Senator James Murray Mason of Virginia Hdt What? Index
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GO TO LIST OF PEOPLE INVOLVED IN HARPERS FERRY VARIOUS PERSONAGES INVOLVED IN THE FOMENTING OF RACE WAR (RATHER THAN CIVIL WAR) IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: SENATOR JAMES MURRAY MASON OF VIRGINIA HDT WHAT? INDEX RACE WAR, NOT CIVIL WAR 1779 March: In a letter to George Mason in Virginia which he expected to be shown to Thomas Jefferson, General George Washington complained that during the present “critical period” while the new nation was “verging ... fast to destruction,” Jefferson was at home at Monticello indulging in mere “idleness and dissipation.” Nevertheless Jefferson would remain at home enjoying himself, contributing nothing whatever to the war effort until after the British were quite gone from this area of the country. Even while serving as Virginia’s governor, Jefferson would inevitably resist all pressure to utilize the state militia, saying that he preferred to hold such forces in readiness to suppress any black servile insurrection. The only positive action that Jefferson ever would take during the war was fleeing. This occurred on June 3, 1781, when General Cornwallis dispatched a cavalry party made up of 250 infantry and dragoons under the leadership of Colonel Banastre Tarleton, and the raiding party went out to the Monticello plantation house to apprehend Jefferson. On that day Jefferson, after burning some sensitive papers and sending his favorite servant Martin Hemings off to hide some valuable items, mounted his favorite horse Caractacus and made his getaway. (In this gentleman’s autobiography, there would of course be no mention of such a flight, presumably for the very same reason that there would of course be no mention of Sally or the rugrats.) If Tom could get away with it... Of course, Tom can be excused for being a draft-dodger (like William Jefferson Clinton), as he had in this year more important fish that he needed get fried: A Bill Concerning Slaves Be it enacted by the General Assembly, that no persons shall, henceforth, be slaves within this commonwealth, except such as were so on the first day of this present session of Assembly, and the descendants of the females of them. Negroes and mulattoes which shall hereafter be brought into this commonwealth and kept therein one whole year, together, or so long at different times as shall amount to one year, shall be free. But if they shall not depart the commonwealth within one year thereafter they shall be out of the protection of the laws. Those which shall come into this commonwealth of their own accord shall be out of the protection of the laws; save only such as being seafaring persons and navigating vessels hither, shall not leave the same while here more than twenty four hours together. It shall not be lawful for any person to emancipate a slave but by deed executed, proved and recorded as is required by law in the case of a conveyance of goods and chattels, on consideration not deemed valuable in law, or by last will and testament, and HDT WHAT? INDEX RACE WAR, NOT CIVIL WAR with the free consent of such slave, expressed in presence of the court of the county wherein he resides: And if such slave, so emancipated, shall not within one year thereafter, depart the commonwealth, he shall be out of the protection of the laws. All conditions, restrictions and limitations annexed to any act of emancipation shall be void from the time such emancipation is to take place. If any white woman shall have a child by a negro or mulatto, she and her child shall depart the commonwealth within one year thereafter. If they fail so to do, the woman shall be out of the protection of the laws, and the child shall be bound out by the Aldermen of the county, in like manner as poor orphans are by law directed to be, and within one year after its term of service expired shall depart the commonwealth, or on failure so to do, shall be out of the protection of the laws. Where any of the persons before described shall be disabled from departing the commonwealth by grievous sickness, the protection of the law shall be continued to him until such disability be removed: And if the county shall in the mean time, incur any expence in taking care of him, as of other county poor, the Aldermen shall be intitled to recover the same from his former master, if he had one, his heirs, executors and administrators. No negro or mulatto shall be a witness except in pleas of the commonwealth against negroes or mullatoes, or in civil pleas wherein negroes or mulattoes alone shall be parties. No slave shall go from the tenements of his master, or other person with whom he lives, without a pass, or some letter or token whereby it may appear that he is proceeding by authority from his master, employer, or overseer: If he does, it shall be lawful for any person to apprehend and carry him before a Justice of the Peace, to be by his order punished with stripes, or not, in his discretion. No slave shall keep any arms whatever, nor pass, unless with written orders from his master or employer, or in his company, with arms from one place to another. Arms in possession of a slave contrary to this prohibition shall be forfeited to him who will seize them. Riots, Routs, unlawful assemblies, trespasses and seditious speeches by a negro or mullato shall be punished with stripes at the discretion of a Justice of the Peace; and he who will may apprehend and carry him before such Justice. HDT WHAT? INDEX RACE WAR, NOT CIVIL WAR A question has arisen as to what Tom meant, above, by the phrase “out of the protection of the laws.” When I opinioned that what it must have meant in practice on the ground was “may be killed without penalty,” a senior Jefferson scholar was just outraged. I was set straight in no uncertain terms. No, what it meant was, such a person “would not be entitled to receive any further Welfare payments.” Gosh, how could I have been so utterly wrong! We notice above how the law that Tom wrote did not bear on his personal situation out at the Monticello plantation. He wrote that “If any white woman shall have a child by a negro or mulatto, she and her child shall depart the commonwealth within one year thereafter,” and that otherwise she would be placing herself “out of the protection of the laws” — meaning merely that such a miscegenator wouldn’t be entitled to Welfare or to Aid for Dependent Children, but he did not write that “If any white man [such as himself, for one fine example] shall have a child by a negro or mulatto [such as Tom’s slave girl Sally], he and his child [such as Thomas Jefferson Hemings] shall depart the commonwealth within one year thereafter,” and that otherwise he would be placing himself “out of the protection of the laws” — meaning merely that such a miscegenator wouldn’t be entitled to Welfare or to Aid for Dependent Children. HDT WHAT? INDEX RACE WAR, NOT CIVIL WAR 1798 November 3, Saturday: Wolf Tone surrendered to the British at Buncrana, County Donegal. In the year of the XYZ Affair, so named after 3 anonymous French troublemakers, and of the consequent Alien and Sedition Acts, James Murray Mason was born. During this year, also, the U.S. Marine Corps was beginning its policy of denying enlistment to non-whites, and Ludwig van Beethoven was beginning to be troubled by a ringing in his ears. YOU HAVE TO ACCEPT EITHER THE REALITY OF TIME OVER THAT OF CHANGE, OR CHANGE OVER TIME — IT’S PARMENIDES, OR HERACLITUS. I HAVE GONE WITH HERACLITUS. Not Civil War “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX RACE WAR, NOT CIVIL WAR 1818 After studying under a private tutor and graduating from an academy at Georgetown, District of Columbia, James Murray Mason had entered the University of Pennsylvania. In this year he graduated. John Edwards Holbrook graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with the degree of MD. He would briefly practice as a physician in Boston, and then continue his medical education in London and Edinburgh. Edinburgh he would notice to be “inferior only to London.” While at Glasgow he would have “the satisfaction of hearing one of the most eloquent preachers of the age, Doctor Chalmers. His broad scotch dialect disappointed me in the commencement of his discourse ... but when he was fairly begun I was more directly sensible of the power of eloquence that ever was my lot to be before.” HDT WHAT? INDEX RACE WAR, NOT CIVIL WAR 1820 In this year in which the Federalist Party dissolved and, no longer having any organized opposition, the Jefferson Democrats in consequence disbanded, James Murray Mason graduating from the Department of Law at the College of William and Mary and beginning the practice of law in Winchester, Virginia (he would spend much of his early life tending to his family and to his law practice). HDT WHAT? INDEX RACE WAR, NOT CIVIL WAR 1826 The attorney at law James Mason was elected to represent Frederick County in the Virginia House of Delegates. HDT WHAT? INDEX RACE WAR, NOT CIVIL WAR 1827 That Virginia Delegate James Murray Mason would cling to the doctrine of states’ rights and a strict interpretation of the Constitution had already become evident, in the Giles resolutions, and would continue through the nullification crisis, the 1830s national bank crisis, and into Mason’s senatorial career.