George Mason's greatest achievement was being the founding father of the National Bill of Rights. He was a Virginia planter, having grown up wealthy on one of the finest and finest plantations in Alexandria, Fairfax County, Virginia. He was a prominent member of the town church, had all the best guardians during his childhood, and was raised to be a Virginia aristocrat (Miers 39). Mason married "well" and had a large family with nine children. He raised them in Gunston Hall, a house he had built himself (Miers 41). He was the kind of person who, if he believed strongly enough, would not abandon his beliefs. He believed strongly in the cause of the American Revolution (he had given his son a plantation called "Lexington"), in citizens' rights, and in a non-tyrannical central government (Miers 41). He was known as a great debater, the best James Madison had ever seen. Mason spoke several times during the constitutional convention, on several topics in which he strongly believed. During the convention, Mason was directly and heavily involved in the issues of the Electoral College, slavery, the Bill of Rights, and a strong central government (Solberg 280). He was George Washington's best friend and became involved in Virginia politics around 1760. Six years later, he was called to Williamsburg to help with the Virginia Bill of Rights. He took what had been drafted before he got there. The thing was incredibly weak and he picked it up. Mason proceeded to boil it down to ten simple articles and statements. It took only four weeks to be rewritten and go through the ratification system, with only six more articles added and all of its major points left (Miers 41-46). The Declaration was brought to Philadelphia, to Thomas Jefferson, where he was about to conclude with the Declaration of Independence. Many of Mason's ideas were “decorated” and included in the Declaration of Independence (Miers42-46). George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights was used as the basis for nearly all other states (Collier 250). George Mason went to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 with writing a new form of government in mind, although he did not believe in a strong central government. He agreed with the Virginia Plan. The Virginia Plan provided for two houses of our government, but the population of the state determined the number of representatives... ... middle of paper ... states are not security," (Leo 27). Later, when George Washington took office, a committee was formed to add a Bill of Rights to the Declaration of Independence It was the only way to get all the states to ratify the Constitution they used Mason's ideas from the Virginia Declaration of Rights the Constitution Bill of Rights and amend them in the Constitution (Miers 85) George Mason was an intelligent and outspoken person who stood up for what he believed in and did not back down Being the basis of the Bill of Rights, which gave America the reputation of freedom, gave a backbone and a solid basis to resist the United States of America.bibBibliographyChristopher and James Collier, Decision in Philadelphia The ConstitutionalConvention of 1787 (New York: Random House, 1986), 148, 250. Bruno Leone, ed. , The Bill of Rights; Opposing Viewpoints (San Diego: GreenhavenPress Inc., 1994), 27, 41. Earl Schenck Miers, The Bill of Rights (New York: Grusset and Dunlap, 1968), 39,41-46, 72, 78, 85. Winton U. Solberg, ed., The Constitutional Convention and the Formation of the Union (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1958, 1990), 280.