The Assembly is in the habitual exercise, during their sessions, of directing the Executive what to do. There are few pages of their journals which do not show proofs of this, and consequently instances of the _legislative_ and _executive_ powers exercised by the same persons at the same time. These things prove that it has been the uninterrupted opinion of every Assembly, from that which passed the ordinance called the constitution down to the present day, that their acts may control that ordinance, and, of course, that the State of Virginia has no fixed constitution at all.
[The succeeding observations were made by Mr. Jefferson on an article entitled "Etats Unis," prepared for the Encyclopedie Methodique, and submitted to him before its publication.]
Page 8. The malefactors sent to America were not sufficient in number to merit enumeration, as one class out of three which peopled America. It was at a late period of their history that this practice began. I have no book by me which enables me to point out the date of its commencement. But I do not think the whole number sent would amount to two thousand, and being principally men, eaten up with disease, they married seldom and propagated little. I do not suppose that themselves and their descendants are at present four thousand, which is little more than one thousandth part of the whole inhabitants.