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George Mason Essay

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George Mason's greatest accomplishment was being the founding father of the national Bill of Rights. He was a planter from Virginia, had grown up rich on one of the nicest and best plantations in Alexandria, Fairfax County, Virginia.
He was an important member of the town's church, had all the best tutors growing up, and had been raised to be a Virginian aristocrat (Miers 39).
Mason married 'well' and had a large family of nine kids. He raised them in
Gunston Hall, a house which he had built himself (Miers 41).
He was the type of guy who, if he believed strongly enough, did not abandon his beliefs. He strongly believed in the cause for the American Revolution (he had given his son a plantation named 'Lexington'), in citizen's …show more content…

Slavery was another of his big issues. In this, he was slightly hypocritical.
During the debates over this topic, George Mason gave a pretty lengthy speech, letting the other delegates know his view on the matter. He believed slavery was wrong. Mason believed it took jobs away from the poor, and it prevented the immigration of whites. He owned slaves on his plantation, but believed it to be a necessary evil (Solberg 280).
The slave trade was a debatable topic for him. A few northern states prohibited slavery completely and Pennsylvania declared blacks free. Virginia and Maryland already prohibited the importation of slaves, and Mason thought it would be a waste of law and time if South Carolina and Georgia were free to import as many slaves as they needed or wanted. The western states were already saying they wanted slaves for themselves and their area. Mason felt that the western land would be filled with black slaves before anybody knew it (Solberg 280).
The Electoral College was just another example of his belief in the people being involved in the government. He believed the people should be allowed to elect the President. He thought "all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people," (Miers 72).
George

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