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Patrick Henry
• Born in Hanover County, Virginia May 29, 1736.
• His father schooled him at home, where most of his primary education took place. His father was most likely able to do this well, as he was educated in col- lege in Scotland.
• He made many attempts at being a store owner and a planter, but he was not successful. However, he was able to educate himself quite well, teaching himself law, while working at his father-in-law’s tavern inn as a tavern keeper. Eventually he was able to open a law practice in 1760 in Hanover County.
• He was noted as having a speaking style like evangelical preachers during the Great Awakening, that the American colonies experienced in the 1730s and 40s. Soon he was practicing law.
• There was a legal case, the Parson’s Cause in 1763, which he handled as his first major case. This case became an important event, that challenged the limits of England’s power in controlling the colonies. This turned out to be important, as it was a major incident that led up to the American Revolution.
• The Parson’s Cause, placed Henry in a position as a leader toward the move for independence, which led up to the American Revolution.
• His famous quote, “Give me liberty, or give me death,” inspired the colonies to make this the motto of the Revolution. He gave this quote during the Second Virginia Convention in 1775, as he was trying to convince the colonies to resist England’s desire to rule them.
• When he made that quote, among others who were present, were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, plus six others who signed the Declaration of Independence.
• He insisted that the Bill of Rights should be in the constitution, because it wasn’t, he refused to sign it. He opposed the ratification of the U.S. Constitu- tion, believing it gave the government too much power.
• He was influential in and instrumental in creating the Bill of Rights, giving limitations to the government powers, which would guarantee personal rights.
• He served as the first Governor of Virginia from1776 to 1779 and
then as its sixth Governor from 1784 to 1786. He did become popular with the people of Virginia, although he was not particularly influential in politics.
• He had many accomplishments in helping the new union to form.
• He died of stomach cancer in Brookneal, Virginia on June 6, 1799 at the age of 63.
ThThomas Jefffferson
• Born April 13, 1743, in Shadwell into a prominent Virginia family.
• He began studying Latin, Greek and French at the tender age of 9. He later attending the William and Mary College at just 16 years old.
• As he progressed in his studies over the years, he became fluent speaking in at least five languages, among them Italian, German, Spanish, French, Latin and Greek, including having the ability to write in two other languages.
• He is known as a philosopher, architect, lawyer, diplomat and of course, an American statesman.
• He was chosen by a committee’s vote, to write a draft of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. He later formed the law for religious freedom, when he was a Virginia legislator, while the American Revolution was moving forward.
• While the nation was still embroiled in the revolution and heavy attacks were going against the southern colonies, Jefferson became Governor of Virginia in June 1779, succeeding Patrick Henry.
• In 1801 he again ran for president, succeeding this time, serving two terms from 1801 to 1809 as the third president of the United States.
• He played a significant role in determining the character of the American
president’s office.
• Aaron Burr served as his vice president (who shot and killed Alexander Ham- ilton).
• He also served as vice president under John Adams.
• Beginning in 1803, He promoted a western expansionist policy, setting up the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the land area of our nation’.
• Besides his many contributions to our country, one of his contributions was selling his book collection to Congress, thereby starting the Library of Congress.
• Before his death, he said his desire was to be remembered for just two things. One was to be noted for his role as the author of the Declaration of Indepen- dence, and the other as the University of Virgina founder.
• One of his greatest achievements was his religious freedom advocacy.
• He was also involved in and encouraged the Lewis and Clark expedition.
• As the nation celebrated his Declaration’s fiftieth anniversary, he died on July 4, 1826 at the age of 83 in Charlottesville, Virginia, and was buried in Monticello.
James Madison
• Born on Port Conway, Virginia on March 16, 1751. He was raised in Orange
• During his work in politics, he became known and as the “Father of the Con- stitution.” He was responsible for the first drafts of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
• Along with Thomas Jefferson, they founded the first political party in 1792, known as the Democratic-Republican Party. He became a lift-long friend of Jefferson, an author of the Declaration of Independence and third president.
• He believed it was a natural right to have religious freedom, from the moment of birth. He fought for this constantly. Leaving Congress in 1783, he worked on a religious freedom statute. However, he was soon called back to Congress to be part of the group creating a new constitution.
• Another project he felt strong about was setting up a system of checks and balances ensuring no government branch would have more power than anoth- er. Although he believed America needed strength in their federal government, he felt there was a need to find a better way to raise federal money and regulate state legislatures.
• He served from 1789 to 1797 in the new U.S. House of Representatives. He
worked on ten amendments to the Constitution, drafting the Bill of Rights, freedom of speech and religion, specifically for American citizens.
• In 1791 the Bill of Rights was ratified by all of the states.
• He also served as a close advisor to President George Washington.
• In May 1797 at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, along with delegates from every state, he presented his ideas in his “Virginia Plan,” which put forth a government system that would be effective for every state and at the federal level. This formed the basis of the U.S. Constitution.
• There was controversy about the new constitution, as many states declared that it gave too much power to the federal government.
• From 1809 to 1817, he served as our fourth American president, a diplomat, expansionist and philosopher.
• During his lifetime, Madison had respect as not only a statesman, but a great communicator, a well as, a great thinker.
• His death occurred from heart failure at the age of 85 in 1826, the day the day the Declaration of Independence was celebrated on July 4.
Country, Virginia on his family’s plantation.
George Mason
• Born in Fairfax County, Virginia, on December 11, 1725. When George was
of a young age, his father died.
• Mason inherited his father’s estate at the young age of 21, of thousands of farmland acres in both Maryland and Virgina, along with thousands more in the western country.
• He had many credits to his name including involving himself in community affairs, with George Washington, his neighbor, and served briefly in the House of Burgesses. He contributed to the Virginia Declaration of Rights. He was the principal author, being considered the father of the United States Bill of Rights.
• Even though he worked many months in the convention for the Constitu- tion, he decided that he would not sign it, even though he had a big role in crafting the document. He felt the federal government may be too powerful, it had no bill of rights, and it did not end the slave trade.
• At one point he declared the “judgment of the heavens” upon the people, if the institution of slavery was not included to be discontinued, finding the slave trade morally objectionable.
• Besides himself introducing a bill of rights, James Madison joined him in this fight, and introduced this in 1789 in the First Congress, but the amendments
were not ratified until 1791, a year before George Mason’s death.
• George Mason was well known for authoring the Declaration of Rights in Virginia, and Virginia Bill of Rights and Constitution. His advocacy for the rights of colonists began in the 1760s, and in the 1770s, those rights flourished.
• He contributed to many documents, among them the bill of rights, believing that without this individual freedom would be undermined. He also contrib- uted significantly to other documents, which helped usher in development of the First Amendment. There are many clauses in the Constitution that show his influence and thoughts.
• Mason was called “a man of the first order of greatness” by Thomas Jefferson. Although he had the opportunity to serve as Virginia’s first senator, he chose not to do so.
• He became obscure after his death, but in the 20th and 21st centuries, George Mason has come to be known for his many contributions to the early forma- tion of the United States and to the state of Virginia, being credit with being anti-Federalist, contributing to many documents, especially the First Amend- ment.
• George Mason’s death occurred at the age of 66 on October 7, 1792, possibly from pneumonia, in Virginia. In Fairfax, Virginia. A college named after him,
George Mason University, erected a statue of him.
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