The Founders and the Constitution: George Mason
“If the Govt. is to be lasting, it must be founded in the confidence & affections of the people …” -George Mason, at the Constitutional Convention, Aug. 13, 1787. George Mason of Virginia helped construct the Constitution. He then opposed ratifying the very...
The ideas that formed the Constitution: Virgil alone
The previous (ninth) essay in this series identified three Roman poets quoted by participants in the constitutional debates of 1787–1790—Ovid, Horace, and Virgil. The essay explained why Virgil was the most influential: “If the American Founding had a poet laureate,”...
The Federal Government is too Big; George Mason Warned Us
Many antifederalists warned us about the dangers of centralized power. And George Mason was one of the most prominent. They called this centralization of power in the general government “consolidation.” In a speech during the Virginia ratifying convention,...