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Mason, George 1725-1792

Statesman; born in Fairfax county, Va., in 1725; was a firm patriot and able statesman. In 1769 he drew up the non-importation resolutions which Washington presented to the Virginia Assembly, and which were unanimously adopted. He also wrote a powerful tract against the claim of the British Parliament to tax the colonies without their consent. At a meeting of the inhabitants of Fairfax, July 18, 1774, he offered twenty-four resolutions reviewing the whole ground of the pending controversy; recommended a general congress; and urged the non-intercourse policy. In 1775 he was a member of the Virginia committee of safety; and in 1776 he drafted the Declaration of Rights and State constitution of Virginia, which he drafted the Declaration of Rights and State constitution of Virginia, which were adopted unanimously. In 1777 he was elected to the Continental Congress, and in 1787 he was a leading member of the convention which framed the national Constitution. In that body he opposed every measure which tended to the perpetuation of slavery. Dissatisfied with the Constitution, he declined to sign it, and, in connection with Patrick Henry, led the opposition to it in the convention of Virginia. He also declined the office of United States Senator, to which he was elected. Jefferson wrote of Mason: “He was a man of the first order of wisdom, of expansive mind, profound judgment, cogent in argument, learned in the lore of our form of Constitution, and earnest for the republican change on democratic principles.” He died in Fairfax county, Va., Oct. 7, 1792. A statue of Mason occupies a pedestal on Crawford's monument of Washington in Richmond, Va.

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