George Mason, Forgotten Founder (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: headright claims, land office bill, parish levy, Ohio Company, Gunston Hall, George Mason (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. One of the fruits of publishers' recent obsession with the founding fathers is a spate of books on lesser-known revolutionary figures—and none could be more welcome than this engrossing biography of George Mason (1725–1792). Until the late 1760s, Mason devoted himself principally to his Virginia plantation, his family and his health. But when Britain levied taxes on stamps and tea, he became a leader in the nonimportation movement, and as the Revolution unfolded, he emerged as one of Virginia's most important politicians, helping to raise a militia and drafting the influential Virginia Declaration of Rights and a state constitution. This biography's greatest strength is Broadwater's treatment of the post-Revolutionary years, specifically his nuanced discussion of Mason's role at the constitutional convention. Broadwater, associate professor of history at Barton College in North Carolina, shows that Mason's leadership at the convention shaped the Constitution and spells out the many factors that led to Mason's final refusal to sign it. Especially fascinating is Broadwater's speculations about Mason's relations with George Washington—the two men were neighbors, but Broadwater finds hints that at times their social relationship was strained. Broadwater's prose is vigorous and his assessment of Mason judicious; this biography is a standout. 9 illus., 1 map. (Oct. 2)
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From The Washington Post

Four-and-a-half years ago, a monument to the man Jeff Broadwater calls the "Forgotten Founder" was unveiled in a lovely location within sight of the Jefferson Memorial and within (literally) a stone's throw of the District of Columbia end of the 14th St. Bridge -- which is officially known as the George Mason Memorial Bridge, though apparently nobody calls it that. It is one of the most charming monuments in a city where monumental charm is in short supply: Mason is seated on a bench, his legs casually crossed, a book in his right hand, a pleasantly contemplative look on his face. Children wandering the East Potomac Park often climb onto the bench next to Mason, while their parents read the inscription behind him and try to figure out who he was.

Historians of the colonial and revolutionary periods know him well, but the general public does not. Though in his time Mason was esteemed as highly as his fellow Virginians Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, he never held elective office higher than a seat in his state's legislature. And though he was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and played an important part in writing that essential document, he ultimately (albeit unsuccessfully) urged that Virginia refuse to endorse it. He believed that, absent a bill of rights, the proposed Constitution did not sufficiently safeguard minority rights, and he feared that the central, federal government it sought to establish would be too powerful and offer too much temptation to corruption. Though it was widely understood at the time that this position was based on principle rather than mere crankiness, it denied him admission to the pantheon of Founding Fathers (though in fact he was one) and ushered him into comparative oblivion.

To be sure, a rising state university in his beloved Fairfax County is named in his honor -- leaving innumerable sports fans to ask, as its basketball team made an unlikely run for the national championship last spring, "George Who?" -- and his residence, Gunston Hall, in the Northern Neck of the Potomac, "is open every day for inspection by schoolchildren and curious tourists." Yet his life and career remain obscure. He declined "to seek the historical spotlight," Broadwater writes. "Mason never sought national office. He never wrote his memoirs. He made no concerted effort, as best we can tell, to preserve his papers. Even more important is the elusive nature of Mason's accomplishments," which were intellectual rather than political or military.

Broadwater, who teaches history at Barton College in North Carolina, writes clear, unadorned prose and has an admirable ability to explain complex intellectual matters in terms the lay reader can understand. Because Mason left little evidence of his private life, there are blurred edges in the portrait that Broadwater paints, but overall this is an exemplary biography: sympathetic but dispassionate, thorough but not cluttered, convincing in its interpretations and arguments. It leaves no doubt that Mason deserves to be returned to the esteem and reputation he enjoyed during his lifetime, but in no way is it hagiography.

Mason was a child of the Virginia aristocracy, born in 1725: "As the eldest son of a wealthy planter in a hierarchical society, he likely would have acquired in early life an air of command, an understanding that he belonged to a class that was expected to dominate Virginia society." He seems to have read carefully in the law in the library of his uncle, John Mercer, who shared guardianship of him and his sister after their father's death in 1735, but he never was admitted to the bar and occupied himself primarily as planter and investor in western land. Beginning in early manhood he was involved in political matters but disliked the rough and tumble of politics and mostly stood aloof from it.

It was in the 1760s and '70s, as the British Parliament began tightening its grip on the colonies and revolutionary sentiment began to arise, that Mason formed his own "first principles," a "common set of ideas about how governments should function." His included "a love of virtue, a hatred of corruption, and a fear of luxury . . . [and] an acute sensitivity to prospective tyranny." He "believed in a fairly broad-based suffrage and in individual rights; few did more to enshrine notions like freedom of religion or the right to due process of law in the American political creed." In the mid-1770s, Mason described himself as "a Man, who spends most of his Time in Retirement, and has seldom medled in public Affairs," but the historical record reports otherwise:

"Between the summer of 1774 and the spring of 1776, a troubled Mason would draft a revolutionary manifesto, the Fairfax Resolves; serve reluctantly in a provisional government; and help organize first a militia and then an army to wage war against the British Empire. Indeed, by 1776 Mason would become one of the two or three dominant figures in Virginia politics. . . . Only Washington ranked higher in public esteem. Years later Jefferson recalled Mason as one of Virginia's 'really great men, and of the first order of greatness.' "

As the colonies moved toward declaring their independence and fighting to guarantee it, Mason was active in preparations, especially those pertaining to Virginia and the Northern Neck. He was "the principal architect" of Virginia's Declaration of Rights, which "combined a succinct statement of the republican principles that underlay the Revolution with a smattering of constitutional doctrine and separate provisions designed to protect individual civil liberties"; the declaration was hugely influential on the one that Jefferson later wrote for all the colonies. In the summer of 1776, he worked on Virginia's Constitution, which also became a model for the documents by which the nation-to-be established the powers, duties and limitations of government.

Broadwater is rightly at pains to insist that it usually is a mistake to equate Mason's positions more than two centuries ago with ones that are abroad today -- "Eighteenth-century republicanism," for example, "should not be confused with modern libertarianism." But he distrusted what is now commonly known as big government, he was a strong believer in the separation of church and state, and he was an ardent opponent of slavery, regarding it, in Broadwater's words, "as a moral evil, debasing the souls of slave owners and storing up wrath against the entire nation for a final day of judgment."

Mason hated slavery, yet he owned slaves -- dozens of them. In this he was not alone, and it is, as has often been remarked upon, something that should cause us to view the Founding Fathers with clarity rather than through the lens of mythology. "Because Mason never freed his slaves," Broadwater writes, "the depth of his hostility to slavery is suspect," but it is important to bear in mind that "while Mason cast a critical eye on slavery, it was an eighteenth-century eye," to which the capabilities of blacks were suspect and the rights of blacks were narrow, even nonexistent. It seems fairest to lament the contradiction between his rhetoric and his behavior but also to give him full credit for the ardor of his opinions on a subject to which most of his contemporaries were both deaf and blind and for the effect his words undoubtedly had on the arguments advanced by the abolitionists.

Mason spoke out strongly and repeatedly against slavery during debates at the Constitutional Convention and opposed a move to count slaves "for purposes of determining [congressional] representation 'notwithstanding it was favorable' to Virginia." In this as in many other respects, he was a moderating influence at the convention, and his fingerprints were all over the document that finally emerged. That he could not bring himself to endorse it, largely but not entirely because of the absence of a bill of rights, was an act of conscience for which history should honor him. That he ultimately was able to shape and help win approval of the Bill of Rights is one of the most enduringly important acts in American history.

A delegate to the convention from Georgia described him as follows: "Mr. Mason is a gentleman of remarkable strong powers, and possesses a clear and copious understanding. He is able and convincing in debate, steady and firm in his principles, and undoubtedly one of the best politicians in America." The nation is everlastingly in his debt, as Broadwater's fine book makes conclusively clear.

Copyright 2006, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (September 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807830534
• ISBN-13: 978-0807830536
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #470,207 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good biography of one of the lesser known Founders, November 12, 2006

By	Steven A. Peterson (Hershey, PA (Born in Kewanee, IL)) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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George Mason was an important figure, seemingly coming out of nowhere, just before and during the Revolution and up to the formulation of the Constitution. He is one of the lesser known founders, probably as much known for being one of the few who refused to sign the Constitution (along with such figures as Luther Martin and Elbridge Gerry).

One key aspect of Mason's personality (page 19): ". . .Mason possessed an incisive intellect and a commanding personality, but he was not inclined to suffer fools gladly or to compromise his own opinions. Given his nature, the mystery may not be why Mason initially showed little interest in the day-to-day business of government, but why he sought public office at all."

This book focuses on his consuming passion for business, including his tenacious effort to make the Ohio Company work. This land company intended to take land and develop it for the profit of the owners. It was a constant struggle and never panned out as desired. His political views had some quirky elements for the time, including a condemnation of slavery (although phrased in the context of the times), although he himself owned slaves.

Given his reputation as one of the leaders in the runup to the Revolution and through the Consitutional Convention, it is odd to see that he was not involved in politics in a major way until middle age. Yet, from 1774 to the Revolution, he bacame one of the major writers of Revolutionary tracts, laying out a critique of England and a case for freedom. While his relations with George Washington were sometimes frosty, he apparently worked well with other leading Virginians, such as Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, James Madison, and Richard Henry Lee.

After the Constitution was ratified, with Mason arguing against this document, his health began to decline, until he died in 1792. He grew disenchanted with the national government and disagreed with many of its policies after Washington became president. However, he appears to have remained on good terms with some officials, such as John Marshall and James Monroe. While he remained mildly active in local politics from 1789 until his death, he refused an appointment to the United States Senate.

In the end, Mason (page 251) "helped to make a respectable revolution." His legacy (page 251): ". . .his contribution to America's founding documents: the Declaration of Independence through the Virginia Declaration of Rights through his dogged opposition to a Constitution without one."

The book is not particularly elegantly written, but the style is serviceable. There is enough depth to the biography that the reader gains a pretty good picture of Mason, his life, his times, and his role in history. For those interested in the Founding generation and its major actors, this book would be a useful addition to one's library.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Need a Reason to Struggle Through It, February 25, 2007

By	Roadrunner "Beep Beep!" (Arlington, VA United States) - See all my reviews

I was actively looking forward to a book about George Mason, whose home is a landmark I visited 40-50 years ago, and whose name in my area adorns a major street and a university. Who was he? This book helps explain that. An amazing tale, really, of a gent who had a surprising lot to do with the birth of our nation and its constitution, yet is relatively little known. (Author Broadwater notwithstanding, it's no mystery why Mason has been neglected; he may have been an influential, clear, brilliant, and nonpartisan thinker but he didn't support the Constitution and in general, shunned the limelight.)

The book is not just a biography, but a deep-reaching regional history. It tells a lot about the economic and social issues of the "American colonies" in the 18th century. Many of us overlook that, in the turmoil of creating a nation, there were a lot of ongoing matters of concern, such as the future of the lands to the west. Mason's careful husbanding of his economic and commercial interests augurs the role that commercialism has played ever since in the formation of our country. Finally, Mason's role in creating our Bill of Rights and some of the key elements of the U.S. Constitution cannot be overlooked, but his view that the inevitable tendency of "rulers" to augment their power leads just as inevitably to tyranny remains well worth keeping in mind today.

The writing is a bit turgid, and if you're not much interested in the finer points of constitutional law or legislation, this will likely be a boring book. The author's annoying reliance on "if" clauses, (about one per paragraph) rather than the simple "but", doesn't help.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars We Learn of Him, But Still Don't "know" Him..., April 7, 2007

By	Warner Todd Huston "History Minded" (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

George Mason, truly an ignored Founder of whom Thomas Jefferson said was "one of our really great men", is treated in a fair and easy to read biography penned by Jeff Broadwater.

The book follows his political career touching upon the many important bills and concepts he introduced into the Revolutionary era Virginia Legislature. The book does a fine job shining a light upon what a key figure to our founding that Mason was.

In many ways, however, one gets a negative view of the man over his constant shirking of duty -- he too often arrived late or not at all to legislative sessions -- and his constant complaining over his health. Granted, if one knows much about the Founders and their era, health seems to be one thing they all constantly whined about. After all, men rarely lived past the late 30s in those days, so any pain or discomfort was feared to be death come a' knocking.

In any case, it was interesting to see the turmoil and difficulty that the state of Virginia had funding and supplying troops to the war effort. With history settled, it is always too easy to feel that the country was united with a single mind and all for the spilt with England as well as ready to sacrifice their last strengths to that effort. Reality, though, is a far different thing than the rose-colored glasses of popular sentiment.

One thing seemed missing from this book, as important as is the information contained within. Mason's voice does not come through in Broadwater's work. We never get as much of a feel for the man as we do for his end work and the times in which he lived.

It's a shame that Broadwater didn't give us more of Mason's own quotes so that we might see what his contemporaries saw in his applauded rhetoric. Perhaps not enough of his own words survive to have attempted that treatment and maybe Broadwater really only had Mason's legislative work from which to glean "the" man, but I still felt the book seemed somewhat detached from the man himself.

In any case, I recommend the book to those who are interested in a Founder who has missed out on the lionizing so many of his fellows have received.