George Mason - Author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights

George Mason served as a colonel with George Washington in a Virginia militia before the Revolutionary War. Born in 1725, he was 51 when the war formally began in 1776. He supported the Continental Army during the war, but he is primarily remembered as the author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, an explicit list of political rights that became one of the models for the American Bill of Rights. He wrote the Virginia Declaration as a member of the Virginia Convention in 1776.

Sixteen rights were included in the Virginia Declaration. It begins with the proclamation that men are by nature equally free and independent, and that they are entitled to life, liberty and the possession of property. The Second Amendment states that power is vested in the people. The Third Amendment recites that government is founded for the common benefit and security of the people, and when government becomes inadequate for these purposes, the people have the right to reform, alter, or abolish it. Hereditary emoluments are prohibited by the Fourth Amendment. The Fifth Amendment guarantees separation of powers, a reflection of Montesquieu's thinking.

The right to vote, property rights and free elections are guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment. Consent of the representatives of the people is required by the Seventh Amendment before any laws can be suspended. The Eight Amendment guarantees rights of the accused, including the right to confront witnesses and the right a jury trial. The Ninth Amendment and the Eighth Amendment of the Federal Constitution are virtually identical; they prohibit cruel and unusual punishment.

The Tenth Amendment of the Virginia Declaration prohibits general warrants. Jury trials in civil cases and property cases specifically are protected by the Eleventh Amendment. The Twelfth Amendment guarantees freedom of the press. The Thirteenth Amendment declares that a militia is necessary to a free state and further warns that standing armies should be avoided.

Uniform government is guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. The Fifteenth Amendment requires adherence to moderation, temperance, justice, frugality, and virtue in order to preserve free government. The Sixteenth Amendment guarantees the right to freedom of conscience and the free exercise of religion.

On the slavery issue, Mason advocated prohibition of the slave trade, but he was in fact a slave owner himself. In his will, he did not set his slaves free.

Mason was an anti-federalist who never signed the new Constitution because it lacked a bill of rights. By refusing to sign, the anti-federalist camp won what became the first ten Amendments to the Constitution. It is worth noting that during the period 1787-1791 before the Second Amendment was added to the U.S. Constitution, George Washington never attempted to seize arms from Mason, instead deferring to his compatriot's assertion of right.

Having prevailed in the fight for freedom, Mason died in Virginia in 1792. He is a patriot to be remembered.