George Mason, Forgotten Founder

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Univ of North Carolina Press, 13/11/2009 - 352 páginas
George Mason (1725-92) is often omitted from the small circle of founding fathers celebrated today, but in his service to America he was, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, "of the first order of greatness." Jeff Broadwater provides a comprehensive account of Mason's life at the center of the momentous events of eighteenth-century America.

Mason played a key role in the Stamp Act Crisis, the American Revolution, and the drafting of Virginia's first state constitution. He is perhaps best known as author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, a document often hailed as the model for the Bill of Rights.

As a Virginia delegate to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Mason influenced the emerging Constitution on point after point. Yet when he was rebuffed in his efforts to add a bill of rights and concluded the document did too little to protect the interests of the South, he refused to sign the final draft. Broadwater argues that Mason's recalcitrance was not the act of an isolated dissenter; rather, it emerged from the ideology of the American Revolution. Mason's concerns about the abuse of political power, Broadwater shows, went to the essence of the American experience.

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Índice

A Retreat of Heroes
1
Our All Is At Stake
29
The Fundamental Principle
55
The Most Important of All Subjects
77
Growing from Bad to Worse
101
illustrations
133
Liberty and Independence
133
One of the Best Politicians in America
157
The Sanction of Their Names
181
That Paper on the Table
209
I Am Grown Old
239
Notes
255
Bibliography
307
Index
323
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Página 191 - produce the most pernicious effect on manners, every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgment of heaven on a Country. As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes & effects providence punishes national sins, by national calamities.
Página 82 - by any Compact, deprive or divest their Posterity; among which are the Enjoyment of Life and Liberty, with the Means of acquiring and possessing Property, and pursuing and obtaining Happiness and Safety.
Página 165 - genl. welfare. 2. that no treaty or treaties among the whole or part of the States, as individual sovereignties, would be sufficient. 3. that a national government ought to be established consisting of a supreme Legislative, Executive & Judiciary. The
Página 81 - in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence: "That all men are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent natural Rights, of which they can not by any Compact, deprive or divest their Posterity; among which are the Enjoyment of Life and Liberty, with the Means of acquiring and possessing Property, and pursuing and obtaining Happiness and
Página 82 - no free Government, or the Blessings of Liberty can be preserved to any People, but by a firm adherence to Justice, Moderation, Temperance, Frugality, and Virtue and by frequent Recurrence to fundamental Principles.
Página 143 - Notes on the State of Virginia: "The mobs of great cities add just so much to the support of pure government, as sores do to the strength of the human body.
Página 34 - Is it not amazing that at a time, when the rights of humanity are defined and understood with precision, in a country, above all others, fond of liberty, that in such an age and in such a country we find men . . . adopting a principle as repugnant to humanity, as it is inconsistent with the bible, and destructive to liberty?
Página 149 - the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with, the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects?
Página 86 - That Religion or the Duty which we owe to our Creator and the manner of discharging it can be directed only by reason and Conviction not by force or Violence and therefore all Men are equally intitled to the free exercise of Religion according to the Dictates of Conscience And that it is the mutual Duty of all to practice Christian Forbearance Love and Charity towards each other.
Página 167 - often wondered at the indifference of the superior classes of society to this dictate of humanity & policy; considering however affluent their circumstances, or elevated their situations, might be, the course of a few years, not only might but certainly would, distribute their posterity throughout the lowest classes of society.

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Acerca do autor (2009)

Jeff Broadwater is professor of history at Barton College. He is author of several books, most recently James Madison: A Son of Virginia and a Founder of the Nation.

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