Adoption of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, 1974

by Jack W. Clifton (1912—90)

Oil on canvas. Virginia State Capitol, Richmond, VA.

The Virginia Declaration of Rights was approved at Williamsburg on 12 June 1776.

Patrick Henry is standing, addressing the Fifth Virginia Convention. Seated at the Speaker’s chair is the president, Edmund Pendleton, and to his right is George Mason. On the far right is Thomas Jefferson, recognizable by his red hair.

There is some poetic license in this depiction. Jefferson was not actually at the Convention — he was in Philadelphia, serving as one of Virginia’s delegates to the Second Continental Congress. But he was alert to the events at Williamsburg and was drafting a constitution for Virginia — just before he was asked to write the Declaration of Independence.

As in the case of his career as commander-in-chief, Washington’s most important act as president was his giving up the office. The significance of his retirement from the presidency is easily overlooked today, but his contemporaries knew what it meant. Most people assumed that Washington might be president as long as he lived, that he would be a kind of elected monarch like the king of Poland. Hence his retirement from the presidency enhanced his moral authority and set a precedent for future presidents.

— Gordon S. Wood

Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815 (2009)