As we celebrate the anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights on December 15, we at COS should recognize the influence of George Mason upon this important aspect of the Constitution.
Not only did Mason insist upon the provision that became Article V during his time as a delegate at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, but his suspicion of an overly powerful centralized government and his understanding for the need to place clear limits upon the federal government in order for freedom to flourish characterized his political philosophy.
In 1776, Mason, a prominent figure in Virginia politics who long counted among his friends George Washington, wrote the initial draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the Constitution of Virginia.
The Declaration of Rights is recognized as the first of its kind in North America. That is to say that it was the first document that recognized the individual citizen as sovereign.
It informs the language of the Bill of Rights, for which Mason strenuously fought. Phrases in Mason’s declaration that ring through the ages and are recognizable to all who are familiar with the Bill of Rights include:
“That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights…That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people…That elections of members to serve as representatives of the people, in assembly ought to be free…That the freedom of the press…can never be restrained but by despotic governments.”
Thomas Jefferson put it finely when he said, "The fact is unquestionable, that the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution of Virginia, were originally drawn by George Mason, one of our greatest men, and of the first order of greatness."
Among that group of skeptics of centralized power known as the Founding Fathers, Mason was one of the most suspicious. The extreme aversion to power that could be readily abused left Mason -- despite the inclusion of Article V -- dissatisfied with the final version of the Constitution.
He was furious that the final document did not include the protections afforded by what would become the Bill of Rights. He left Philadelphia, as James Madison put it in a letter to Jefferson, "in an exceeding ill humour."
Once back in Virginia, Mason immediately wrote Washington and complained of the proposed Constitution. His primary critique: "There is no declaration of rights."
Because of that and other significant objections, Mason refused to sign the Constitution as first presented to the states. In so doing, he lost a great deal, including his friendship with Washington.
Mason also refused to serve as a United States senator from Virginia. His post-convention campaign for the inclusion of a Bill of Rights and pressure from Virginia and other states motivated Madison and others in Congress to propose the first 10 amendments to the Constitution to the states.
As we meet a new year that poses much promise for the COS movement, it is well to remember Mason’s principled stands, his commitment to liberty and the sovereign people, and to consider another of Mason’s invaluable insights to the core principle of this republic as motivation for not only the Bill of Rights, but all of our endeavors:
“In all our associations; in all our agreements, let us never lose sight of this fundamental maxim – that all power was originally lodged in, and consequently is derived from, the people. We should wear it as a breastplate and buckle it as our armour.”
