Virginia’s 1776 Warning Against General Warrants

Specificity was part of the protection

The section objects both to the evidentiary basis for a search and to the description of the people or offenses involved. Its criticism is directed at authority broad enough to let an officer proceed without those particulars. It calls such warrants oppressive and says they ought not to be granted. [1]

That is a more concrete claim than saying officials should simply exercise good judgment. The document identifies features of the authorization itself that make it dangerous. The language gives a reader something to inspect in the warrant, not merely a promise to trust the person carrying it.

Read the adopted text as its own document

The archive distinguishes the adopted declaration from a surviving draft associated with its preparation. This story concerns the adopted text. Drafts help trace development, but they should not be silently substituted for the final declaration.

The preserved June 14 Virginia Gazette printing is a contemporary witness to the June 12 text. It is not the adopted manuscript itself. That distinction matters when identifying what a scan actually shows. [1]

A historical starting point, not a current-law shortcut

The declaration offers an early, explicit argument for evidence and particularity. It is not a substitute for examining a present-day search under the laws and decisions that govern it. The historical text is strong enough to read on its own terms.

Open the archive’s adopted declaration and locate section 10. The record keeps the contemporary printing and reading text together so the argument can be checked against an actual source. [1]

Sources & archive records

1. A Declaration of Rights

   Virginia Declaration of Rights, adopted June 12, 1776, section 10; contemporary Virginia Gazette printing of June 14.

   Original publisher or repository