The Founders and the Constitution, Part 11: George Mason

Portrait of George Mason (1725–1792), American patriot, statesman, and delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention. He's called the "Father of the Bill of Rights." For all of these reasons, he's considered to be one of the "Founding Fathers" of the United States. Dominic W. Boudet, after John Hesselius [1728–1778]/Public Domain

Commentary

“If the Govt. is to be lasting, it must be founded in the confidence & affections of the people ...” — George Mason, at the Constitutional Convention, Aug. 13, 1787.

George Mason of Virginia helped to construct the Constitution. He then opposed ratifying the very document that he had helped to construct. Through both courses of action, he strongly influenced the Constitution’s final form.

Mason was born on Dec. 11, 1725 (by the current calendar), in the region later known as Fairfax County, Virginia. At about the time of Mason’s 10th birthday, his father drowned in the Potomac River. His uncle, the noted legal scholar John Mercer, took charge of his education. Through Mercer and private tutors, the boy received a thorough grounding in Latin and the classics.

The lad also helped his mother in managing their extensive family estate. Mason proved to have an ample talent for business.

In 1750, he married Anne Eilbeck. He and Anne had nine children, of whom three died in infancy. She died in 1773. Seven years later, he wed Sarah Brent, then past her childbearing time.

Mason was essentially a private man with no strong desire for public office. He preferred to manage his affairs from the home that he had built—Gunston Hall. He also was plagued by ill health. However, he agreed to serve in Virginia’s House of Burgesses (1758–1761) and in some of the varied assemblies that governed Virginia during the Revolution. He steadfastly declined election to the Continental and Confederation congresses and, subsequently, to the U.S. Senate.

Mason commanded great respect for his wisdom and ability. Men more active in politics distributed his writings and adopted his ideas. For example, in 1774, his neighbor and friend George Washington convinced the citizens of Fairfax County to endorse Mason’s statement of colonial rights known as the “Fairfax Resolves.”

Mason also was the principal author of Virginia’s first constitution (1776). That document contained both a “Declaration of Rights” and a “Form of Government.” Much of the substance and phrasing of the Virginia Declaration of Rights appeared later in the U.S. Declaration of Independence and in the Bill of Rights.

In early 1785, Mason served as one of Virginia’s commissioners for negotiating with Maryland over navigation of the Potomac River. In 1786, the state Legislature likewise named him as a commissioner to the Annapolis Convention, but the notice of his appointment arrived too late for him to attend. Later that year, the Legislature designated him as one of seven delegates to the Constitutional Convention, scheduled to meet the following May.

The Constitutional Convention

The records of the first 10 weeks of the Constitutional Convention contain little to suggest that Mason would oppose the final product. This senior statesman (he was then 62) firmly believed that a stronger central government was necessary. He spoke frequently and to good purpose. The views that he expressed were well within the convention mainstream.

Of course, sometimes his colleagues rejected his ideas. For example, he advocated a plural executive, but the convention opted for a single president. But far more of his views were accepted. Here are some of them:

• The central government should be able to enforce its laws directly rather than asking the states to do so;
• Members of Congress should be paid by the federal rather than the state treasuries;
• Each state should have two senators, selected by their state legislatures;
• Representatives should be elected by the people for two-year terms;
• Each representative should be at least 25 years old and for at least seven years a citizen of the United States;
• The president should be able to veto bills, subject to override by a supermajority of Congress;
• The president should be required to take an oath of office;
• The Constitution’s definition of “treason” should be based on specific language from a venerable English statute;
• The Constitution should include guards against Congress being co-opted by the executive;
• “Other high Crimes and Misdemeanors” should be grounds for impeachment;
• Congress shouldn’t be able to veto state laws; and
• The states should be able to amend the Constitution without the approval of Congress.

Mason also was one of several delegates who pointed out that the convention had full authority to propose a new form of government.

As the proceedings wore on, however, Mason began to raise serious objections to how the document was shaping up. For example, he fiercely opposed the bargain by which the Constitution temporarily accommodated the slave trade. Here’s James Madison’s report of a portion of Mason’s speech, delivered on the convention floor on Aug. 22, 1787.

“This infernal trafic [sic] originated in the avarice of British Merchants. The British Govt. constantly checked the attempts of Virginia to put a stop to it ... Maryland & Virginia ... had already prohibited the importation of slaves expressly. N. Carolina had done the same in substance. All this would be in vain if S. Carolina & Georgia be at liberty to import. ... Slavery discourages arts [i.e., crafts] & manufactures. The poor despise labor when performed by slaves. They prevent the immigration of Whites, who really enrich & strengthen a Country. They produce the most pernicious effect on manners. Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. ... He held it essential in every point of view, that the Genl. Govt. should have power to prevent the increase of slavery.”

(Note how the facts recounted in Mason’s speech contradict some of the dubious claims of the New York Times’ notorious “1619 Project.”)

Mason’s Other Objections

When the Constitution’s final draft was almost complete, Mason summarized some of his reservations in a short paper. This paper was widely disseminated, and during the ratification debates, opponents relied on it for talking points. At the Virginia ratifying convention in June 1788, Mason delivered about 45 floor speeches. He elaborated on his original objections and raised others as well. Among opponents, Patrick Henry provided most of the eloquence, while Mason provided most of the substance.

On the Founding-era political spectrum (discussed in the first essay in this series), Mason wasn’t, like Henry, a firm Antifederalist. Rather, like Gov. Edmund Randolph, he was a “conditional federalist.” In other words, both Randolph and Mason supported ratifying the Constitution if certain conditions were met. The difference between the two was that Randolph’s conditions had been fulfilled or rendered irrelevant, but Mason’s hadn’t.

Most of Mason’s positions can be summarized by saying that he thought the U.S. Constitution should be more like the one that he had drafted for Virginia.

His central fear was of a federal government that was too aristocratic—in which control was concentrated in a cabal consisting of the president and a small Senate. He wanted the federal government to be more democratic.

Accordingly, he proposed enlarging the House of Representatives, depriving Congress of the power to manipulate its own elections, checking the president with an executive council, imposing term limits on some officers, and banning the Senate from initiating financial appropriations.

And most importantly, he sought a bill of rights to protect individual liberties and the reserved authority of the states.

He suggested other changes as well. He would have limited Congress’s power to impose direct taxes. He wanted a requirement that bills regulating foreign commerce obtain a two-thirds vote in each house of Congress. He thought that Congress’s unlimited authority over the capital district (now Washington, D.C.) might be abused. And he worried that the Constitution’s ban on state ex post facto laws might impede useful civil legislation. (As I related in an earlier essay, Mason made this point by quoting a line from the Roman poet Virgil.)

Mason advocated for a second federal convention to consider suggested amendments.

Mason’s Influence

This Virginia senior statesman influenced the Constitution through his many contributions at the drafting convention. He also supported the compromises that made the document possible.

His subsequent opposition—and especially his support for a bill of rights—laid the groundwork for the gentlemen’s agreement by which the Constitution ultimately came into effect. The agreement was that moderate opponents would vote to ratify, and proponents would help to secure a bill of rights. (pdf)

Thus, if Mason hadn’t paved the way, the Constitution might never have been adopted. Or if adopted, it might not include the Bill of Rights.

Subsequent Life

In 1789, Madison shepherded the Bill of Rights through Congress. Mason was, of course, delighted. By that time, he was 64 years old. During the three years left to him, he attended to his children, his plantation, and the study of the Greco-Roman classics.

On Oct. 7, 1792, he died at his home, Gunston Hall.

Incidentally: Historian Brent Tarter has called Gunston Hall “one of the jewels of eighteenth-century Virginia architecture.” I’ve been there, and I heartily recommend a visit.

Read prior installments here: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.