Note: The newest installment of The Road to the American Revolution is now live on Substack. Follow the series on X. An excerpt from the article appears below.

If I drove approximately three hours and 15 minutes northeast from where I am, I would end up in Williamsburg, Virginia, where on June 29, 1776, Virginia gave itself a government. It was a government designed by men who distrusted power and intended to keep it on a very short leash.

17 days after George Mason’s Declaration of Rights was approved, the Fifth Virginia Convention ratified Virginia’s first constitution. Most of it was written by George Mason, who arrived in Williamsburg sick, but whose Fairfax Resolves two years earlier had given him a formidable political reputation. He also enjoyed the advantage of writing for a colony that had already been governing itself. So, when the Continental Congress asked the colonies to establish their own governments in May 1776, Virginia was ahead of the curve:

The structure of the 1776 constitution reflected the predominant political and legal wisdom of the day. It left voter qualifications unchanged. It created separate executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government: a governor, Council, court system, and a General Assembly including a House of Delegates and a Senate. These largely mirrored colonial institutions. Yet while the colonial governor, as the voice of the king, held significant sway in colonial Virginia, Virginia’s first elected governors would be fairly weak. Instead, like many other colonies, Virginia chose to strengthen the legislature, in hopes that it would reflect the wisdom and genius of the people.

That Virginia chose to weaken its governor is important here…

Read the full article here and follow Jared Gould on X.