Unlike so many politicians today who gravitate to the limelight and dedicate their entire careers to personal advancement, George Mason was known as a "reluctant statesman" who dutifully answered his state's (and his nation's) call to service on numerous occasions, but never strayed far from hearth and home. Mason did not seek titles, nor did he covet power or fame. He saw public service as a means to an end, not an end in itself.
When one considers the scope and nature of George Mason's accomplishments, it is astonishing that a memorial wasn't built to his name decades ago or that few Americans know his name.
Born into a proud Virginia family, George Mason began his political career in 1758 when he was selected to represent Fairfax County in the Virginia House of Burgesses. He performed his legislative duties competently, but quietly, and returned to private life in 1761 to enjoy his recently completed plantation home on the Potomac, Gunston Hall.
Following the Seven Years' War with France, Britain imposed the hated Stamp Act on the colonies, threatening to render every paper transaction (including marriages, wills, and shop purchases) subject to London's approval and taxation. It was a direct assault on the traditionally enjoyed liberties of the king's subjects in North America, and Mason, along with many of his Virginia peers, lifted his voice in protest.
Though Parliament ultimately relented on the Stamp Act, it affirmed its perceived authority on the colonies, which it saw as unlimited, and continued to find ways to solidify its hold on North America. At the end of the 1760s and into the early 1770s, Mason became a leader in drawing up nonimportation agreements that formed the backbone of colonial protest of British imperial policies.
In 1774, with tensions escalating rapidly and in the aftermath of his wife's tragic passing, Mason presided over the formation of an independent Virginia militia and co-authored, along with Colonel George Washington, the Fairfax Resolves. The Fairfax Resolves were Mason's first rhetorical attempt to articulate the principles of human freedom that underscored America's resistance to the British Empire, and they were very successful in helping stir Virginia to action.
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