Sunday, March 26, 2006

About George Mason

This is from his biography at Wikipedia.
Mason was appointed in 1786 to represent Virginia as a delegate to a Federal Convention, to meet in Philadelphia for the purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation. He served at the Federal Convention in Philadelphia from May to September 1787 and contributed significantly to the formation of the Constitution. However, he would not sign the Constitution for a number of reasons; the very first of his objections was that the original Constitution failed to contain a "declaration of rights". Mason continued to agitate for the addition of a bill of rights to the Constitution after the convention. This agitation cost Mason his long friendship with George Washington, and is probably a leading reason why George Mason became less well-known than other U.S. founding fathers in later years. On December 15, 1791, the U.S. Bill of Rights, based primarily on George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights, was ratified in response to the agitation of Mason and others.
Mason County, Kentucky, was named for George Mason.

No comments: