Posted on 03/30/2006 1:30:33 PM PST by elc
The George Mason University basketball team's ascendance to the NCAA Final Four this weekend may well be remembered as the most improbable run in the college basketball tournament's history.
Only one other eleventh-seeded team has made the Final Four. And you'd be hard-pressed to find a school with so low a profile and from so small a conference to have made it through the tournament's first two weekends.
In addition to the great basketball the team has given us (the Connecticut game was in instant classic), it would also be nice to see the school's success inspire some discussion about its namesake. Few people know much about George Mason. In fact, even GMU point guard Tony Skinn, asked about Mason, told the Houston Chronicle, "I heard somebody say he was President, but I know that's not true. Did he sign the Constitution? I have no clue."
Mason was never president. Nor did he sign the Constitution. But he was enormously influential in helping craft it. In fact, George Mason was probably early America's most eloquent defender of individual liberty. Principled and uncompromising, Mason was a man who loathed politics but understood the urgency of the times in which he lived, and engaged in politics to help ensure his new country put a premium on freedom.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
No, that is principle.
Doesn't Walter Williams teach there?
The notion that he somehow refused to sign it because of slavery is patently dishonest, and vastly overlooks the true legacy he left us (namely, strict constructionism).
Gator Bait
IMO, I'd say they are both accurate descriptions of why he didn't sign it. I wouldn't make the argument that it was one reason over the other, but after disagreeing with the 3/5ths compromise, the lack of a Bill of Rights was the nail in the coffin for him.
Geaux Gators Geaux Tigers , I am sorry so say but the slipper is about to come off this story
Don't know actually. I go to the campus in Arlington, and if they don't teach in the School of Public Policy, I wouldn't know them.
I want George Mason to win just because I love Walter Williams so much. Yes, he is the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason.
Oh it's great to be a Gator hater...
I don't follow basketball, but I'm definitely pulling for GMU here for 2 reasons:
1) I'm a part-time GMU grad student
2) I did my undergrad at FSU
Did you see how the most rabid fans stood there politely and applauded their team's efforts?
Bet ya don't see that every day.
And the fans themselves? You can't take a picture of a group of GMU basketball fans without also taking a picture of every major type of human being on the planet, or member of a major world religion.
GME is like Fairfax county ~ everybody is here ~ everybody! My little neighborhood of but 110 homes has residents from 35 nations.
We have a grade-school around here not too far away with kids whose parents hale from 112 nations, not counting tribal groups at all.
Same here. I've never followed college basketball much, but I began pulling for George Mason after reading the profile in National Review a few issues back (I'd link to the article but it's only in the print version).
Volume 5: MASON, GEORGE. ... Thinks that blacks should, in justice, be counted equally in proportioning representation, but will not insist on it, 302.
By that description alone, it doesn't sound like he's all that upset by it. Instead, he argues a lot over navigational rights, the establishment of courts, the proper jurisdiction of Federal laws, and the like, but he doesn't seem to advocate very strongly for the removal of the three-fifths compromise.
Thanks. I'll have a read over it tomorrow.
"recognized the absurdity of a country founded on individual rights giving a de facto imprimatur to slavery in its founding and governing document." Maybe not because of slavery specifically, but rather any one of a number of practices contrary to the original document being left legal in the US despite the document.
I'm gonna scour through the Virginia debates over the ratification of the Constitution as well—Geo. Mason was very vocal in the General Assembly on the rejection of the Constitution, as I recall, so hopefully his words there will shed more light on the topic. Perhaps I stand to be corrected on that evidence... we shall see.
Regards,
~dt~
One that I've seen is his insistance that the new Federal government not be a "Confederation," but rather assume the form of a "National" government. Perhaps this is one of those things he was concerned about being "left legal?"
Regards,
~dt~
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