Opinion: Letter to the Editor: Mason’s Contributions

Monday, June 12, 2017

Alexandria’s trustee George Mason of Gunston Hall has not received proper due for his remarkable contributions to creating our state and national governments. One of his greatest achievements was creating the Virginia Declaration of Rights which the Virginia Convention adopted on June 12, 1776.

Mason, a member of that Convention, was immediately appointed to a committee charged with organizing a new colonial government. Frustrated by the unproductive arguments of its 31-man committee, he worked alone for nine days at the Raleigh Tavern; then he presented drafts of the Virginia State Constitution and the Virginia Declaration of Rights to the committee. After some revision, the Convention adopted the Declaration — and our first constitution after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

When Thomas Jefferson penned the Continental Congress’ Declaration of Independence, he had access to both Mason’s first draft and final copy of the Virginia Declaration of Rights. He used Mason’s ideas and words freely – but in compressed form with even greater force. For example, Article I of Mason’s document states: “That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.” ...

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Mason’s Declaration was our first founding document to call for recognition of individual liberties like freedom of religion and of the press and other now familiar rights.

Ellen Latane Tabb

Alexandria

Virginia Declaration of Rights

The Virginia Declaration of Rights is a document drafted in 1776 to proclaim the inherent rights of men, including the right to reform or abolish "inadequate" government. It influenced a number of later documents, including the United States Declaration of Independence (1776) and the United States Bill of Rights (1789).

Drafting and adoption

The Declaration was adopted unanimously by the Fifth Virginia Convention at Williamsburg, Virginia on June 12, 1776 as a separate document from the Constitution of Virginia which was later adopted on June 29, 1776. In 1830, the Declaration of Rights was incorporated within the Virginia State Constitution as Article I, but even before that Virginia's Declaration of Rights stated that it was '"the basis and foundation of government" in Virginia. A slightly updated version may still be seen in Virginia's Constitution, making it legally in effect to this day.



George Mason was the principal author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights.