Papers of George Mason

University of North Carolina

Additional information at https://www.uncpress.org/book/9780807897683/the-papers-of-george-mason-1725-1792/?title_id=2566

A comprehensive edition of the papers of George Mason (1725 –1792), a statesman and a delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention. Along with James Madison, he is called the "Father of the United States Bill of Rights.” Anti-federalist Mason was a leader of those who pressed for the addition of explicit States rights and individual rights to the U.S. Constitution as a balance to the increased federal powers, and did not sign the document in part because it lacked such a statement. His efforts eventually succeeded in convincing the Federalists to add the first ten amendments, collectively known as the Bill of Rights. These were based on the earlier Virginia Declaration of Rights, which Mason had drafted in 1776.  This is a comprehensive edition containing all known public and private letters and other papers written by or to the Revolutionary period patriot and Virginia governor.

Complete in three volumes