VIRGINIA DECLARATION OF RIGHTS

in U.S. constitutional history, declaration of rights of the citizen adopted June 12, 1776, by the constitutional convention of the colony of Virginia. It was a model for the Bill of Rights added to the U.S. Constitution 15 years later. The Virginia declaration, largely the work of George Mason, was widely read by political leaders on both sides of the Atlantic. It declared that all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights of which they cannot deprive themselves or their posterity. These rights were the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. Specific civil liberties enumerated included freedom of the press, the free exercise of religion, and the injunction that no man be deprived of his liberty except by the law of the land or by the judgment of his peers.