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George Mason, Forgotten Founder

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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.

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.

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.

One would think that there isn't much new to write about on the history of the American Revolution and the men who thought it, but that's not really the case.

There have been plenty of biographies over the years of Founders such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams, but there are many men who played important roles in the early years of the Republic whose lives and contributions to American freedom have not received the coverage they deserve. Happily, Jeff Broadwater does an excellent job of filling in that gap when it comes to George Mason, one of Virginia's greatest citizens.

Throughout the book, Broadwater shows us how this planter who, despite not having any formal legal training, contributed mightily to the debates in the final years before that fateful July day in Philadelphia over the scope of British authority and the nature of American's rights. Specifically, Mason was closely involved in crafting the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which later served as the inspiration for both the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. He also shows us the extent of Mason's contributions to the 1787 Constitutional Convention --- second only to James Madison if you measure influence by the number of times he spoke --- and how his later opposition to the ratification of the Constitution helped to convince Madison and others that a Bill of Rights was, in fact, necessary. Through it all, we get a portrait of a man who contributed greatly to the formation of the United States and the development of individual rights throughout the world.

Outside of the University that is named for him, it sometimes seems as though George Mason's contributions to this formation of the United States, and the protection of American liberty, have been forgotten over the years. Broadwater does a great job of reminding us why he deserves a place in the great American pantheon, and his study is something that anyone who is interested in how our nation was created would enjoy.

I felt this was a good book about a secondary figure in the revolutionary period. Mason was important because he was close to leaders like Washington, Madison and Patrick Henry. He was also a leading figure in his beloved state of Virginia and since Virginia was so influential Mason's contributions should not be overlooked. Mason was a firm believer in the union but he feared a strong central government and the threat it could pose to individual liberty. Thus he was a leading anti-federalist who attended the constitutional convention but was one of the leaders against ratification. This book yields important insights into the battle between federalists and their opponents in Virginia and shows how this split among leaders of the early republic foreshadowed much that was to come including the whole states rights controversy. Well worth reading.

In most histories of the Revolutionary War period, the same names pop up in the forefront: Washington, Franklin, Adams, Hamilton and a few others. And as with every great story, there are the background characters as well, the ones whose names are always popping up but with little to contribute to the main plot. George Mason is one such person.

Jeff Broadwater's biography of Mason is subtitled "Forgotten Founder" and that is a legitimate term. Among the general population, his name is virtually unknown and even among history buffs (like myself), Mason is reasonably obscure. Broadwater's book seeks to provide some illumination on this figure.

In his time, Mason was a key figure in the Virginia political landscape from the period before the Revolution through the ratification of the Constitution. He was a proponent of independence and a big participant in the Constitutional Convention, but he would eventually oppose the ratification of the document.

Does Mason deserve to be as little known as he is? Yes. Despite Broadbent's efforts, I never really got the feel that Mason was in any way important on a national level. For the most part, he'd avoid political duties for either financial or health reasons, limiting his impact. And as with many of the southern (particularly Virginian) founders, he would have the hypocritical stand of opposing slaves while nonetheless owning them.

Although this is a reasonable short biography (253 pages plus notes), it still feels rather lengthy. Because Mason didn't really do that much, the book sometimes feels padded. If you're looking for completeness in your American biography collection, this would be worth reading; otherwise, wait for a better person to read about.

I struggled for a long time to try and force myself to read this book. I finally gave up and donated it to our public library. It was boring beyond belief. Only 1 of our 7 member book club finished it, and he didn't like it either!