The Revolution and Beyond

When the American Revolution got under way, Mason was a leader of Virginia patriots and later drafted the state’s constitution. This document would hold the nuggets of later problems he had with the U.S. Constitution, in that the first rights granted in the Virginia constitution would be on behalf of the individual, which Mason would later see as lacking in the U.S. Constitution.

During this time (1787), Mason was also a Virginia delegate (George Washington and James Madison were others) to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, where, despite his ongoing poor health, he proved to be vastly influential in the composition of the Constitution.

Mason’s model for Virginia’s constitution was soon adopted by most of the states, and it was also later transferred in part, and in a watered-down form, into the U.S. Constitution. At the Constitutional Convention, Mason vigorously opposed the provision that allowed the slave trade to continue until 1808 (despite being a slaveholder himself), referring to the slave trade as “disgraceful to mankind.” He also thought that the document was generally unfair to the concerns of the South.

What really sets Mason apart from the other founding fathers, and what keeps him in a sense less well known than many others, is that he also vehemently objected to powers granted to the new government, which he believed to be ill-defined and overzealous. (In fact, he said, “I would sooner chop off my right hand than put it to the Constitution as it now stands.”)

In his home state of Virginia, he rallied against ratification of the final draft of the U.S. Constitution, and he never did sign it. His criticism of the rights given to the federal government over the people and states helped bring about the Bill of Rights as an addendum to the Constitution (although his earlier idea for a bill of rights was rejected). The Constitution was approved by a vote of 89 to 79 in September 1787 (Mason went back to Gunston Hall soon after) and was effected March 4, 1789.

In December 1791, the U.S. Bill of Rights was ratified, putting to rest Mason’s concerns about the rights of the individual, and he died less than a year later.