earth. Such were the views of the Father of the Constitution, and the author of the Declaration of Independence in 1798, some ten years after the adoption of the Federal Constitution. That a great majority of the people of the United States sustained these opinions of Mason, Jefferson, and Madison, is manifested by the fact that, after their expression, the two last named held for eight years, respectively, the office of Chief Magistrate by the people's suffrages.

Virginia was not the only State so construing the Constitution. It will be remembered that the Massachusetts Legislature condemned as unconstitutional the Embargo Act of 1807, just as Kentucky and Virginia had, the Alien and Sedition laws. The government of Connecticut had recommended nullification as being within the power and authority of the State, as did South Carolina; and we are told that the Hartford Convention of December 14, 1814, which was attended by delegates from Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Vermont, was prevented from recommending the secession of those States from the Union, only by the termination of the war with England, which was seriously damaging their commercial interests.

The withdrawal of some of the States from the Union in 1861 was in accordance with the theories of the Fathers of the Government, endorsed in the earlier history of the republic by the great masses of the people. If success crowns the efforts of a people struggling for their rights and liberties, the world applauds; if they are unsuccessful, the world frowns.

This life of Mason is proper and opportune. A period in our history has been selected, to which we ought more frequently to recur, by calling attention to the services of a man with whose career we should become more familiar. When Washington presented the Non-Importation Resolutions of 1769 to the Virginia Assembly, pledging the Virginia planters to purchase no slaves that should be brought into the country after the first of November of that year, Mason wrote them for him. He was the author, too, of the famous

Non-Intercourse Resolutions, which were reaffirmed by the Continental Congress in October, 1774, as well as by the Constitution of Virginia, with its Declaration of Rights. In regard to this celebrated bill, a wise writer has stated that there was more wisdom and concentration of thought in one sentence of it, than in all former writings on the subject.

We have before us the life of a patriot who labored by tongue and pen to erect a bulwark between Federal power and State rights, so strong, that the hand of an oppressor could never take away the liberties of the people. "The people should control the Government, not the Government the people," was his war-cry. If we strictly adhere to these safe principles of government, we shall discharge our whole duty to the republic, and make it what our forefathers intended it should be-" the glory of America, and a blessing to humanity."

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

It had long been a cherished purpose among George Mason's descendants to write the memoirs of their illustrious ancestor, and in several instances collections of papers were made with this object in view. The Hon. James Murray Mason from the family manuscripts preserved by his father, Gen. John Mason, prepared a sketch of his grandfather which was never completed. Another grandson of George Mason, as far back as 1827, contemplated writing his biography, but never carried out the design. This gentleman's son, the late George Mason, of Alexandria, in a fire which consumed his dwelling-house some years ago, lost many of his father's papers. Those which remained, mostly transcripts from the original documents, were kindly given by him to the present writer, who also received copies of the letters and papers owned by Miss Virginia Mason, daughter of the Hon. James Murray Mason, and copies of the manuscripts owned by Mrs. St. George Tucker Campbell, granddaughter of Thomson Mason of "Hollin Hall." A copy of the manuscript reminiscences of Gen. John Mason was obtained from his daughter, the late Mrs. Gen. Samuel Cooper of Fairfax County, Virginia. From her own immediate family, and from other branches of the same stock, the descendants of George Mason's brother, Thomson Mason of "Raspberry Plain," additional material has been procured by the author, such as the Thomson wills; the sketch of the family by the late Judge John Thomson Mason of Maryland; and a

copy of the will, with entries from the Family Bible of Thomson Mason, owned by Arthur Mason Chichester, of Loudoun County, Virginia. All letters or other documents now in possession of any members of the family are classed together as "Mason Papers," and so designated in the foot-notes to this biography.

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Important data, throwing light on the family history, the writer owes to her more distant relatives, members of the Fitzhugh, Bronaugh, Mercer, and Fowke families. She would name gratefully, in this connection, the daughters of the late Rev. George Fitzhugh Worthington, and Mr. Henry M. Fitzhugh of Baltimore; George Carter of Oatlands," Loudoun County, Virginia; Mr. William R. Mercer, and Prof. James Mercer Garnett; the late R. M. Conway and his brother, Mr. Moncure D. Conway, Dr. Dinwiddie B. Phillips, of Orange County, Virginia, the Rev. Douglas French Forrest, Alexander H. Robertson, Esq., of Baltimore, Mr. Gerard Fowke, Sidney, Ohio, and Mr. Frank Rede Fowke, Department of Science and Art, South Kensington, London.

Through the courtesy of the Hon. Thomas F. Bayard, while Secretary of State, copies were obtained of the Mason letters and papers among the manuscripts of Washington, Madison, and Jefferson in the State Department. For assistance in supplying her with memoranda of various kinds, the author acknowledges her obligations to Mr. R. A. Brock, of the Virginia Historical Society; to Mr. W. G. Stanard, Manchester, Va.; to Mr. William Wirt Henry; to Mr. Worthington C. Ford, and Mr. Paul L. Ford; to Mr. C. F. Lee, Jr., of Alexandria; to Prof. Lyon G. Tyler, President of William and Mary College, Williamsburg; to the late Dr. Philip Slaughter, of Virginia; to the Rev. Samuel A. Wallis, rector of Pohick Church; to the Rev. Horace E. Hayden, Wilkesbarre, Penn.; to Mr. George W. Kirchwey, Albany, N. Y. (custodian of the Clinton papers); to Dr. John S. H. Fogg, Boston; to Dr. Joseph M. Toner, Washington, D. C.; to President Gilman and other gentlemen of the Johns