George Mason Memorial in Washington, D.C.

George Mason is one of America’s most influential, least recognized Founding Fathers.  A Memorial in Washington, D.C., honors this under-appreciated Virginian.

George Mason wrote the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which inspired both the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.  He later served as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787.  But he refused to sign the United States Constitution because it did not abolish the slave trade and because it lacked adequate protection for the individual from the national government.

The Memorial is set within a historic garden.  It features a larger-than-life bronze statue of George Mason seated on a stone bench below a 72-foot-long trellis.  He looks casual and pensive.  A few books reflect the patriot’s thoughtful nature and philosophical contributions to the cause of American independence.  Mason holds Cicero’s De Officiis in his right hand.  To his left are John Locke’s On the Conduct of the Understanding and Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Du Social Contract.  On his right are a tri-corner hat and a walking stick, establishing him as a mature figure of the 18th century.

The Memorial displays several of Mason’s quotations, including this one, adopted and adapted by Thomas Jefferson into the Declaration on Independence:

All men are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent natural rights … among which are the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.

The Memorial is located in East Potomac Park, an island just south of the Tidal Basin.  It was the first memorial in the area dedicated to someone who was not a former President of the United States.  Its peaceful and quiet setting befits Mason’s thoughtful nature.  It is a short walk from the Jefferson Memorial, symbolizing the two Virginians’ close association in the American founding.

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Planning travel to the mid-Atlantic?  You might like:

• Edgar Allan Poe House & Museum in Baltimore, Maryland
• Johnson Victrola Museum in Dover, Delaware
• Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C.