Volume CLXXVI • No. 1

The Federal Ledger

Est. 1776 • Digital Archive of the Republic

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Declaration • 1776

Virginia Declaration of Rights

George Mason
Virginia Declaration of Rights
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George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights (June 1776) preceded the Declaration of Independence by three weeks and provided much of its language — 'all men are by nature equally free and independent.' It was the model for the federal Bill of Rights and for the French Declaration of the Rights of Man.

Section 1. That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. Section 12. That the freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments.
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