Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1885-10-29
NOW AND THEN.

NOW AND THEN.
The subjoined article was written by Col
L. ]. Du Pre-, of Alabama, and appeared in
late number of the Daily Age, published
at Birmingham, Ala:
James Madison said of old George Mason
the founder of the famous family of Vir-
ginia, that "he was the greatest orator and
profoundest thinker of his time" He was
the political adviser and mentor of his more
youthful neighbor, George Washington, to
whom he adhered and served with tireless
fidelity till Washington fell under the in-
f1uence of Hamilton and became federal
ist. In truth, George Mason, perhaps the
richest citizen OF Virginia, save noblenan
or two, endowed with wide domains by the
British crown, was the truest republican in
his philosophy of government and in prac-
tical life, who shared in the creation of our
government. Even Patrick Henry, in his
old age, was federalist. George Mason
was never swerved from his original pur-
pose to create and maintain in America a
pure republic.
Those who have never studied his un-
written history may have proper appre-
hension of his extraordinary ability when
they remember that he wrote the bill of
rights and constitution of the State of Vir-
ginia aud these were adopted as written.
In other words George Mason was the first
of our race to frame upon paper perfect
form of government and that of a pure re-
public The rest of the colonies simply
copied the organic code devised by old
Geo. Mason for the Commonwealth Of Vir-
ginia. 1t may be we'll to state further in
illustration of his wisdom and courage, that
in 1764-5 when the kuklux of the period had
already thrown the taxed tea into Boston
harbor and the war had practically begun,
George Washington was still supposed to be
an adherent to the mother country, as was
Lord Fairfax, Washington's neighbor, pat
ron and employer. Washingtons silence
and associations gave great uneasness to
his friends and neighbors. Mason was an
noyed and vexed.
One bright Saturday the sturdy tobacco
planter, owning sixteen thousand acres just
below Mt. Vernon on the Potomac, pro-
nounced speech before great throng of
Virginians in Alexandria. No such speech
was ever addressed to Virginians. None
ever excited such enthusiasm or eXerted
such an influence upon the fortunes Of the
people and State. No loftier eloquence ever
begat revolution. Mason's oratory, if we
may give credence to tradition, transcended
in force, brllliancy and resistessness, the
fiery phillipcs and maddening defamation
of Mirabeau. Alexandria became unit.
From this brain centre went forth the
spirit of f'76," and old George Mason, the
sublimest hero and statesman of them all,
was its mouthpiece and embodiment. Wash
ington was overwhelmed. He pronounced
himself, even at the door way of old Christ
church in Alexandria, "rebel," and assert
ed his modest willingness to lead the army
of Virginia against England. Such IS the
traditional and truthful story that old men
tell their children, even in our time, in Alex
andria 1t is reproduced here that We
may state that old George Mason was'the
first chosen, by the House of Delegates
of Virginia, to represent the Common
wealth in the Senate of the United States.
Mason refused to accept the high office
"Tell the House of Delegates" he said to
the messengers who announced the fact of
at the hands of body which | could buy.
Let the people of Virginia elect me and l
will gratefully serve them"
This old story is here written that we may
contrast the Virginia and her heroes and
statesmen of one hundred years ago with
those of to day Old George Mason rises up
like god from the dreamland of memory,
rejecting the Senatorship because the people
themselves were not suffered to proter it..
Here, before our very eyes, stands little
Billy Malone dickering with the negroes OF
Virginia for the United States Senatorship.
And this foul shame has been put upon
| us by John Sherman and his political asso-
ciates, who would win power in Ohio and
the Union by inducing our Northern fellow
countrymen to believe that we, whose
fathers honored and children cherish the
stainless fame and lofty virtues of George
Mason, would be false to ourselves or coun-
try, or that we could tolerate the mastery
of Malone aud his blacks.