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.