Mason, George (1725-1792), was a Virginia statesman who wrote the first American bill of rights, the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776. In 1787, Mason played an important role in the Constitutional Convention, though he refused to sign the final draft of the United States Constitution. Mason held few public offices, but his writings and leadership had great influence.
Perhaps Mason’s most important work was his writing of the Virginia Declaration of Rights. Thomas Jefferson drew on this document when he wrote the Declaration of Independence. James Madison also used Mason’s ideas in 1789 when he drafted the 10 constitutional amendments that became the Bill of Rights.
His constitutional views.
Mason played an active role in creating the Constitution but disagreed with parts of it. For example, he favored a system of proportional representation, in which a state’s population determines the number of its members in Congress. But he eventually supported the compromise that gave each state an equal vote in the Senate and a proportional vote in the House of Representatives.
Mason objected strongly to the compromise that allowed the importation of slaves to go on until 1808. He was one of the few Southerners who opposed slavery. He felt slaves should be educated and gradually freed.
Mason also had other concerns. He opposed concentrating executive power in one person–the President–without an advisory council appointed by the House of Representatives. He feared that the Senate might develop into an aristocratic institution that would dominate the government. He was concerned that the economic interests of the South might be damaged if laws regulating commerce could be passed by a simple majority in each house of Congress. Mason also wanted a bill of rights to protect personal liberties against possible interference by the federal government.
Mason was dissatisfied because his fellow delegates did not meet these concerns, and he refused to sign the Constitution. When the Constitution was submitted to the states for ratification, he opposed it, and made the absence of a bill of rights his main objection. The Bill of Rights was finally added in 1791. Mason died on Oct. 7, 1792.
Early life.
Mason was born on Dec. 11, 1725, in Fairfax County, Virginia, where his family had extensive landholdings. He studied law, managed his plantation, and was active in community affairs. His paper Extracts from the Virginia Charters (1773) formed a basis for U.S. claims to land south of the Great Lakes.
Mason preferred private life and refused many public offices. Finally, he became a member of the second Virginia Convention in Richmond in 1775. He also attended the third Virginia Convention in Williamsburg in 1776, where he wrote the Declaration of Rights and a large part of the state Constitution.
