USA > Virginia > The history of the Virginia federal convention of 1788, with some account of eminent Virginians of that era who were members of the body, Vol. II > Part 21
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He did not hold a seat in the first General Assembly under the Constitution which met in Williamsburg in October, 1776, as that body-or rather the House of Delegates-was, in fact, the
206 The letters may be seen in the American Archives (fourth series), Vol. I, 418, 495, 519, 541, 620, 654.
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Convention of 1776 held over by adjournment; but, in 1777, he was a member of the House of Delegates. As he did not take his seat until the 17th of November, when the House had been nearly a month in session, and had been absent at a call of the roll, he appeared, as was usual under such circumstances, in the custody of the sergeant-at-arms; but, upon showing that he had been engaged in the interval in the service of the House, he was excused without the payment of fees.207 As soon as he took his seat he was placed on a committee to examine and report the state, progress, and expense of the salt-works belonging to the State, and he was assigned (with his brother George) to the committee for preparing a bill to establish a Court of Appeals.
The Articles of Confederation had just been framed by Con- gress and submitted to the States; and on the 9th of December those articles were received by the House and spread in full on the Journal. After a deliberate investigation of the articles they were unanimously approved by the House, and the delegates of the State in Congress were instructed to ratify them in the name and in behalf the Commonwealth.208 On such an occasion, which was so congenial to his character and talents, he probably bore a conspicuous part in debate; but there is no notice of the scene that is extant. One of the great topics of the session was the establishment of the General Court and the Court of Appeals; and Thomson Mason, Joseph Jones, John Blair, Thomas Lud- well Lee, and Paul Carrington were appointed judges of the General Court. At the session of the House in October he appeared in his seat, and engaged with great zeal in furthering the measures for defence and for local purposes. It is believed that he drafted the bill establishing the county of Illinois-now the State of that name-and on the passage of the bill he was
207 The expense incurred by the sergeant-at-arms in sending for George and Thomson Mason was sixteen shillings and ten pence each. Cuthbert Bullitt, Edmund Ruffin, and Willis Riddick were not so for- tunate as to have a good excuse for absence, and had to pay their fines.
208 The Journal of the House states that the articles were agreed to nemine contra dicente ; but Patrick Henry says, in a letter addressed to R. H. Lee, dated December 18, 1777: "The Confederation is passed nem. con., though opposed by those who opposed independency." The Senate were also unanimous.
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requested by the Speaker to carry it to the Senate and request their concurrence.
He seems now to have changed the place of his residence and become an inhabitant for a short time of Elizabeth City county. He was through life at intervals a martyr to the gout, and it is not improbable that he chose his new place of abode from its proximity to the sea, as a salt atmosphere and salt bathing have been frequently found beneficial to the health of invalids suffer- ing from that disease. At all events, his great reputation had preceded him, and he was immediately returned to the House of Delegates from Elizabeth City. He took his seat in May, 1779; but having since his election again removed to another county, he addressed a letter to the Chair, in which he stated the fact of his removal from Elizabeth City since his election, and that the House had decided in the case of Peter Poythress that a mem- ber under such circumstances could not hold his seat, he ten- dered his resignation; which, however, the House, in courtesy to his extraordinary abilities, declined to accept, and he remained a member during the session. 209 At the October session he found himself unable to attend; and, to make his resignation certain, he accepted the office of coroner, which, ipso facto, vacated his seat in the House. As he was appointed a judge of the General Court at a previous session, he must either have delayed to qualify or resigned the appointment.
At the session of May, 1783, he was returned to the House of Delegates from Stafford, and was placed at the head of the Com- mittee of Courts of Justice, on which was also placed his son, Stevens Thomson Mason, the present session being the last but one of the father and the first of the son. A smart debate arose on a motion to strike out from the tax bill the word "Novem- ber," and insert the word "October" as the time to which dis- tress to be made for the public taxes was proposed to be limited; and the question was taken by ayes and noes, and decided in the negative-the father in the negative and the son in the affirmative. His skill in the law was often called into requisition, and when it was determined to bring in a bill to amend an act declaring tenants in lands or slaves in tail to hold the same in fee simple,
209 House Journal, June 9, 1779, where the letter is spread upon the Journal.
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he and Alexander White were appointed to draft it. The bill was reported, and became a law. A test question was made on the passage of a bill for the relief of sheriffs, and he voted in a minority of seventeen-the ayes and noes having been asked by himself. Another test question of the session was a motion to postpone to October the bill declaring who shall be deemed citizens of the Commonwealth, when father and son voted in rather a meagre minority-the House deciding to postpone by a vote of fifty-six to twenty-seven. On a motion to strike out that part of a resolution concerning the public buildings, which fixed their site permanently on Shockoe Hill, and to insert "that the seat of government ought to be removed to Williamsburg," father and son voted with the majority against striking out. 210 When the vote was called on several occasions he was not in the House; but the frequent recurrence of his name in presenting reports and bills from the Committee of Courts of Justice and on select committees leads us to believe that, though temporarily absent, he was closely engaged in his duties as a member of the House.
At the opening of the October session of 1783 he was placed second on the Committee of Elections and at the head of Courts of Justice, of which last his son (Stevens) was also a member. On the IIth of November a bill was reported, and read the first time, to explain and declare the privileges of members of the General Assembly. This has ever been a mooted question in the history of parliaments; and the present Lord Chancellor of Great Britian 211 has expressed the opinion that such a bill in respect of the British Parliament is an impossibility. The pres- ent bill, however, was sustained by Henry Tazewell, John Taylor (of Caroline), and others, was opposed by Thomson Mason, Patrick Henry, and Archibald Stuart, and was defeated by a majority of two to one. When the engrossed bill to repeal the act declaring who shall be citizens of the Commonwealth was read a third time, Mason, whose policy was to invite emigration, and to bury the local feuds kindled by the past war in families
210 There is an error in the House Journal in recording this vote, the words "affirmative " and "negative " being transposed, and leading to error without a close inspection.
211 1859.
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and neighborhoods, voted in its favor along with his son, with John Tyler, with Joseph Jones, and with the Speaker; but the measure was at that moment unpopular. Some of our patriots thought it too soon to allow those who had quitted their country in the hour of trial to come in and enjoy the fruits of the labors of a brave and devoted people, and enter at once upon all the rights and privileges of citizenship; and of this opinion was Henry, and Tazewell, and Alexander White, and Isaac Coles, and George Nicholas, and the fearless French Strother. The bill was lost by a majority of nineteen. At this day the decision would be pronounced wrong; for, as the treaty of peace had established a political amnesty between Great Britain and the United States, it was unwise to cherish a domestic feud in direct contravention of its spirit, and to turn away an intelligent and wealthy set of people, connected with us by blood and associa- tion, which, though deluded in the past, was now deeply repent- ant, and ready to come and aid us in clearing our woods and in paying our taxes. The same subject was discussed on the 13th of December, on the passage of a bill to prohibit the migration of certain persons to this Commonwealth, which was passed by an overwhelming majority.
The health of Mason, which was affected by the same disease which, at intervals, worried his brother George, who led an active life (and which we may fairly presume to have been inherited), was becoming seriously impaired, and at the close of the present session he withdrew finally from public life.
We wish it was in our power to record many acts of useful- . ness performed by this worthy man, and a life of learned repose enjoyed by him in his retirement; but the curtain was soon sud- denly to fall. He died in 1785 at "Chippawamsic," his seat in Stafford, near Dumfries, at the early age of fifty-five. He inherited nothing from his father beyond the means of obtaining the best education then within his reach; but this was enough for Mason. Had such a man been blessed with health, he would at that day have made a splendid fortune. But he was not entirely deprived of an inheritance, as he and his sister received from his mother large tracts of land in Loudoun,212 which,
212 A part of this land is still owned by the Hon. Thomas Swann, of Baltimore, a direct descendant of the only sister of Mason, and by Mr.
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though bought originally for a small sum, became valuable; and he added to his possessions by his own industry and skill. He was rather above than below the ordinary size, with blueish-grey eyes and dark hair, and an embrowned complexion. He was a ready and exact speaker, eschewing embellishment, and relying on the force of logic for effect. His great excellence was his skill in the law, and he stood somewhat in the same relation to his contemporaries as that held by Theophilus Parsons toward his associates at the bar of New England. Laudari a laudato, especially when the praise comes from a competent and unpre- judiced judge, and is uttered long after its object has been con- signed to the tomb, is no unfair measure of worth; and we are told by Saint George Tucker, the eldest of the name, who had a near observation of all the great lawyers of the Revolutionary epoch, and who held a seat on the bench of the Court of Appeals near the time of the death of Mason, that " Thomson Mason was esteemed the first lawyer at the bar." 213
He was buried in a clump of trees on " Raspberry Plain," his estate near Leesburg; but no stone marks his grave. A venera- ble descendant, still living, says that he had blue eyes. He was married a second time to Mrs. Wallace, of Hampton, formerly Miss Westwood. When the old gentleman-who, by the way, was not more than forty at the time-married his second wife, his son, John Thomson, used to say jocosely that his father had brushed his hair and burnished himself so sprucely that he could hardly recognize the old fellow. This lady long survived him, and died in 1824,214 preserving to the last those endearing quali- ties of mind and character that fascinated the great lawyer. She was accustomed to say that she was just sixteen when her future husband took his seat in the House of Burgesses, and that he was the handsomest and most eloquent member of the House. She delighted to describe him as a devoted husband, sitting by
Temple Mason, a son of Thomson Mason. It was from the fact that he received his property from his mother that her maiden name of Thom- son was given to all his children. By the law of entails the property of his father descended to the eldest son.
213 Letter to Wirt in Kennedy's Life, Vol. I, 317. The Judge, in the same letter, states that Peyton Randolph was President of Congress to the day of his death ; in which, however, he is mistaken.
214 For a description of this lady, see Old Churches, &c., Vol. II, 230.
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her side and recognizing in her fading features the beauty that adorned them in youth. She spoke with grateful warmth of his excellence as a stepfather. He wrote a paraphrase of the Song of Solomon, adapted to the praise of his wife, which was much admired, and is still in existence. A venerable descend- ant, still living,215 says he always contributed liberally to the army in provisions and by the hospitalities of his house; that he was one of the kindest of men, but was apt to be regarded with fear by those who did not know him well. He had a stern eye, which it was not pleasant to look at when he was in a severe mood. Dr. Wallace, his stepson, says that during the Revolu- tion a quartermaster's deputy came to his room when he was ill with the gout and asked for a contribution of corn. Mason instantly directed his servant to give him half of all the corn he had. The deputy tauntingly replied, "Half, indeed! I must have the whole." Mason, forgetting his gout, leaped from the bed, seized the poker, and cudgeiled the fellow out of the house. The Doctor remembers that he was fond of his gun, and on one occasion, being short-sighted, blazed away at some stumps nearly covered with water, which he mistook for wild ducks.
I have thus endeavored to recall some of the details of the life of Thomson Mason. To have said more would not have been justified by the scope of this work, or by the materials in my possession, perhaps in existence; to have said less would have been ungenerous to the memory of a pure and intrepid patriot, of a great lawyer, and of one of the wisest statesmen of the Revo- lutionary era. I now, pass to his accomplished son.
215 Mrs. Emily Macrae, a granddaughter.
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Stevens Thomson Mason, who was destined to invest his honored patronymic with a brilliancy it had not yet known since the emigration of the first George, was born at "Chippawamsic," in Stafford county, in the year 1760, and was the eldest of a family of five sons and one daughter. 216
I am unable to say what were his opportunities for improve- ment in early youth; but the school of the parish was the com- mon resort in those days, and the rector was commonly a graduate of an English or Scotch college; and, if not altogether such a priest as James Blair or Jarratt, was almost invariably a good classical scholar, was moderately versed in mathematics, and cherished a taste for polite letters not at all incompatible with an occasional fox hunt, or with a game at dominoes or cards, or with the love of a glass of old wine. Young Scotch- men were at that time easily obtained as tutors, who, unversed in the common decencies of society, were enthusiasts in classical learning, and who, in their almost servile condition, inspired their pupils with a love of excellence that often led to the most favorable results. These were the men whose teachings formed those educated and able men whose eloquence shone in our early councils, and whose skill drafted the State papers of that age. It may be presumed that, when the oldest son was the favored child, the father was frequently his guide and instructor.
When Stevens entered William and Mary College he was quite as well prepared, as is shown by the result, as any modern matriculate, and engaged with zeal in the prosecution of his studies. He was quickened in his career by one of those acci- dents which are sometimes more important in deciding the des- tinies of young men than the mastery of the immediate studies that constitute their chief work. Our clever Virginians almost always appear in groups; and Mason was at once introduced to
216 The day of the month, or the month, I cannot find out. His mother's name was Mary Barnes, of Maryland.
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a number of young men of bright parts, with some of whom he preserved pleasant and intimate relations, personal and political, during the whole of his future career. Of this group William Branch Giles, the amiable and lamented Hardy, Littleton Eyre, John H. Cocke, the Carters (of Shirley), William Cabell (the son of the patriarch of "Union Hill"), John Jones (of the Sen- ate and of the present Convention), Richard Bland Lee, William Nelson (the future Chancellor), John Allen (of Surry), John Brown (a member of the Senate and of the old Congress), Spen- cer Roane, William Short (Chargé at the French Court, and Minister to Spain and to The Hague), the Brents (of Maryland and Virginia), Richard Booker (of Amelia), Beckley (who was continuously the Clerk of the Senate, the successor of Edmund Randolph as the Clerk of the House of Delegates, and the first Clerk of the House of Representatives of the United States) : 217 these, and others, were his contemporaries at college. Of this number no less than six were members of the present Con- vention.
In regarding this collection of young men we are reminded of another that nearly trod upon their heels in the same venera- ble institution, and intermingled with them in public life. Little- ton Waller Tazewell, Robert Barraud Taylor, John Randolph, James Barbour, William Henry Cabell, and the lamented John Thompson caught the mantles of their predecessors as they fell. Poor Thompson held the same painful relation to his group that Hardy held in his-brilliant, profound, and suddenly snatched away. And hardly had this group disappeared ere another, which was destined to strive with them for the honors of an entire generation, appeared in their places. I feel as if I were pressing the sod of new-made graves when I pronounce the names of Benjamin Watkins Leigh, of Chapman Johnson, of Robert Stanard, of Philip Pendleton Barbour, and of Henry E. Watkins. When the fame of all these gallant young men is to be weighed, who can estimate the effect of association with their fellows in the same institution ?
Young Mason had a strong military turn, and, after leaving
217 Beckley served during the eight years of Washington's adminis- tration, was turned out during Adams's, and was reinstated in ISoI, serving till 1807-fifteen years.
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college, determined to take a part in the war, which was not yet concluded. He served with credit through several grades, and commanded a Virginia brigade at the evacuation of Charles- ton. 218
In the year 1783, as stated in the memoir of his father, he became a member of the House of Delegates from the county of Loudoun, and continued to hold his seat for two or three ses- sions, when he withdrew, and never held a seat in that House again. His votes on leading questions have already been detailed elsewhere. 219
His legislative career, which was almost unsurpassed in splen- dor and effect, was now about to begin. After a short interval he was returned to the Senate of Virginia from the counties of Loudoun and Fauquier, and took his seat in that body for the first time at the October session of 1787. His first act was to vote for Edmund Randolph as Governor, with whom he was soon to be intimately connected with in the present Convention, in the House of Delegates, and as Attorney-General of the United States, of which he was ere long to be a senator; and to send his quartermaster-general (Edward Carrington), Henry Lee (his colleague in the war of the South), and his classmate (John Brown) to the Congress of the Confederation, along with James Madison, with whom he acted in unison in Federal affairs to the day of his death. Another classmate (Thomas Lee) was his colleague in the Senate.
On the 26th of October the Senate received from the House of Delegates a series of resolutions declaring that the Federal Constitution, which had been published to the world the month preceding, and which had been forwarded by Congress to the Assembly, should be submitted to a Convention of the people of the Commonwealth, and entering into other specifications on the subject. 220 These resolutions were critically examined in the Senate, were amended in several respects, and on the 30th were
218 Mason manuscripts.
219 In the review of the legislative sessions, and in the preceding sketch of his father.
220 See the review of the session of 1787, ante. These resolutions were afterwards embodied in a bill which passed both houses, and may be seen in Hening.
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adopted by the body. Mason was ordered to carry the amended resolutions to the House of Delegates, which adopted them forthwith. This was his first prominent movement in Federal affairs, which he may be said to have controlled almost entirely in both houses as long as he remained in the Senate.
The subjects discussed during the session included many grave and perplexing questions, which were managed by Mason with tact and ability. Some of those questions have partially lost their interest; but it is easy to see, in tracing the progress of measures through the Senate, that many fierce battles were fought between their friends and opponents. Such mea- sures as the establishment of the boundary line of North Caro- lina; the construction of the Dismal Swamp canal; the acts declaring tobacco receivable in payment of the taxes of 1787 (a subject which involved a discussion of the currency); establish- ing a district court on the western waters; concerning moneys paid into the public loan office in payment of British debts; pro- viding a sinking fund for the redemption of the public debt; repealing all acts preventing the collection of the British debts; discriminating commercially in favor of those nations which had acknowledged the independence of the United States; prescribing the mode of proving wills; imposing duties and regulating the customs : such acts, and many others equally intricate and embarrassing, passed under his review, and were, in many instances, essentially modified by him. And when a conference was called by the houses, as was often the case at this period, the honor and the responsibility of representing the Senate most commonly fell upon him. His decision of character, his know- ledge of human nature, his ready elocution, his skill in law, and his familiar acquaintance with the military and political measures of the Revolution, made him uncommonly apt and useful in settling those multitudinous and anomalous questions which sprang up between the close of the war and the adoption of the Federal Constitution, and which seriously perplexed the bench as well as the Senate.
The Senate adjourned on the 8th day of January, 1788, and, on the first day of the following June, he took his seat in that Federal Convention which forms the theme of the present work. Although he had discussed in public the true nature of the Fede- ral Constitution, and was one of the readiest, most able, and
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most fertile speakers of the day, he did not participate in the debates of the Convention; for, as before observed, it was then not deemed incumbent upon any man of mark to make a speech, partly because, as is the custom of the British Parliament, it was usual to defer to the prominent leaders, whose effective aid was thought sufficient to attain the end in view; partly because, from the habits of the Colony, in which there were neither reporters, nor papers large enough to hold reports, the incitements to much speaking had not become chronic; and, I may add, because the duration of the session of the Convention was limited by the approaching session of the Assembly.221
Yet, such was the wealth of the Convention in talent, had the members who made speeches not been present, others would have arisen on both sides of the House who would have filled their places, would have commanded the respect and the applause of the people, and would have given a new cast to the reputations of that epoch. Mason, who was skilful as a par- liamentarian (then fresh from the task of revising the rules and orders of the Senate), was doubtless consulted by the opponents of the Constitution, and he manifested his opinions by voting in favor of previous amendments and against the ratification of that instrument without them.222
When the Convention adjourned he passed at once into the . Senate, and performed the grateful office of nominating his class- mate, John Jones, to the chair of that body, and of seeing him elected by a unanimous vote. When the subject of the district court bill was settled, the Senate, after a session of six days, adjourned.
The Assembly met on the 21st of October following, but the Senate did not form a quorum till the 28th. The first business
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