The Founders and the Constitution, Part 11: George Mason
Commentary
“If the Govt. is to be lasting, it must be founded in the confidence & affections of the people …”—George Mason, at the Constitutional Convention, Aug. 13, 1787.
George Mason of Virginia helped construct the Constitution. He then opposed ratifying the very document he helped construct. Through both courses of action, he strongly influenced the Constitution’s final form.
Mason was born on Dec. 11, 1725 (by the current calendar), in the region later known as Fairfax County, Virginia. About the time of George’s tenth birthday, his father was drowned in the Potomac River. His uncle, the noted legal scholar John Mercer, took charge of his education. Through Mercer and private tutors, the boy received a thorough grounding in Latin and the classics….