George Mason's Five Revolutionary Conventions

Starting in August 1774 and trailing all the way to July 1776, Virginia held five Revolutionary Conventions. During these conventions the members formed the Virginia Committee of Safety that governed Virginia between August 1775 and July 1776, organized economic trades of British goods, elected members to Congress, etc. On May 15, 1776, after deciding to declare Virginia independent of Great Britain, at the fifth and final Revolutionary convention of Virginia, the members voted unanimously to prepare a constitution and a statement of laws for Virginia. George Mason was the thirty-second member of the drafting committee and he eventually took over as the man making all of the decisions. Edmund Pendleton, the president of the convention, noted,