A Letter from George Mason to Patrick Henry

   WARNING: Do not break the law before, during, or after reading anything I mention.

A footnote from my article on George Washington's preparation for another military campaign in 1783.

     In a letter from George Mason to Patrick Henry, May 6, 1783, reprinted in Robert A. Rutland, ed. The Papers of George Mason, vol.2 (Chapel Hill 1970), 769-773, Mason warned Henry of the dangers a powerful Congress posed to state sovereignty. As George Washington beseeched Congress, states, and citizens thereof, to expand congressional power, his fellow Virginian expressed outrage at Congress' ambitious intentions. Mason thought Congress assumed too much power and showed contempt for the Articles of Confederation. He perceived the benefits of the revolution, and the nation's image, was jeopardized by the Confederated Congress. Congress' jurisdiction had to be explicit and curtailed. Sovereign states were a bastion of liberty. Mason confessed his uncertainty to Henry, "We are now to rank among the Nations of the World: but whether our Independence shall prove a Blessing or a Curse, must depend upon our own Wisdom or Folly, Virtue or Wickedness; judging of the future from the Past, the Prospect is not promising." Both Mason and Washington placed great importance on a virtuous and respectable international image, as well as recognizing the country's uncertain future. Washington wanted Congress, the states, and citizens to take the initiative and attend to their national duties. Mason's view was that Congress ought to show deference to the states, as Washington pleaded with numerous parties to prepare for the possibility of another military campaign in 1783, even though peace was in the air. "A Depravity of Manners & Morals," Mason exclaimed, existed in the general assembly. "The Confidence and Reverence," he passionately decreed, "in the People for the Legislature" was "so greatly impaired by a contrary Conduct; and without which, our Laws can never be much more than a dead-Letter." Congress' problem, as Mason perceived it, was that it expanded the boundaries proscribed by the Articles of Confederation. Congress' lack of respect for the laws and state governments marked an unwarranted ambition. That ambition was quite apparent to Mason, who mentioned a curious rumor floating around for paranoid ears to capture. The Confederated Congress, it seemed to Mason, "intend[ed] to dissolve themselves, in order to make way for a General Convention, to new-model the Constitution of Government. Will such a Caprice of future Assemblys may repeat it, from time to time, until the Stability of the Constitution is totally destroyed, and Anarchy introduced in its Stead." The integrity of the law was paramount to both Washington and Mason. Washington viewed Congress as a stagnant branch needing more vigor. Mason, on the other hand, viewed Congress as an unduly assertive assembly dangerously exceeding its constitutional boundaries.  This dispute raged as Washington tried to impress upon the nation that a dual policy of peace and war must be entertained, even though the rays of peace were breaking through the storm clouds.