![George Mason, detail of an oil painting by L. Guillaume after a portrait by J. Hesselius; in the &elipsis; [Credit: Courtesy of the Virginia Historical Society]](http://images.bookrags.com/images/eb/37203.gif)
George Mason, detail of an oil painting by L. Guillaume after a portrait by J.
Hesselius; in the &elipsis; [Credit: Courtesy of the Virginia Historical Society]
(born 1725, Fairfax county, Va.—died Oct. 7, 1792, Fairfax county, Va., U.S.) American Revolutionary statesman. The owner of a large plantation, he became active in efforts to promote the westward expansion of the colonies. In 1774 he helped his neighbour
George Washington draft the Fairfax Resolves (1774), which called for a boycott of English goods. In 1776 he drafted the Virginia state constitution and the
Virginia Declaration of Rights, which influenced
Thomas Jefferson and was used as a model by other states. A member of the Virginia House of Delegates (1776–88), he attended the
Constitutional Convention but did not sign the
Constitution of the United States, which he believed granted large and indefinite powers to the central government.
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