R. CARTER PITTMAN
H. E. KINNEY
J. T. POPE, JR.
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PITTMAN, KINNEY & POPE
ATTORNEYS AT LAW
DALTON, GEORGIA
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OFFICE IN
BANK OF DALTON BUILDING
TELEPHONE 521
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October 28, 1955
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Mr. William J. Van Schreeven
State Archivist
Virginia State Library
Richmond, Virginia
Dear Mr. Van Schreeven:
RE:
THE VIRGINIA DECLARATION OF RIGHTS
AND THE CONFUSION ABOUT ITS PLACE
IN HISTORY
A copy of this letter and this memorandum goes to Mr. John Cook
Wyllie of the Alderman Library, Mr. John Melville Jennings of the
Virginia Historical Society, Mr. D.J. Mays of Richmond, Mr. William G.
Harkins of the William and Mary Library, Mr. Robert H. Land of The
Library of Congress, Mr. Lester J. Cappon of the Institute of Early
American History and Culture. After each of you has looked this
memorandum over, I shall be grateful if you will examine such editions
of American Constitutions prior to 1800 as may be accessible to you
and let me know which editions, if any, carried the Virginia Declara-
tion of Rights.
French editions of the American Constitutions were published in
Paris as fast as they came from the separate conventions. In May 1777
Franklin wrote: "They read the translations of our separate colony
constitutions with rapture." (Franklin's Works, Vol. 8, p. 214).
In 1783
Franklin got out an official French edition of all American Constitu-
tions. (Franklin's Works, Vol. 9, p 39). We wonder whether Franklin
included the Virginia Declaration of Rights in his official edition.
Many years after George Mason died, and while he himself was in
the last long shadows of a setting sun, John Adams wrote Elbridge Gerry
mentioning a deep dark secret about the Declaration of Independence
that should be told. That secret has been kept a long time. Maybe
it should not be told.
Thanking you, I am
Yours very sincerely,
R. CARTER PITTMAN
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