Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/48

 KATHERS OF THE REVOLUTION

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assembly of 1758-1761. His time was. how- ever, chiefly employed in the occupations of a planter. In 1750 he married Ann Eil- bcck. daughter of William Eilbeck, who had removed from Whitehaven, Cumberland county, England, to Maryland. He was an intimate friend of Washington, and, as a means of securing a repeal of the British revenue bill of 1767, he drew up a plan of non-importation, which was oflfered by Washington in the house of burgesses and adopted by that body in 1769. One of its sections pledged the planters to buy no im- ported slaves after November i, of that year. In 1773 ^^ wrote a tract, *' Extracts from the Virginia Charters, with some re- marks upon them" — an argument on the in- violability of the Virginia territory west- ward of the Alleghanies by virtue of the charter granted by Charles II. in 1676. At a meeting of the people of Fairfax county. July 17. 1774. he recommended a congress of the colonies, and urged non-intercourse with the mother country. His resolutions were sanctioned by the Virginia convention, and in 1774 were substantially adopted by the first Continental Congress. In 1775 Mason was a member of the Virginia con- vention, but declined election to Congress for family reasons. He served on the com- mittee of safety ; and was author of the fam- ous declaration of rights and plan of gov- ernment adopted by the Virginia convention of 1776. In 1777 he declined a seat in the 'Continental Congress. 1787 he sat in the convention to trame the Federal <:onstitution and took a leading part, favoring election of the president directly by the people, for a term of seven years, with subsequent ineligi- bility. He opposed the provision of the con- stitution prohibiting the abolition of the

slave trade until 1808, denouncing slavery as a source of national weakness and demorali- zation. He opposed other features of the constitution as dangerous, and with Patrick Henry stood against its ratification, the two insisting upon a number of alterations, and upon a bill of rights. Some of these amend- ments were subsequently adopted by Con- gress, and are embodied in the present con- stitution. Mason was chosen one of the first United States senators, but declined, and spent the remainder of his days at **Gun- sion Hall,'' where he died. October 7, 1792.

McClurg, James, son of Dr. Walter Mc- Clurg. an English army surgeon, was born at Hampton, in 1747. He was a fellow stu- dent with Thomas Jefferson at William and Mary College, and graduated in 1762. He went to Edinburgh. Scotland, and in 1770 took the degree of M. D. After two years' study in Paris and London, he returned to America, settled in Williamsburg, Virginia, and rose to the h<!ad of his profession. His ir London. England, was so highly esteemed as to be translated into all the languages of Europe. In 1779 he was made professor of medicine in William and Mary College, but about 1783 resigned and removed from Wil- liamsburg to Richmond. For many years be was a member of the executive committee of Virginia, and when Patrick Henry de- clined to serve in the convention to frame the United States constitution. Dr. McClurg was elected in his place, but was not present when the final vote on the constitution was taken, being compelled by private affairs to be absent, and, therefore, did not sign the instrument. He had some facility as a writer of verse, and his ** Belles of Williams-
 * Essay on the Human Bile." -first published

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