George Mason
• Member of the Virginia House of Burgesses
• Delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention
• Author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights
• Delegate to the Constitutional Convention
• Delegate to the Virginia ratification convention
• George Mason University and three states’ Mason Counties is named in his honor
• George Mason Memorial is in Washington, D.C.
Nathanael Greene
• Continental Army quartermaster
• George Washington’s second-in-command
• Commander of Southern Army (victories at Cowpens, Guilford Court House, Hobkirk’s Hill and Eutaw Springs)
• Three U.S. Navy ships and many cities named Greensboro and Greenville are named in his honor, as well as 15 state’s Green(e) Counties. Statues of Greene have been erected in Savannah, Georgia, Greensboro, North Carolina, and at the U.S. Capitol
Nathanael Greene (1742-1786) of Rhode Island was a Continental Army quartermaster who became Gen. George Washington’s second-in-command. He was in command of the Southern army when it achieved victories at Cowpens and Guilford Court House, and inflicted heavy British losses at Hobkirk’s Hill and Eutaw Springs.
Born a Quaker, Greene managed the family foundry before the Revolution and served in the Rhode Island legislature in the early 1770s. In August 1774, he formed a local militia and would help revise militia laws. He was expelled from the Quakers for his military services. Greene entered the Revolution as a private but was promoted to brigadier general for the siege of Boston, becoming commander of the city when the British evacuated in March 1776. Like artillery chief Henry Knox, Greene learned all he knew about the military from books. Now a brigadier, Greene was ill for most of the New York campaign except for the surrender of Forts Lee and Washington in fall. Greene once wrote, "We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again."
He was worried these defeats would result in losing field command but his loyalty to George Washington was rewarded with loyalty, and the commander-in-chief said that if anything happened to him, Greene should succeed him. After taking part at the battles of Trenton, Brandywine and Germantown, Greene reluctantly became quartermaster during the Valley Forge encampment in Pennsylvania in March 1778. He bitterly argued with Congress for much-needed food and supplies but was able to scavenge provisions from as far away as Maryland and Virginia. If the chief officers were killed, the army decimated or supplies lost, Greene warned Congress, "I would not be answerable for the consequences that such a stroke might produce in American politics." That August, Greene commanded troops at the Battle of Rhode Island, a failed Continental attempt to capture Narragansett Bay, and the victory at Battle of Springfield (New Jersey) in 1780, which prevented the British from seizing the colony. Greene also became good friends in the Army with Thomas Paine, who he called "Common Sense" in correspondence.
That December, Greene assumed command of the Southern Army, which was reeling from a humiliating defeat at Camden. Rather than confronting Gen. Lord Cornwallis’ Southern British command head-on, Greene split his force between him and Gen. Daniel Morgan to lure the British into the Carolina wilderness — unfamiliar territory far from reinforcements and re-supply for the British — and use guerilla tactics to confound the enemy. Morgan won huge victories at Cowpens and Guilford Court House a few months later. Costly British victories at Hobkirk’s Hill on April 25 and Eutaw Springs on Sept. 8 forced Cornwallis to remain in coastal Southern cities. Cornwallis surrendered his command after the Battle of Yorktown on Oct. 19, effectively ending the war.
Greene retired from public life after the war, twice refusing to become Secretary of War.
Three U.S. Navy ships and many cities named Greensboro and Greenville are named in his honor, as well as 15 state’s Green(e) Counties. Statues of Greene have been erected in Savannah, Georgia, Greensboro, North Carolina, and at the U.S. Capitol.
George Mason (1725-1792) of Virginia was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, considered a blueprint for the U.S. Bill of Rights and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
Mason entered politics as a justice and trustee in Northern Virginia before being elected to the House of Burgesses in Williamsburg in 1759. He penned an open letter against the Stamp Act to Parliament six years later, and in 1774 helped draft the Fairfax Resolves, a constitutional grievance against the closure of Boston Harbor by London as part of the Coercive Acts in response to the Boston Tea Party.
During the Williamsburg Convention in May 1776, when Virginia formed a new state government, Mason drafted the Virginia Declaration of Rights. "All men are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent natural rights," he wrote for Article I, "... among which are the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety." Article II stated, "... all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants and at all times amenable to them." The document was ratified on June 12. Feeling his work was accomplished, he left the legislature in 1780.
At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Mason protested the slave trade and having the word "slavery" appear in the Constitution. Like various other slaveholding revolutionaries, he feared slavery would, in his words, "poison" the young republic and be a continuous source of disunion. He argued that slavery should be abolished as soon as fiscally possible. Despite being among the top five speakers at the convention, Mason refused to sign the document. He argued that the U.S. House of Representatives was disproportionate and that the U.S. Senate and federal judiciary were too powerful, and he disapproved of a 10-acre federal city. More importantly, he disputed the omission of a bill of rights. Although he was a revolutionary and praised the character and wisdom of his colleagues, Mason despised politics and could be inflexible with compromises. Mason joined fellow Virginian Patrick Henry as a leading Anti-Federalist for the adoption of the Bill of Rights. Mason said, "There is no Declaration of Rights, and the laws of the general government being paramount to the laws and constitution of the several states, the Declaration of Rights in the separate states are no security." The Virginia Declaration of Rights articles addressing freedom of the press, religious freedom, right of trial by jury, prohibitions on excessive bail and inhumane punishment and promotion of "a well regulated militia" were replicated in the Bill of Rights in 1791.
Thomas Jefferson said about his friend and colleague, "This was George Mason, a man of the first order of wisdom among those who acted on the theater of the revolution, of expansive mind, profound judgment, cogent in argument."
FORGOTTEN FOUNDING FATHERS TOURNAMENT BRACKET
Final Four
#1 George Mason
#1 Nathanael Greene
#3 Henry Knox
#1 John Jay
FFFs and match-ups are determined by my interpretation of who I believe were the 32 greatest FFFs. Personal politics, favoritism and reader response was NOT a factor in selection or seeding. As for the tournament itself: each match-up will be conducted every 24 hours with a synopsis written by yours truly and readers can determine using the poll function who the winner should be for that match-up; there is no #1 overall seed; FFFs retain their seeds throughout; the winner of the Washington bracket will face the winner of the Jefferson bracket, and the winner of the Madison bracket will face the winner of the Franklin bracket; after having the first tie, I've decided the higher seed will win ties. I am not voting nor will I pick sides in discussion. I wish I could somehow do a more rigid time duration period for each round but there’s no guarantee I’ll be on a computer or awake at that time so I’m gonna say polling lasts until I post the next match-up, or roughly 24 hours later. Readers may choose whichever FFF contestant they wish, but the point of the tournament is to select the greatest Forgotten Founding Father — the most influential, most important, most impactful, who contributed the most to the Revolution and/or seeds of American liberty. Please read the original diaries in addition to the information provided above so you have all the information before voting. Have fun!