MASON, GEORGE , American statesman, was born in Fairfax county, Va., in 1725. His colonial ancestors held official positions in the civil and military service of Virginia. Mason was a near neighbour and a lifelong friend of George Washington. His large estates and high social standing, together with his personal ability, gave Mason great influence among the Virginia planters, and he became identified with many enterprises, such as the organization of the Ohio company and the founding of Alexandria He became a member of the Virginia house of burgesses in 1759. In 1769 he drew up a series of non-importation resolu tions, which were presented by Washington and adopted by the Virginia legislature. In July 1774 he wrote for a convention in Fairfax county a series of resolutions known as the Fairfax Re solves, in which he advocated a congress of the colonies and suggested non-intercourse with Great Britain, a policy adopted by Virginia and later by the Continental Congress. He was a member of the Virginia committee of safety from Aug. to Dec. 1775, and of the Virginia convention in 1775 and 1776. In 1776 he drew up the Virginia Constitution and the famous Bill of Rights, a radically democratic document which had great influ ence on American political institutions. The Federal Govern ment laid claim to the hinterland ; i.e., to territory north and north-west of the Ohio river, which Virginia conceded in 1780 on the basis of a plan worked out by Mason. He was a member
of the Virginia house of delegates (1776-88). He took an active part in the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. Particularly notable was his opposition to the compromises in regard to slavery and the slave-trade. Indeed, like most of the prominent Virginians of the time, Mason was strongly in favour of the gradual abolition of slavery. He objected to the large and indefinite powers given by the completed Constitution to Con gress, so he joined with Patrick Henry in opposing its ratifi cation in the Virginian convention (1788). Failing in this, he suggested amendments, the substance of several of which was afterwards embodied in the present Bill of Rights. Declining an appointment as a U.S. senator from Virginia, he retired to his home, Gunston Hall (built by him and named after the family home in Staffordshire, England). A radical republican, he be lieved that local government should be kept strong and central government weak; his democratic theories had much influence in Virginia and other southern and western States. He died on Oct. 7, 1792 at Gunston Hall.
See Kate Mason Rowland, Life and Writings of George Mason (1892).