It is better to keep the wolf out of the fold, than to trufl: to drawing his teeth and talons after he (hall have entered. To render thefe confiderations the more co- gent, we muft obferve in addition:
- That the ordinary legiflature may alter the conftitution itfelf. On the dif- continuance of affemblies, it became ne- ceffary to fubftitute in their place fome other body, competent to the ordinary bufinefs of government, and to the calling forth the powers of the ftate for the main- tenance of our oppofition to Great-Bri- tain. Conventions were therefore intro- duced, confiding of two delegates from each county, meeting together and forming one houfe, on the plan of the former houfe of burgefles, to whofe places they fucceeded. Thefe were at firft chofen a new for every particular feffion. But in March 1775, they recommended to the people to choofe a convention, which fliould continue in office a year. This was done accordingly in April 1775, and in the July following that convention paffed an ordi- nance for the eleiflion of delegates in the month of April annually. It is well known, that in July 1775, a feparation from Great-Britain and eftablifhment of republican government had never yet en- tered into any perfon's mind. A convention therefore, chofen under that ordi- nance, cannot be faid to have been chofen for the purpofes which certainly did not exifl in the minds of thofe who pafTed it. Under this ordinance, at the annual eleftion in April 1776, a convention for the year was chofen. Independence, and the eftablifhment of a new form of government, were not even yet the objefts of the people at large. One extraft from the pamphlet called Common Senfe had ap- peared in the Virginia papers in February, and copies of the pamphlet itfelf had got in a few hands. But the idea had not