Mason, George, 1725–92, American political leader, b. Fairfax co., Va. He was one of the most affluent of the colonial Virginia planters. In his triple capacity as trustee of Alexandria (1754–79), justice of the Fairfax county court, and vestryman of Truro parish, Mason exercised great influence in local politics. In 1752 he became a member of the Ohio Company (serving as treasurer until 1773), and in 1759 he was elected to the Virginia house of burgesses. An early opponent of British colonial policy, he drafted the nonimportation resolutions adopted (1769) by the burgesses against the British and also wrote (1774) the Fairfax Resolves, which restated the constitutional position of the colonies in relation to the crown. Mason served on the Virginia committee of safety, and as a member of the Virginia constitutional convention of 1776 he drafted the well-known declaration of rights, which was extensively copied by other American states, and which was drawn on by Thomas Jefferson in the first part of the Declaration of Independence. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia (1787) and took an active part in drafting the Constitution; however, he objected to provisions for the centralization of power, the compromise between the New England and the Southern states on the tariff and slave trade issues, and the failure to include a bill of rights. Mason refused to sign the Constitution, and with Patrick Henry he led the fight in Virginia against its ratification; the bill of rights he advocated was the basis for some of the first 10 amendments (the Bill of Rights) to the Constitution.

Bibliography

See his papers, ed. by R. A. Rutland (3 vol., 1970); biographies by K. M. Rowland (1892, repr. 1964), R. A. Rutland (1961, repr. 1963), and F. Henri (1971).

Mason, George

George Mason, detail of an oil painting by L. Guillaume after a portrait by J. Hesselius; in the …

(credit: Courtesy of the Virginia Historical Society)

(born 1725, Fairfax county, Va.—died Oct. 7, 1792, Fairfax county, Va., U.S.) American Revolutionary statesman. The owner of a large plantation, he became active in efforts to promote the westward expansion of the colonies. In 1774 he helped his neighbour George Washington draft the Fairfax Resolves (1774), which called for a boycott of English goods. In 1776 he drafted the Virginia state constitution and the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which influenced Thomas Jefferson and was used as a model by other states. A member of the Virginia House of Delegates (1776–88), he attended the Constitutional Convention but did not sign the Constitution of the United States, which he believed granted large and indefinite powers to the central government.

Mason, George (1725–92) public official, planter; born in Fairfax County, Va. He wrote Virginia's first constitution and declaration of rights (1776) which were later used as models for both the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. He was a member and the treasurer of the Ohio Company (1752–73) and was interested in western settlement. Although he considered himself to be a private citizen rather than a politician, he served in the Virginia House of Delegates (1776–88), the House of Burgesses (1759–76), and was a member of the July Convention (1775) and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention (1787). He opposed the new Constitution because it presented such a strong federal government.