Sketches of The American Founders: Mason

Born in 1725, George Mason served as a colonel with George Washington in a Virginia militia. He later supported the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Not only a military man, he is remembered as the author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, an explicit list of political rights that became one of the models for the American Bill of Rights. He wrote the Declaration of Rights as a member of the Virginia Convention in 1776.

The Virginia Declaration included 16 rights. The first declared that men are by the nature equally free and independent, and that they are entitled to life, liberty and the possession of property. Amendment Two stated that power is vested in the people. The third declares that government is founded for the common benefit and security of the people, and when government becomes inadequate for these purposes, the people have the right to reform, alter, or abolish it. Amendment Four prohibits hereditary emoluments. The Fifth Amendment guarantees separation of powers.

Free elections, the right to vote, and property rights are guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment. The Seventh Amendment requires consent  of the representatives of the people before any laws can be suspended. Rights of the accused, including the right to confront witnesses and the right a jury trial, are among those included in the Eight Amendment. The Ninth Amendment is virtually identical to the Eighth Amendment of the Federal Constitution.

General warrants are prohibited under the Tenth Amendment to the Declaration. The Eleventh Amendment guarantees jury trials in civil cases and property cases specifically. Freedom of the Press is guaranteed in the Twelfth Amendment. The Thirteenth Amendment declares that a militia is necessary to a free state. It furthers states that standing armies should be avoided.

The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees uniform government. The Fifteenth Amendment requires adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue in order to preserve free government. The Sixteenth Amendment guarantees the free exercise of religion and the right to freedom of conscience.

Mason was not without controversy. On the slave issue, he was formally in favor of prohibiting slave trade, but he was in fact a slave owner himself. He did not set his slaves free in his will.

During the constitutional debate of 1787-91, Mason was among the leaders of the anti-federalists. He never signed the new Constitution, complaining that it lacked a bill of rights. His refusal to sign gave the anti-federalists the political leverage needed to obtain what became the first ten Amendments to the Constitution.

Having completed the fight for the Bill of Rights, Mason died in Virginia in 1792. He had won his liberty.