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source of governmental power, and thus were protected from abuse by the
government. While many of the rights show the influence of Locke, Mason made
actual law out of what had until then been merely abstract ideas. His insight was
that a republic must begin with a written and binding commitment to an
individual’s “inalienable rights—rights that came from the Creator and were
superior to any government.” 92
The Virginia Declaration of Rights had a tremendous influence on other
states, other nations, and other key American documents. Robert Rutland, the
Mason biographer who also assembled the definitive set of Mason papers, focused
on the thoughts behind Mason’s words:
George Mason was a producer of ideas who flourished at the time
when leaders of the struggling former colonies were eager to
experiment and to expand. Mason’s ideas, placed on paper, drew the
whole of the Revolution into focus. Soon they were read in Europe
and drew the admiration of the men destined to guide France. 93
This was not simply an intellectual influence, as his very words became the basis of
many other bills of rights and constitutions. Benjamin Franklin and John Adams
paid Mason the ultimate compliment by using his ideas. They copied Mason’s
words from the Virginia Declaration of Rights almost verbatim into the
Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts constitutions. Nine new state constitutions
show influence from Mason’s list of rights. 94 Less recognized is that fact that his
writing heavily influenced the American Declaration of Independence. Thomas
Jefferson wrote his famous declaration just days after reading Mason’s draft of the
Virginia declaration. Jefferson’s preamble only varied slightly from the first three
92 Schwartz, “George Mason: Forgotten Founder,” 148.
93 Robert A. Rutland, George Mason: Reluctant Statesman (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
University Press, 1961), xiv.
94 Shumate, Legacy of George Mason, 9-15. Anderson, “Origins of the Press Clause,” 464.
Levy, Emergence, 183-192. Connecticut and Rhode Island did not write new constitutions but
rather kept their colonial charters. New York and New Jersey did not include bills of rights.