The un-forgotten founder: How George Mason’s legacy lives on

"That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society...namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty...pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety."

The Virginia Declaration of Rights, penned by George Mason IV, begins with this bold proclamation. It's a familiar opening: the Declaration of Independence, arguably the more famous document between the two, reads, "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

Yet George Mason's name isn't on the Constitution, despite his obvious influence. The first 3-D depiction of him in the United States wasn't erected until 1996, on George Mason University's Fairfax Campus. He is considered the "Forgotten Founder."

Now, on George Mason's 300th birthday, we come with a question: What is a legacy? What does it mean to be remembered?

George Mason, the man, was born on December 11, 1725, in present-day Fairfax County, Virginia. His home, Gunston Hall, sits on the Potomac River less than 20 miles southeast of George Mason University's Fairfax Campus.

From drafting Virginia's first constitution and the Virginia Declaration of Rights to declaring it the "Commonwealth of Virginia" instead of a state, Mason built the foundation of the place George Mason University would first call its home. And his influence extends far beyond the commonwealth's borders: his Virginia Declaration of Rights is said to have influenced the United States Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, as well as human rights declarations across the globe.

At the "The Un-Forgotten Founder," an event hosted Dec. 8 by the Law and Economics Center at the Scalia Law School, panelists examined the complicated legacy of a man who, they believe, was unconcerned with how he might be remembered. He did not leave behind troves of primary sources as other founding fathers did; he stayed steadfast in his refusal to sign the Constitution because it did not include a Bill of Rights; he had no alliances or allegiances to any one school of thought.

Much of Mason's life is hidden in the gaps between a small pool of primary sources. And in those gaps, we find echoes of a complicated and conflicted legacy: His firm pronouncement of inalienable rights for "all men" and rejection of the international slave trade did not extend to those enslaved people of Gunston Hall, for example.

Intellectual curiosity was one of Mason's defining characteristics. And it is in the complexities of Mason's life and legacy that we see the echoes of the founding father most strongly. That history becomes a pathway through which students can wrestle with big ideas, ask complex questions, and learn how to sit with contradiction and juxtaposition.

"The limited sources we had on Mason were an opportunity to use him and his legacy as a teaching tool, to help students learn and engage critically with the complexities of the past," said George Oberle, director of the Center for Mason Legacies at George Mason University. In fact, the project that formed the foundation for the Center for Mason Legacies was a student-directed summer project: "The Enslaved Children of George Mason," Which also inspired the Enslaved People of George Mason installation near his statue on Wilkins Plaza on the Fairfax Campus.

Because this is where the real learning begins for George Mason students. That insatiable thirst for knowledge, the unwillingness to accept what is simply because that is how it has always been: These same things that motivated Mason to pen the Virginia Declaration of Rights continue to push our students to new heights. To ask hard questions and to be unafraid of the complexities of the answers is how George Mason University prepares its students to tackle the grand challenges of the 21st century.

Much has changed since Mason's signature dried on those documents that shaped the future of the United States of America. Stepping into a George Mason University classroom in 2025, the tableau unfolds: a commuter student from Fairfax sitting next to an international student, speaking to a U.S. Army veteran with a 20-year career who is working on a presentation with a first-generation college student.

We can't know what future Mason envisioned when he penned the opening line in 1776-and who he believed deserved that future. But that's the thing about legacy and history: Each new generation gets to look at the evidence with a fresh perspective. And with the groundwork laid by Mason in 1776, George Mason University has become a place where "all men" means everyone is given the opportunity to embrace intellectual curiosity and create a legacy of their own.

Dive deep into history with the Center for Mason Legacies

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