George Mason
George Mason attended the Constitutional Convention through the debates and voting, but refused to sign the document which the convention produced. He argued against ratification, his chief dissatisfaction being the lack of definition of and protection for the basic rights of citizens. To this end he wrote Objections to this Constitution of Government. Although James Madison is generally considered to be the Father of the Bill of Rights, the amendments were based for the most part on the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which had been authored by Mason in 1776. Mason alienated himself from many of the Virginia delegates through his opposition.
Mason’s Objections went beyond the absence of a Bill of Rights in the Constitution. He argued in his pamphlet for an immediate end to the importation of slaves (though he was a slave owner himself). Mason was also concerned that the more numerous northern states with their larger populations would dominate the government at the expense of the southern states and thus argued for a supermajority in the case of navigation and interstate commerce acts. Mason argued that the new central government was supreme over the state governments, hence state Bills of Rights such as his own in Virginia were no security for citizens.
Prior to the Constitutional Convention Mason had served in the Virginia legislature in its varying forms throughout the Revolutionary period, and had developed a reputation which was well known by delegates from all of the attending states. During the convention itself he was a frequent speaker, winning some points but failing to carry those he deemed most critical, which led to him opposing the document produced by the convention. As a neighbor and long-time friend of George Washington, Mason found his reputation damaged by his opposition to a Constitution which Washington endorsed.
Mason sent a copy of his objections to Washington, who by consensus would become the first president following ratification. Among the objections he wrote, “There is no section preserving liberty of the press or trial by jury in civil cases…” but Washington maintained silence during the ratification debate. The majority of the two men’s neighbors in Fairfax County and Alexandria supported ratification. Mason found his influence waning as a result of his arguments against the document. He fought ratification to the bitter end (for him) and despite history proving many of his arguments to be correct, Virginia voted to ratify by a vote of 88 – 80.
Mason’s long friendship with George Washington was destroyed by his opposition to ratification, as was his health. Washington referred to Mason in a letter as a “quondam” (former) friend. Mason retired to his estate, Gunston Hall where he became ill in the summer of 1792. Jefferson visited him that October and found him remaining of sound mind, but within a week of the visit Mason was dead, possibly of pneumonia. He was buried at Gunston Hall. Madison introduced what became the Bill of Rights during the first congress and the third through the twelfth of Madison’s proposals, based on Mason’s, were ratified in December 1791.