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James M. Mason

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James Murray Mason
President pro tempore of the United States Senate
In office
January 6, 1857 – March 4, 1857
Preceded byJesse D. Bright
Succeeded byThomas J. Rusk
United States Senator
from Virginia
In office
January 21, 1847 – March 28, 1861
Preceded byIsaac S. Pennybacker
Succeeded byWaitman T. Willey
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's 15th district
In office
March 4, 1837 – March 3, 1839
Preceded byEdward Lucas
Succeeded byWilliam Lucas
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Frederick County
In office
1828-1831
Preceded byWilliam M. Barton
Succeeded byConstituency reorganized
In office
1826-1827
Preceded byGeorge Kiger
Succeeded byWilliam M. Barton
Personal details
Born(1798-11-03)November 3, 1798
Analostan Island, D.C., U.S.
DiedApril 28, 1871(1871-04-28) (aged 72)
Alexandria, Virginia, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseEliza Margaretta Chew
Alma materUniversity of Pennsylvania, College of William and Mary (law)
ProfessionPolitician, Lawyer

James Murray Mason (November 3, 1798 – April 28, 1871)[1][2] was a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from Virginia. He was a grandson of George Mason and represented the Confederate States of America as appointed commissioner of the Confederacy to the United Kingdom and France between 1861 and 1865, during the American Civil War.

In November 1861, Mason was among those captured by Federal troops during the Trent Affair while he was on a mission to England.

Early life

He was born on Analostan Island, now Theodore Roosevelt Island, in the District of Columbia. He was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (1818) and received a law degree from the College of William and Mary (1820).

Political career

He practiced law in Virginia and was a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829-1830 and a member of the House of Delegates. He was elected to the Twenty-fifth United States Congress in 1836 as a Jackson Democrat.

In 1847, he was elected to the Senate after the death of Isaac S. Pennybacker, and he was re-elected in 1850 and 1856. Mason famously read aloud the dying Senator John C. Calhoun's final speech to the Senate, on March 4, 1850, which warned of disunion and dire consequences if the North did not permanently guarantee the South equal representation in Congress. He also complained of personal liberty laws: "Although the loss of property is felt, the loss of honor is felt still more."[3]

Mason also drafted the (second) Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, enacted on September 18, 1850 as a part of the Compromise Measures of that year. Mason represented the majority view in leading the Senate committee that investigated the John Brown raid on Harper's Ferry in October 1859. (The document was published as the U.S. Congress, Senate Select Commission on the Harper's Ferry Invasion (June 15, 1860) but is often referred to as the Mason Report.[4])

Mason was President pro tempore of the Senate during the Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth Congresses but was expelled from the Senate in 1861 for support of the Confederate States.

While he was traveling to his post as Confederate envoy to Britain and France on the British mail steamer RMS Trent, the ship was stopped by USS San Jacinto on November 8, 1861. Mason and John Slidell were confined in Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, precipitating the Trent Affair, which threatened to bring Britain into open war with the United States.

The US public erupted with a huge display of triumphalism at this dramatic capture. Even the cool-headed Lincoln was swept along in the celebratory spirit, but when he and his cabinet studied the likely consequences of a war with Britain, their enthusiasm waned. After some careful diplomatic exchanges, they admitted that the capture had been conducted contrary to maritime law and that private citizens could not be classified as "enemy despatches." Slidell and Mason were released, and war was averted. The two diplomats set sail for England again on January 1, 1862. Mason represented the Confederacy there until April 1865. One of his first acts in London was to raise the issue of Union blockades.[5]

Until 1868, he lived in Canada, and he then returned to the Clarens Estate near Alexandria, Virginia. He died at Clarens in 1871.[1][2] He was interred in the churchyard of Christ Church, Alexandria, Virginia.[1][2]

James M. Mason, photograph by Mathew Brady

Family

Marriage and children

Mason married Eliza Margaretta Chew (1798–1874) on 25 July 1822 at Cliveden in Germantown, Pennsylvania.[1][2] The couple had eight children:[1]

  • Anna Maria Mason Ambler (31 January 1825 – 17 August 1863)[1]
  • Benjamin Chew Mason (1826–1847)[1]
  • Catharine Chew Mason Dorsey (24 March 1828 – 28 April 1893)[1]
  • George Mason (16 April 1830 – 3 February 1895)[1]
  • Virginia Mason (12 December 1833 – 11 October 1920)[1]
  • Eliza Ida Oswald Mason (10 August 1836 – 16 December 1885)[1]
  • James Murray Mason, Jr. (24 August 1839 – 10 January 1923)[1]
  • John A. Mason (17 November 1841 – 6 June 1925)[1]

He was a grandson of George Mason (1725–1792); nephew of George Mason V (1753–1796);[1][2] grandnephew of Thomson Mason (1733–1785);[1][2] first cousin once removed of Stevens Thomson Mason (1760–1803) and John Thomson Mason (1765–1824);[1][2] son of John Mason (1766–1849) and Anna Maria Murray Mason (1776–1857);[1][2] first cousin of Thomson Francis Mason (1785–1838), George Mason VI (1786–1834), and Richard Barnes Mason (1797–1850);[1][2] second cousin of Armistead Thomson Mason (1787–1819), John Thomson Mason (1787–1850), and John Thomson Mason, Jr. (1815–1873);[1][2] second cousin once removed of Stevens Thomson Mason (1811–1843);[1][2] and first cousin thrice removed of Charles O'Conor Goolrick.[1][2] A first cousin 5 times removed was Betty Mason (1836-1899) first wife of Gen. Edward Porter Alexander.[6][7][8]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Lee, Michele (May 18, 2011). "James Murray Mason". Gunston Hall. Retrieved 2009-03-07.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Mason family of Virginia". The Political Graveyard. June 16, 2008. Retrieved 2009-03-07.
  3. ^ James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (New York: Bantam Books, 1989), p. 79.
  4. ^ "Senate Select Committee Report on the Harper's Ferry Invasion". West Virginia Division of Culture and History. June 15, 1860. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
  5. ^ Appletons' annual cyclopaedia and register of important events of the year: 1862. New York: D. Appleton & Company. 1863. p. 193.
  6. ^ Mason genealogy
  7. ^ Stafford County family Group Sheets
  8. ^ Mason Genealogy
U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Virginia's 15th congressional district
March 4, 1837 – March 4, 1839 		Succeeded by
U.S. Senate
Preceded by U.S. senator (Class 1) from Virginia
January 21, 1847 – March 28, 1861
Served alongside: William S. Archer and Robert M. T. Hunter 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by President pro tempore of the United States Senate
January 6, 1857 – March 4, 1857 		Succeeded by
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