George+Mason-2

__**George Mason**__


George Mason - 1725- 1792

Would the bill of rights be the same without George Mason? George Mason served at the Virginia constitution in Williamsburg in 1776. He created drafts of the first declaration of rights and state constitution in the Colonies. Both were adopted after committee alterations; the Virginia Declaration of Rights was adopted in June 12, 1776.(1) The Virginia Constitution was adopted in June 29, 1776. In 1786, George was appointed to represent Virginia as a delegate to a federal convention. He met in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation. Mason's most important issue was on the bill of rights. He did not want to be like England. The bill of rights was basically on Mason's Virginia declaration. George Mason was a big contributor to the bill of rights.
 * __Introduction__**

George Mason was born on December 11, 1725. His parents were named George and Ann Thompson Mason. He grew up on the Mason Family plantation in Fairfax County, Virginia. (2)George's dad died when he was only ten in a boating accident; he drowned. After his dad died he went to live with his uncle, John Mercer. George was allowed to read and study in his uncle's private library. George Mason had no formal schooling and essentially educated himself by using his uncle's library. (3) George got married to a sixteen year old girl named Ann Eilbeck, in 1750. They lived in Dogue's Neck, Virginia. They had twelve children; three died. On April 11, 1780 George remarried to a women named Sarah Brent. George suffered from gout for a large part of his life. Also in accordance with current medical treatment, he relied on bloodletting​ to ease the symptoms.
 * __Backround__**



__**Role at Constitutional Convention**__ George Mason is called the "Father of the Bill of Rights." (1) At the Constitutional Convention, Mason refused to sign the document because he thought there should be a Bill of Rights included. Since the Constitution was increasing centralized power, Mason want to protect the rights of individual citizens. He convinced the Federalists to add ten amendments to the Constitution, which became known as The Bill of Rights. These were based on the Declaration of Rights that Mason wrote for Virginia.

__**DBQ**__

George Mason was an anti-federalist. He was not in favor of a strong central government. He was a supporter of states' rights. Mason was in favor of the separation of powers, and wanted the government divided into three branches, but he didn't want the branches to have much power. As an anti-federalist, Mason was in favor of limiting the power of the central government branches through checks and balances.

__**Attendance record**__
 * || **Present** || **Absent** || **Do Not Know** || **Probably Present** || **Probably Absent** ||
 * **Act 1** || 13 || 0 || 0 || 8 || 0 ||
 * **Act 2** || 20 || 0 || 0 || 9 || 0 ||
 * **Act 3** || 22 || 0 || 0 || 2 || 0 ||
 * **Act 4** || 12 || 0 || 0 || 2 || 0 ||
 * **Totals** || 67 || 0 || 0 || 21 || 0 ||
 * **%** || 76 || 0 || 0 || 23 || 0 ||

His addendence record shows that he was present at most of the sessions of the Constitutional Convention. He played an import role on the debates and drafting of the Constitution. Without George Mason the Constitution would not be the same. He took his role seriously and helped America.

__**Primary Sources**__

1. George Mason agreed on the seperation of powers. He mainly agreed because the power would be split into three branches and each branch had a say. He doesnt want the power to be to strong in one branch. His big idea was to share the power and not have anyone to powerful. George Mason was an anti-federalist, He was not in favor of a strong central government so he liked to have three different branches.

2. George Mason, along with James Madison, was primeraly concerned with individual and states rights. He pushed for the adding of the Bill of Rights.(4) Because of his support for states rights, I think that the Tenth Ammendment would be important to him, because it makes clear that the states are able to keep certain powers that the federal government is not given by the Constitution.

(1) Yardley, Jonathan (November 5, 2006), [|//A founding father insisted that the Constitution wasn't worth ratifying without a bill of rights//]

(2) Rowland, Kate Mason (1892), [|//The Life of George Mason, 1725-1792//]

(3) [|From Revolution to Reconstruction: Biographies: George Mason II]

(4) Gutzman, Kevin (2007). //The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution//. Washington: Regnery Publishing, Inc.. pp. 35,23.