Happy birthday, George Mason

 Born 300 years ago--December 11, 1725--George Mason authored much of the Fairfax Resolves of 1774, the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776, and also his Objections to this Constitution of Government (1787). He had been a delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787 but refused to sign the constitution, citing its lack of a bill of rights. His Virginia Declaration of Rights subsequently became the basis of the Bill of Rights. He spoke out against slavery, which he called a "slow poison" for the nation, and worked to end the international slave trade. Yet he owned numerous slaves and is not known to have freed any.