2130. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, Virginia Constitution and.
—The [Virginia] Constitution, with the Preamble,
was passed on the 29th of June [1776],
and the Committee of Congress had only the
day before that reported to that body the
draft of the Declaration of Independence.
The fact is, that that Preamble was prior in
composition to the Declaration; and both
having the same object, of justifying our
separation from Great Britain, they used
necessarily the same materials of justification,
and hence their similitude. [135]
—
To Augustus B. Woodward. Washington ed. vii, 406.
Ford ed., x, 342.
(M.
1825)
