The Case of Josiah Phillips days, it was read a second and third time, and thus regularly passed through
the forms of the lower house. It was communicated by Mr. Jeffer son to the senate on the 30th day of the month, and returned, passed by them
without amendment on the 1st day of June, which was the last day of the session. The Act, as it stands upon the statute-book of the session, is as follows: Whereas, A certain Josiah Phillips, laborer,
of the parish of Lynhaven and county of Princess Anne, together with divers others, inhabitants of the counties of Princess Anne andiNorfolk, and citizens of this common
wealth, contrary to their fidelity, associating and confederating together, have levied war against this commonwealth, within the same, committing murders, etc. . . ., and still continue to exercise the same enormities on the good people of this commonwealth; and whereas, the delays which would attend the
proceeding to outlaw the said oflenders, according to the usual forms and procedures of the courts of law, would leave the said
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or confederates, at any time after the first day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven, at which time the said murders and devastations were begun, a petit jury shall be summoned and charged, according to the forms of law, to try, in the presence of the said court, the fact so alleged; and if it be found against the defendant, execution of this Act shall be done as before directed. And that the good people of this common wealth may not, in the meantime, be subject to the unrestrained hostilities of the said insurgents: Be it further enacted, That from andzafter the passage of this act, it shall be lawful for any person, with or without orders to pursue and slay the said Josiah Phillips, and any others who have been of his associates or confederates, at any time after the said
first day of July aforesaid, and shall not have previously rendered him or themselves to any of the officers, etc. . Provided, That the person so slain be in arms at the time, or endeavoring to escape being taken.
Such was the Act that was passed by the Virginia Assembly; and which, even
in those days of internal discord, called
good people, for a long time, exposed to murder and -devastation,—
Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, that if the said Josiah Phillips, his associates and confederates, shall not, on or before the last day of June, in the present year, render themselves to the Governor, or to some member of the privy council, judge of the General Court, justice of the peace, or commissioned officer of the regular troops, navy or militia of this common wealth, in order to their trials for the treasons, murders, and other felonies by them com mitted, that, then, such of them, the said Josiah
Phillips, etc. . . ., as
shall not
so
render him or themselves, shall stand and be convicted and attainted of high treason, and shall suffer the pains of death, and incur
forth much censure. Still, in reading further, we will see the peculiar turn which the merits of this case of Phillips’
took. Phillips’ was apprehended in the course
of the autumn, and indicted by Mr. Edmund Randolph, then Attorney-Gen eral, for highway robbery alone. On this charge he was tried at the October term of the General Court, convicted and executed. S0, in this manner, the act of attainder was never brought to bear upon him at all, and it is for posterity
to say whether Mr. Henry deserves censure in communicating to the General
all forfeitures, etc. . . .; and that execution
Assembly the letter of Col. Wilson, or of this sentence of attainder shall be done, by order of the General Court, to be entered so soon as may be conveniently, after notice that any of the said offenders are in custody of the keeper of the public jail. And if any person committed to the custody of the keeper of the public jail, as an associate or confederate of the said Josiah Phillips, shall allege that he hath not been of his associates
whether the legislature was unduly harsh upon such a wretch as Phillips. Be this as it may, the justice and ex
pediency of the attainder were after wards debated with considerable heat, in Richmond in the Convention of 1788,
which convened for the purpose of dis
