MASON, George, colonist, born in
England: died in Stratford county, Virginia. in 1686. He was the first of the
Virginian family of that name that came to this country. He lived in
Staffordshire, and belonged to the family of Masons settled at
Stratford-on-Avon. He commanded a troop of horse under Charles II., and, when
the royalist forces were defeated at Worcester by Cromwell in 1651, Mason made
his escape disguised as a peasant, and, embarking for this country, he landed at
Norfolk, Virginia.
He received a grant of land in Northumberland (afterward Stafford) county,
Virginia, in 1655, for transporting eighteen persons into the colony. He was
sheriff of Stafford county in 1670, and county lieutenant in 1675. Colonel Mason
represented his county in "Bacon's assembly" in 1676. He was
conspicuous in Indian warfare, and in Bacon's rebellion he espoused the popular
side in the house of burgesses. In the acts of the assembly for 1675, 1679, and
1684, Colonel Mason is seen to be actively engaged in defending his frontier
county against the Indians.
--His son, George Mason,
frontiers man, born in Stafford county, Virginia, about 1670; do there in 1716,
was justice of the peace in 1689-'99, and captain of rangers. In 1699-1700 he
was county lieutenant of Stafford, under General Nicholson, and was engaged, as
his father had been before him, in the defense of the Potomac region against the
Indians. A copy of his will is preserved in the archives of the Virginia
historical society.
--The second George's son, George Mason
legislator, born in Stafford county, Virginia, about 1690; died in Charles
county, Maryland, in 1735, like his predecessors, was county lieutenant,
receiving his commission from Governor Spotswood in 1719. For courtesies
extended to the Scotch merchants and their agents in Virginia, he was
complimented by being made a "burgess and gild brother" of the city of
Glasgow in 1720. He represented Stafford county in the Virginia assembly in
1718-'23 and 1726. The county originally embraced all that part of the Northern
Neck north of Westmoreland county. Colonel Mason owned estates on both the
Maryland and the Virginia side of the Potomac, and he was living on one of his
plantations in Charles county, Maryland, when he was drowned while crossing that
river. The mother of the third George Mason was Mary Fowke, granddaughter of
Colonel Gerard Fowke, of "Ounston Hall," Staffordshire, a royalist
officer who came to Virginia at the same time with the first Colonel Mason. The
third George Mason married, in 1721, Ann Thomson, daughter of Stevens Thomson,
attorney-general of Virginia and granddaughter of Sir William Thomson, of
London.
--The third George's son, George Mason,
statesman, born in Doeg's (afterward Mason's) Neck, Stafford (now
Fairfax) County, Virginia, in 1725; died there, 7 October, 1792, after his
marriage built Gunston Hall, on the Potomac, which continued in the family until
after the civil war. It is situated in Truro parish, which includes Mount
Vernon. There he resided until his death. (See accompanying illustration.)
In 1769 he drew up the non-importation resolutions which were presented by
Washington in the Virginia assembly, and
unanimously adopted. One of these pledged the Virginia planters to purchase no
slaves that should be brought into the country after 1 November of that year. In
support of the political rights of his native state, Mason printed a pamphlet
entitled "Extracts from the Virginia. Charters, with Some Remarks upon
Them," and at a meeting of the people of Fairfax, 18 July, 1774, he
presented a series of twenty-four resolutions reviewing the whole ground of
controversy between Great Britain and the colonies, recommending a congress, and
urging non-intercourse with the mother-country. These were sanctioned by the
Virginia convention in the following August, and substantially reaffirmed by the
Continental congress in October of the same year.
In 1775 the convention of Virginia desired to elect him as a delegate to
congress, but he declined for family reasons. He was made a member of the
committee of safety, which was charged with the executive government of the
colony, and in 1776 he drafted the declaration
of rights and the constitution of Virginia, which were unanimously adopted. James
Madison pronounced Mason to be the ablest debater he had ever known. His talents in
this direction were displayed in the first legislature that was held under the
new constitution of Virginia, when he brought forward a measure that provided
for the repeal of all the old disabling acts, the legalizing of all forms of
worship, and the releasing of dissenters from the payment of parish rates.
Click on an image to view full-sized
In 1777 he was elected to the Continental Congress, but declined to serve.
Ten years later he was a member of the convention that framed the constitution
of the United States. He took an active part in its debates, always being found
oil the liberal side. In the discussion on the question whether the house of
representatives should be chosen directly by the people, he maintained that no
republican government could stand without popular confidence, and that
confidence could only be secured by giving to the people the selection of one
branch of the legislature. He also favored the election of the president by the
people for a term of seven years with ineligibility afterward. Propositions to
make slaves equal to freemen as a basis of representation and to require a
property qualification from voters, met with his strong disapproval.
He also spoke with great energy against the clause that prohibited the
abolition of the slave-trade, declaring that, as slavery was a source of
national weakness and demoralization, the general government should have power
to prevent its increase. In some of his attempts to render the constitution more
democratic, Mr. Mason was defeated in the convention, and when the instrument
was completed he declined to sign it. He was especially dissatisfied with the
extended and indefinite powers that were conferred on congress and the
executive. On his return to Virginia he was chosen a member of the convention to
which the constitution was referred for ratification or rejection, and, with Patrick
Henry, led the opposition to its adoption, insisting on certain amendments
These comprised a bill of rights and about
twenty alterations in the body of the measure, several of which were afterward
adopted. He was elected the first United States senator from Virginia, but
declined, and retired to Gunston Hall, where he resided until his death. Mr.
Mason is referred to by Thomas Jefferson as "a
man of the first order of wisdom, of expansive mind, profound judgment, cogent
in argument, learned in the lore of our former constitution, and earnest for the
republican change on democratic principles."
He is described, when fifty years of age, as of commanding presence and
lofty bearing, of an athletic and robust frame, a swarthy complexion, with black
hair sprinkled with gray, a grave face, and dark, radiant eyes. His statue
stands, with those of Jefferson, Henry, and other illustrious Virginians, at the
base of Crawford's colossal statue of Washington in front of the capitol at
Richmond.
The fourth George's brother, Thomson
Mason, lawyer, born in Virginia in 1733; died there in 1785, studied
law in London and attained to eminence at the bar. He sat in the Virginia
assembly for ten years before the Revolution, and took strong ground against the
aggressions of the British government. As early as 1774 he published a series of
papers in which he maintained the duty of open resistance to the mother-country.
The early numbers of the seines were signed British American, but, with rare
courage considering the circumstances, to the concluding one he appended his own
name. In 1778 he was appointed a member of the first supreme court of Virginia,
but he did not long occupy the bench. He was afterward one of the live judges of
the general court. Subsequently he was nominated, with his brother, one of the
revisers of the state laws by the senate, in 1779 and 1783 he was elected a
member of the house of delegates, and served as chairman of the committee on
courts of justice.
--Thomson's son, Stevens Thomson Mason,
senator, born in Stafford county, Virginia, in 1760; died in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, 10 May, 1808, was educated at William and Mary college. He served
as a volunteer aid to General Washington at the siege
of Yorktown, and was afterward a general of militia. He was a member of the
house of delegates, sat in the State constitutional convention in 1788, and was
then elected to the United States senate, where he served from 7 December, 1795,
till 3 March, 1803. Much comment was caused by his action regarding the Jay
treaty. John Jay had been sent to England in 1794 to
negotiate a treaty that should settle all existing differences between the
United States and Great Britain. In June, 1795, it was laid before the senate,
and its provisions were fiercely discussed for a fortnight in secret session,
when it was ratified by barely a constitutional majority, 20 to 10. The senate
then removed the seal of secrecy from its proceedings, but forbade any
publication of the treaty itself. Enough of its character, however, had been
revealed to cause it to be violently attacked by the press, when Mason caused
first a full abstract and afterward a perfect copy of it to be published in the
Philadelphia "Aurora." For this action he was extolled by the
Republicans (the Democrats of that day), but bitterly assailed by the
Federalists.
The popular clamor was so great against the treaty that its supporters
were threatened with mob violence in the large cities, Alexander
Hamilton being assaulted at an open-air meeting in New York. "These
are hard arguments," he is said to have exclaimed as a stone struck him
on the head. Mason was a warm personal friend of Thomas Jefferson, and always
his stanch political ally. He enjoyed great personal popularity, and as an
orator his exceptional command of wit, and sarcasm gained him a wide reputation.
--Another son of Thomson, John Thomson
Mason, lawyer, born in Stafford county, Virginia, in 1764; died in
December, 1824, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and in early life removed
to Maryland, where he took high rank in his profession. The office of United
States attorney-general was offered him by President Jefferson, and in 1806, by
the state of Maryland, those of chief justice and attorney-general, all of which
he declined, or occupied only for a brief period. In 1811 he refused the office
of United States attorney-general a second time on its being offered to him by
President Madison. In 1816 he was the Democratic candidate for United States
senator, in opposition to Robert G. Harper, but lost the election by a single
vote.
--Armistead Thomson, senator, son of Stevens
Thomson Mason, born in Loudon county, Virginia, in 1787; died in
Bladensburg, D. C., 6 February, 1819, was graduated at William and Mary in 1807,
engaged in farming, and served as colonel of a cavalry regiment during the war
of 1812. He subsequently became brigadier-general of Virginia militia. He sat
several years in the state legislature, and in 1815 was elected United States
senator, serving from 22 January. 1816, till 3 March, 1817, when he resigned, at
the suggestion of his friends, to contest the strongly Federal congressional
district of London. It was supposed that he alone could compete successfully
with the opposing candidate, Charles ***II. Mercer, but he was defeated by a
small majority. The contest was one of great personal bitterness, and gave rise
to several duels, among them the encounter with his brother-in-law, John M.
McCarty, which resulted in Mason's death at the age of thirty-two. The quarrel
was an exceedingly violent one, and Mason insisted that his opponent should
fight, while McCarty did all in his power to avoid a meeting. The latter at
first proposed that muskets, charged with buckshot, should be used and the
distance fixed at twelve feet. This was finally increased to six paces, and a
single ball was substituted for buckshot. Colonel Mason fell at the first fire
and died before he could be removed from the field. He left an only child,
Stevens Thomson, who subsequently volunteered in the Mexican war, was promoted
captain of rifles, and fell mortally wounded while making a charge on the enemy
at Cerro Gordo.
--The fourth George's grandson, Richard
Barnes Mason, soldier, born in Fairfax county. Va., 16 January, 1797;
died in St. Louis, Missouri, 25 July, 1850, was appointed 2d lieutenant in the
8th United States infantry, 2 September, 1817. He was promoted 1st lieutenant in
the same month, and made captain, 31 July, 1819, major, 1st dragoons, 4 March,
1833, lieutenant-colonel, 4 July, 1836, and colonel, 30 June, 1846. He was
brevetted major, 31 July, 1829, for ten years' faithful service in one grade,
and brigadier-general, 30 May, 1848, for meritorious conduct. He served in the
Black Hawk war and commanded the United States forces in California, being
ex-officio the first military and civil governor of that state.
James Murray Mason, senator,
another grandson of the fourth George, born on Mason's island, Fairfax County,
Virginia, 3 November, 1798 ; died near Alexandria, Virginia, 28 April, 1871, was
graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1818, studied law, was admitted
to the bar, and began to practice in Winchester, Virginia He was a member of the
house of delegates from 1826 till 1832, of the Virginia constitutional
convention in 1829, a presidential elector on the Jackson ticket in 1833, and
was elected a member of congress as a Jackson Democrat, serving from 4
September, 1837, till 3 March, 1839. At the expiration of his term he was
offered a reelection, but declined, and returned to the practice of his
profession.
In 1847 he was elected by the Virginia legislature United States senator,
to fill an unexpired term, and was twice re-elected. His last term would have
expired in 1863, but he left his seat early in 1861 on the secession of his
state. During his term of fourteen years, although he made no notable speeches
and was never regarded as a brilliant senator, he manifested a capacity for
steady work, which made him a valuable member. For ten years he was chairman of
the committee on foreign relations. A decided Democrat and a strict
constructionist of the State-rights school, he vehemently opposed all
anti-slavery agitation, and was the author of the fugitive-slave law of 1850.
His arguments in its favor were characterized by much of the vindictive
sectional feeling and partisan eloquence of that day. In the autumn of 1861 he
was appointed, with John Slidell, Confederate commissioner to England, and set
sail from Charleston for Cuba on 12 October. After remaining a few days at
Havana, where they were formally received by the captain-general, the
commissioners took passage on the British mail-steamer "Trent,"
and were passing through the Bahama channel when they were captured by Captain
Charles Wilkes, brought to the United States, and subsequently confined in Fort
Warren, Boston harbor. After his release, on 2 January, 1862, on the demand of
the British authorities, Mr. Mason and his colleague sailed for Europe, where
they continued to urge the recognition of the Confederacy until its final
collapse. At the close of the war Mr. Mason went to Canada, where he remained
three years, but he returned to Virginia in 1868, and resided there until his
death.
Stevens Thomson Mason,
governor of Michigan, grandson of Stevens Thomson, born in Loudoun county,
Virginia, in 1811 ; died in New York city, 4 January, 1843, was taken to
Kentucky by his father, John T. Mason, where he was educated. In 1831 he was
appointed by President Jackson secretary of the territory of Michigan, and in
that capacity, on the transfer of the governor, Lewis Cass, to the war
department at Washington, he became acting governor. During this period a
controversy began between Ohio and Michigan regarding their boundary-line. It
excited intense interest and aroused bitter feelings, and thousands of troops
were marched to the frontier in expectation of a bloody conflict. Governor
Mason, throughout the entire controversy, though but a mere youth, acted with
calmness, ability, and courage. In 1835, when the territory became a state, he
was unanimously elected its first governor, and at the end of his term was
re-elected. On leaving office in 1839 he retired from public life, and, removing
to New York city, began the practice of the law.
A Voice of Dissent: George Mason The following text and picture courtesy of the National
Archives
As the delegates gathered at the Pennsylvania State House in May 1787 to
"revise" the Articles of
Confederation, Virginia delegate George
Mason wrote, "The Eyes of the United States are turned upon this
Assembly and their Expectations raised to a very anxious Degree." Mason
had earlier written the Virginia
Declaration of Rights that strongly influenced Thomas
Jefferson in writing the first part of the Declaration
of Independence. He left the convention bitterly disappointed, however, and
became one of the Constitution's most vocal
opponents. "It has no declaration of rights," he was to state.
Ultimately, George Mason's views prevailed. When James
Madison drafted the amendments to the Constitution that were to become the Bill
of Rights, he drew heavily upon the ideas put forth in the Virginia
Declaration of Rights.
The article "A
More Perfect Union" provides an in-depth look at the Constitutional
Convention, the ratification process, and the adoption of the Bill of Rights.
