George Mason

Surprisingly, here in our flagship city, the University of Virginia comes in at number nine.

George Mason, the namesake of the guy who gave us the Bill of Rights in the first place, comes in at number 10.

Other notable places Along, you know, Colorado Mesa University makes the top 20.

University of Tulsa makes the top 20.

name

is George Mason because he wrote the Second Amendment.

And the second most important name is is Dick Keller because he forced the Supreme Court to declare the Second Amendment to be constitutional.

So.

And you kind of get the idea that.

Over in the corner is George Mason, every once in a while raising his hand and going, maybe rights, rights, Bill of Rights, Bill of Rights.

No rights.

No. OK, not today.

And and then but then it's like at the very end of this whole process, when they're ready to kind of say, OK, well, we've got our constitution.

Let's go ratify it.

George Mason throws a real curveball.

Fellow Virginian.

September 12th, only days away from finishing this four-month convention.

Virginia's George Mason raises a point.

What about a declaration or bill of rights? A natural question from the author of Virginia's Declaration of Rights, but this is shot down fast.

Many states have their own such declarations, so wouldn't adding one be redundant? Well, right or wrong, guided by that logic, the convention quickly moves forward without one.

But as Ben's words delivered by James so eloquently observed, it's closer to perfection than the Articles.

It's a more perfect union.

Thus, with the humility to acknowledge their own shortcomings, faith in the amendment process, and more to the point, faith in the people, nearly all remaining delegates, all save George Mason, who wants a bill of rights; Elbridge Gerry, who has a list of concerns; and ironically, a deeply pained and conflicted Governor Edmund Randolph, who fears they've created too strong a Congress, sign the Constitution.

That's how 39 men from 12 states came to put their names to this instrument.

He didn't invent his argument from nothing.

Jefferson drew heavily on language and ideas already circulating through the same spring of provincial activity, This book's previous two chapters have already traced in detail, most directly George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights, adopted by the same Williamsburg Convention that had instructed Richard Henry Lee to propose independence in the first place.

In a document whose own opening language about men being born equally free and possessing certain inherent rights, Jefferson echoed closely enough that the debt is unmistakable to anyone who reads the two documents side by side.

Mason's own document had itself only been finished days before Jefferson began drafting the Declaration, meaning Jefferson was working from genuinely fresh material rather than some long-settled piece of political philosophy.

You had basically the George Washington view of it, which is the Upper South was always way more opposed to slavery than the Deep South, like South Carolina.

That's why Jefferson and Patrick Henry and George Mason and James Madison all philosophically opposed slavery, even if they owned slaves.

They believed the future generations would have gradual emancipation, and they didn't defend it.

The South Carolina... were fire breathing defenders of slavery yeah well

It was the size of the congressional districts within it.

And my proof... was George Mason's first proposed amendment to the Constitution.

The original Bill of Rights was 12 entries.

We've never managed to get the first one in.

The 12th one we got in later.

The original 10 were numbers two through 11.

But that first one was an amendment that, to me, said George Mason sitting down writing this Bill of Rights that is going to be the shield to protect Americans from a centralized government.

What was the most important thing George Mason thought? would be important for Americans to defend themselves against a centralized authoritarian government.