Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/278

tion that framed the constitution of the United States. He tooli an active part in its debates, always being found on the liberal side. In the dis- cussion on the question whether the house of rep- resentatives should be chosen directly by the people, he main- tained that no repub- lican government could stand without popular confidence, and that confidence could only be secured by giving to the peo- ple the selection of one branch of the legislature. He also favored the election of the president by the people for a term of seven years with ineligibility after- ward. Propositions to make slaves equal

to freemen as a basis

of representation and to require a property qualifi- cation from voters, met with his strong disapproval. He also spoke with great energy against the clause that prohibited the abolition of the slave-trade till 1808. declaring that, as slavery was a source of national weakness and demoralization, the general government should have power to prevent its in- crease. In some of iiis attempts to render the constitution more democratic, Mr. Mason was de- feated in the convention, and when the instrument was completed he declined to sign it. He was es- pecially dissatisfied with the extended and indefi- nite powers that were conferred on congress and the executive. On his return to Virginia he was chosen a member of the convention to which the constitution was referred for ratification or rejec- tion, and, with Patrick Henry, led the opposition to its adoption, insisting on certain amendments. These comprised a bill of rights and about twenty alterations in the body of the measure, several of which were afterward adopted. He was elected the first U. S. senator from Virginia, but declined, and retired to Gunston Hall, where he resided un- til his death. Mr. Mason is referred to by Thomas Jefferson as " a man of the first order of wisdom, of expansive mind, profound judgment, cogent in argument, learned in the lore of our former con- stitution, and earnest for the republican change on democratic principles." He is described, when fifty years of age, as of commanding presence and lofty bearing, of an athletic and robust frame, a swarthy complexion, with black hair sprinkled with gray, a grave face, and dark, radiant eyes. His statue stands, with those o." Jefferson, Henry, and other illustrious Virginians, at the base of Craw- ford's colossal statue of Washington in front of the capitol at Richmond. — The fourth George's brother, Thomson, lawyer, b. in Virginia in 1733; d. there in 1785, studied law in London and at- tained to eminence at the bar. He sat in the Vir- ginia assembly for ten years before the Revolution, and took strong ground against the aggressions of the British government. As early as 1774 he pub- lished a series of papers in which he maintained the duty of open resistance to the mother-country. The early numbers of the series were signed "A British American," but, with rare courage consider- ing the circumstances, to the concluding one he appended his own name. In 1778 he was appoint- ed a member of the first supreme court of Virginia, but he did not long occupy the bench. He was afterward one of the live judges of the general court. Subsequently he was nominated, with his brother, one of the revisers of the state laws by the senate. In 1779 and 1783 he was elected a member of the house of delegates, and served as chairman of the committee on courts of justice. — Thomson's son, Stevens Thomson, senator, b. in Stafford county, V^a., in 1700; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 10 May, 1803, was educated at William and Mary col- lege. He served as a volunteer aid to Gen. Wash- ington at the siege of Yorktown, and was after- ward a general of militia. He was a member of the house of delegates, sat in the State constitu- tional convention in 1788, and was then elected to the U. S. senate, where he served from 7 Dec, 1795, till 3 March, 1803. Much comment was caused by his action regarding the Jay treaty. John Jay had been sent to England in 1794 to negotiate a treaty that should settle all existing differences between the United States and Great Britain. In June, 1795, it was laid before the senate, and its provisions were fiercely discussed for a fortnight in secret session, when it was ratified by barely a constitutional majority, 20 to 10. The senate tlien removed the seal of secrecy from its proceedings, but forbade any publication of the treaty itself. Enough of its character, however, had been re- vealed to cause it to be violently attacked by the press, when jIason caused first a full abstract and afterward a perfect copy of it to be published in the Philadelphia "Aurora." For this action he was extolled by the Republicans (the Democrats of that day), but bitterly assailed by the Federal- ists. The popular clamor was so great against the treaty that its supporters were threatened with mob violence in the large cities, Alexander Ham- ilton being assaulted at an open-air meeting in New York. " These are hard arguments," he is said to have exclaimed as a stone struck him on the head. Mason was a warm personal friend of Thomas Jefferson, and always his stanch po- litical ally. He enjoyed great personal populari- ty, and as an orator his exceptional command of wit and sarcasm gained him a wide reputation. — Another son of Thomson, John Thomson, lawyer, b. in Stafford county, Va., in 1764 ; d. in December, 1824, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and in early life removed to Maryland, where he took high rank in his profession. The office of U. S. attorney-general was offered him by President Jefferson, and in 1806, by the state of Maryland, those of chief justice and attorney-general, all of which he declined, or occupied only for a brief period. In 1811 he refused the office of U. S. attorney-general a second time on its being offered to him by President Madison. In 1816 he was the Democratic candidate for U. S. senator, in opposition to Robert G. Harper, but lost the election by a single vote. — Armistead Thomson, senator, son of Stevens Thomson, b. in Loudon county, Va., in 1787; d. in Bladensburg, D. C, 6 Feb., 1819, was graduated at William and Mary in 1807, engaged in farming, and served as colonel of a cavalry regiment during the war of 1812. He subsequently became brigadier-general of Virginia militia. He sat several years in the state legislature, and in 1815 was elected U. S. senator, serving from 22 Jan., 1816, till 3 March, 1817, when he resigned, at the suggestion of his friends, to contest the strongly Federal congressional district of Loudon. It was supposed that he alone could compete successfully with the opposing candidate, Charles F. Mercer, but he was defeated by a small majority. The contest was one of great personal