................................................... 96 6. Prohibition against Forfeiture of Estate.................................................... 98 7. Limiting Test Oaths ................................................................................ 101 8. Preserving Annapolis’s Rights................................................................ 101 9. Prohibition against Monopolies.............................................................. 103 H. Provisions that are unique to Delaware.......................................................... 104 1. Right to be Protected; Just Compensation; Conscientious Objection................................................................................................. 104 IV. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................. 105 iii The May 27, 1776, draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights has been called a model for the American Declaration of Independence,1 the French Declaration of the Rights of Man,2 and the bills and declarations of rights of many of the American states.3 This article traces one strand of that influence, the influence of Virginia’s May 27, 1776, draft on the declarations of rights adopted by Maryland and Delaware in the fall of 1776.4 Further, it will examine the relationship between these three documents.5 Examining these three Revolutionary War-era 1 PAULINE MAIER, AMERICAN SCRIPTURE: MAKING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 125-28 (1997); JULIAN P. BOYD, THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE _____ (1943). But see EDWARD DUMBAULD, THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 21 (1950). 2 A. E. Dick Howard, The Values of Federalism, 1 NEW EUR. L. REV. 143, 143 (1993); A. E. Dick Howard, How Ideas Travel: The Bill of Rights at Home and Abroad, 63 N.Y. ST. BAR J. 6, 8 (1991); Albert P. Blaustein, Our Most Important Export: The Influence of the United States Constitution Abroad, 3 CONN. J. INT’L LAW 15, 16 (1987); GILBERT CHINARD, LA DÉCLARATION DES DROITS DE L’HOMME ET DU CITOYEN ET SES ANTÉCÉDENTS AMÉRICAINS (1945); LUCY M. GIDNEY, L’INFLUENCE DES ETATS-UNIS D’AMÉRIQUE SUR BRISSOT, CONCORCET ET MME. ROLAND (1930); Gilbert Chinard, Notes on the French Translations of the ‘Forms of Government or Constitutions of the Several United States’ 1778 and 1783, 88-106 YEARBOOK OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, 1943; Durand Echeverria, French Publication of the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitutions, 1776-1783, 47 PAPERS OF THE BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 313 (1953). 3 JOHN SELBY, THE REVOLUTION IN VIRGINIA, 1775-1783 103 (1988) (identifying the Virginia Declaration of Rights as the basis for those adopted in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Delaware, Maryland, Vermont, and New Hampshire); G. Alan Tarr, The Ohio Constitution of 1802: An Introduction, http://www- camlaw.rutgers.edu/statecon/papers.html (visited April 29, 2001) (identifying the Virginia Declaration of Rights as the basis for the Ohio Declaration of Rights of 1802); R. Carter Pittman,