1. Congress had adopted the “Act” on 1 Nov. 1783 (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XXV, 790–91). For the “several Acts” in Virginia, see Hening, Statutes description begins William Waller Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, from the First Session of the Legislature, in the Year 1619 (13 vols.; Richmond and Philadelphia, 1819–23). description ends , IX, 73–74, 133–34 and passim; X, 74–75 and passim; XI, 31, 249.

2. Several words in the original are illegible but have been restored from the printed text in Hening, Statutes description begins William Waller Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, from the First Session of the Legislature, in the Year 1619 (13 vols.; Richmond and Philadelphia, 1819–23). description ends , XI, 365. The House later inserted an important amendment preceding this phrase and after “Appointments”: “three of whom at least shall be constantly attending to discharge the duties of their Office, when, and where that Honorable Body shall be sitting.” For an effective vote to be cast in Congress by a state, at least two of its delegates had to agree on the question at issue. The requirement that three be present avoided the possibility of a deadlock in voting. This improved the 1779 law, which provided that “any one” of the delegates in Congress, “or a majority of those present, if more than one,” could “give the vote of the commonwealth” (ibid., X, 163). This provision had virtually become obsolete on 1 Mar. 1781 with the adoption of the Articles of Confederation, since Article V stipulated that at least two state delegates should agree for the vote of that state to be effective (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XIX, 215).

3. In its final form, the House fixed a delegate’s pay at $8.00 per diem.

4. The bill was debated and amended on 28 May, passed the House on 31 May, and became law on 17 June 1784 (JHDV description begins Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia; Begun and Held at the Capitol, in the City of Williamsburg. Beginning in 1780, the portion after the semicolon reads, Begun and Held in the Town of Richmond. In the County of Henrico. The journal for each session has its own title page and is individually paginated. The edition used is the one in which the journals for 1777–1786 are brought together in two volumes, with each journal published in Richmond in either 1827 or 1828 and often called the “Thomas W. White reprint.” description ends , May 1784, pp. 25–28 and passim). As enacted, it carries an amended section rephrasing that portion of this paragraph after the words “as they would …”