George Mason authored the Virginia Declaration of Rights, a model for later American rights documents.
Mason drafted the declaration in 1776 while Virginia was creating a new government during the American Revolution. The document proclaimed that people possessed inherent rights and that government existed to serve the public. It also described principles including popular sovereignty, free elections, and limits on arbitrary power.
Virginia's convention adopted the declaration on June 12, 1776. Its language influenced Virginia's constitution, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and later American debates about individual liberties. The document is frequently discussed alongside the Declaration of Independence because both emerged in 1776, but they served different purposes.
George Mason later participated in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 but refused to sign the U.S. Constitution because it lacked a bill of rights and raised other objections. James Madison subsequently helped secure the federal Bill of Rights, which is why Mason and Madison are sometimes confused in questions about the origins of American rights protections.