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220-627: The third Richmond Theatre opened in 1819 on a different site. After being remodeled in 1838, the theatre re-opened as the Marshall Theatre . It too was destroyed by fire, in 1862. The Marshall Theatre was rebuilt on the same foundation and re-opened in 1863. It was originally called the New Marshall Theatre during construction, but was ultimately branded the New Richmond Theatre soon after it opened. It became

440-587: A vestryman at Truro Parish, where he served between 1749 and 1785. He took a position among the officers of the Fairfax County militia, eventually rising to the rank of colonel. The county court heard civil and criminal cases, and also decided matters such as local taxes. Membership fell to most major landowners. Mason was a justice for much of the rest of his life, though he was excluded because of nonattendance at court from 1752 to 1764, and he resigned in 1789 when continued service meant swearing to uphold

660-819: A boycott of the stamps. With the courts and trade paralyzed, the British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in 1766 but continued to assert the right to tax the colonies. Following the repeal, a committee of London merchants issued a public letter to Americans, warning them not to declare victory. Mason published a response in June 1766, satirizing the British position, "We have, with infinite Difficulty & Fatigue got you excused this one Time; do what your Papa and Mamma bid, & hasten to return your most grateful Acknowledgements for condescending to let you keep what

880-444: A constitution he could not support. Even while a member, he often did not attend. Joseph Horrell, in a journal article on Mason's court service, noted that he was often in poor health and lived the furthest of any of the major estateholders from the Fairfax County courthouse, whether at its original site near today's Tyson's Corner or later in newly founded Alexandria . Robert Rutland, editor of Mason's papers, considered court service

1100-487: A copy of a Philadelphia resolution to Mason, asking his advice on what action Virginia should take. It is unknown who adapted that text for use in Virginia (Broadwater concludes it was Mason) but Mason sent Washington a corrected draft on April 23, 1769. Washington took it to Williamsburg, but the governor, Lord Botetourt , dissolved the legislature because of the radical resolutions it was passing. The Burgesses adjourned to

1320-788: A different theatre in Richmond, the Richmond Varieties, on December 22, 1862. Highly popular with Richmond audiences, it was first staged at the NRT on May 26, 1863. The play was set during the American Revolutionary War and followed the experiences of three generations of the same Virginia family during those events. The play sharply criticized the Northern United States; emphasizing its brutality. It too has survived. The greatest popular success at

1540-454: A few points. The entire convention considered the document between June 26 and 28, and it was signed on June 29. Richard Henry Lee wrote the day prior to the constitution's passage by unanimous vote, "I have had the pleasure to see our new plan of Government go on well. This day will put a finishing hand to it. 'Tis very much of the democratic kind." When the convention chose Patrick Henry as Virginia's first post-independence governor, Mason led

1760-510: A highly modified version of The Merry Wives of Windsor billed as "Shakespeare's corrected comedy" with Burton as Falstaff and Brougham as 'The Host of the Garter'. Composer and playwright John Hill Hewitt became manager of the theatre in October 1861. The first play he staged at the theatre was James Planché 's The Loan of a Lover on November 2, 1861. Just two months later the theatre

1980-404: A journal article on the relationship between Mason and Washington, suggests that Mason cultivated the friendship more than Washington. Mason sent many more letters and gifts and stayed more often at Washington's residence at Mount Vernon , though this might be explained in part by the fact that Mount Vernon was located on the road from Gunston Hall to Alexandria . Henriques suggests that as Mason

2200-420: A law accepted by that person or by elected representatives. If accused, a person had the right to a speedy and local trial, based on an accusation made known to him, with the right to call for evidence and witnesses in his favor. When the convention began to debate the declaration, it quickly bogged down on the first sentence of Article 1, which some feared would imply that slaves were their masters' equals. This

2420-484: A legislative body on March 18. After four years of heavy fighting, nearly all Confederate land and naval forces either surrendered or otherwise ceased hostilities by May 1865. The most significant capitulation was Confederate general Robert E. Lee 's surrender on April 9, after which any doubt about the war's outcome or the Confederacy's survival was extinguished. Confederate President Davis's administration declared

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2640-460: A major influence on Mason's later thinking and writing, but Horrell denied it, "if the Fairfax court provided a course for Mason's early training, he chiefly distinguished himself by skipping classes." Alexandria was one of the towns founded or given corporate status in the mid-18th century in which Mason had interests; he purchased three of the original lots along King and Royal Streets and became

2860-473: A major slaveholder, he opposed the slave system in Virginia. He believed that slave importation, together with the natural population increase, would result in a huge future slave population in Virginia; a system of leased lands, though not as profitable as slave labor, would have "little Trouble & Risque [risk]". Little is known of Mason's political views prior to the 1760s, when he came to oppose British colonial policies. In 1758, Mason successfully ran for

3080-987: A municipal trustee in 1754. He also served as a trustee of Dumfries , in Prince William County , and had business interests there and in Georgetown , on the Maryland side of the Potomac River in present-day Washington, D.C. In 1748, he sought a seat in the House of Burgesses; the process was controlled by more senior members of the court and he was not then successful, but he later emerged victorious in 1758. On April 4, 1750, Mason married Ann Eilbeck, only child of William and Sarah Eilbeck of Charles County, Maryland . The Masons and Eilbecks had adjacent lands in Maryland and had joined together in real estate transactions; by his death in 1764, William Eilbeck

3300-400: A name chosen pointedly by Mason to indicate that power stemmed from the people. The constitution provided for a popularly elected House of Delegates , chosen annually by men who owned or leased property, or who had fathered three or more Virginians. Most governmental power resided in the House of Delegates—the governor could not even veto a bill and could only act as head of the state militia on

3520-618: A nearby tavern and there passed a non-importation agreement based on Mason's draft. Although the resolution did not threaten to cut off tobacco, as Mason wanted, he worked in the following years for non-importation. The repeal of most of the Townshend duties made his task more difficult. In March 1773, his wife Ann died of illness contracted after another pregnancy. Mason was the sole parent to nine children, and his commitments made him even more reluctant to accept political office that would require him departing Gunston Hall. In May 1774, Mason

3740-627: A new constitution establishing a confederation government of "sovereign and independent states". Some Northerners reacted by saying "Let the Confederacy go in peace!", while some Southerners wanted to maintain their loyalty to the Union. The federal government in Washington D.C. and states under its control were known as the Union . The Civil War began on April 12, 1861, when South Carolina's militia attacked Fort Sumter . Four slave states of

3960-460: A new theatre did not begin until seven years later when Christopher Tompkins was successful at convincing the public to allow him to build a theatre for a stock company. Tompkins sold the property he owned at the southeast corner lot on Seventh and H (later called Broad) Streets to the English-born actor Joseph George Holman with the intent that Holman would build a theatre for his company on

4180-546: A new theatre was built. The troupe had lost all of their music instruments, costumes, sets, and sheet music in the fire; and their ability to quickly shift to a new venue and continue performing was a testament to their resilience. The actor Ben DeBar and his wife were actors in Hewitt's troupe at the time of the fire. After the Marshall Theatre's destruction by fire in 1862, the theatre was rebuilt later that year on

4400-573: A normal government, the expression of popular will". Fremantle went on to write in his book Three Months in the Southern States that he had: ...not attempted to conceal any of the peculiarities or defects of the Southern people. Many persons will doubtless highly disapprove of some of their customs and habits in the wilder portion of the country; but I think no generous man, whatever may be his political opinions, can do otherwise than admire

4620-420: A panel of historians emphasized in 2011, "while slavery and its various and multifaceted discontents were the primary cause of disunion, it was disunion itself that sparked the war." Historian David M. Potter wrote: "The problem for Americans who, in the age of Lincoln, wanted slaves to be free was not simply that southerners wanted the opposite, but that they themselves cherished a conflicting value: they wanted

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4840-546: A plan to redeem the notes with a tax on real estate. Mason was three weeks late in arriving at Richmond because of his illness, to the frustration of Washington, who had faith in Mason's knowledge of financial affairs. Washington wrote to Custis, "It is much to be wished that a remedy could be applied to the depreciation of our Currency ... I know of no person better qualified to do this than Colonel Mason". Mason retained his interest in western affairs, hoping in vain to salvage

5060-555: A play originally in the French language under the title La Pie voleuse ou la Servante de Palaiseau which was written by Louis-Charles Caigniez . Caigniez's play was first adapted into English as The Maid and the Magpie by English dramatist Samuel James Arnold , and was later adapted again in different English language versions by English playwrights Isaac Pocock and Thomas John Dibdin and by American playwright John Howard Payne . It

5280-462: A presidential proclamation issued April 15, 1861. It called for troops to recapture forts and suppress what Lincoln later called an "insurrection and rebellion". Mid-war parleys between the two sides occurred without formal political recognition, though the laws of war predominantly governed military relationships on both sides of uniformed conflict. Once war with the United States began,

5500-550: A resident orchestra which was acknowledged as one of the better quality orchestras in America during that period. However, despite the quality of its players, the orchestra's repertoire was criticized for its lack of sophistication. An article in the Virginia Patriot stated of the orchestra If it is one of the best orchestras in America they are shamefacedly indifferent for their selection and performance, for in place of

5720-628: A sectional balance in the Senate but not in the House of Representatives , as free states outstripped slave states in numbers of eligible voters. Thus, at mid-19th century, the free-versus-slave status of the new territories was a critical issue, both for the North, where anti-slavery sentiment had grown, and for the South, where the fear of slavery's abolition had grown. Another factor leading to secession and

5940-609: A significant cultural center for the Confederate south during the American Civil War . By the time this fourth and final structure was demolished in 1896 it was known as the Richmond Theater . The various theatres known as the Richmond and Marshall theatres were the leading performance venues in Richmond for the majority of the 19th century. The first Richmond Theatre was originally intended to be not only

6160-473: A significant influence on American political thought and events. The Virginia Declaration of Rights, which Mason principally authored, served as a basis for the United States Bill of Rights , of which he has been deemed a father. Mason was born in 1725 in present-day Fairfax County, Virginia . His father drowned when a storm capsized his boat while crossing the Potomac River in 1735 when Mason

6380-462: A single parent to nine children. Nevertheless, he was elected and journeyed to Richmond , which, being further inland than Williamsburg, was deemed better protected from possible British attack. When the Richmond convention began in July 1775, Mason was assigned to crucial committees, including one attempting to raise an army to protect the colony. According to Robert A. Rutland, "Sick or healthy, Mason

6600-558: A small force, and he and Mason purchased gunpowder for the company. Mason wrote in favor of annual election of militia officers in words that would later echo in the Virginia Declaration of Rights, "We came equal into this world, and equals shall we go out of it. All men are by nature born equally free and independent." Washington's election as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress created

6820-419: A smaller structure at Cary and fourteenth streets then temporarily serving as Virginia's capitol building. Among the many individuals in attendance were James Madison , John Marshall , James Monroe , Edmund Pendleton , George Wythe , George Nicholas , Edmund Randolph , George Mason , Richard Henry Lee , and Patrick Henry . The second Richmond Theatre was built on the same site as the first theatre, and

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7040-548: A source of income by leasing much of his land holdings to tenant farmers, and he diversified his crops to grow wheat for export to the British West Indies as Virginia's economy sank because of tobacco overproduction in the 1760s and 1770s. Mason was a pioneer in the Virginia wine industry. Along with Thomas Jefferson , Mason and other Virginians subscribed to a scheme for growing wine grapes in America developed by Filippo Mazzei . Mason greatly ultimately expanded

7260-556: A statement supporting or recognizing the Confederacy. In November 1863, Mann met Pope Pius IX and received a letter supposedly addressed "to the Illustrious and Honorable Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America"; Mann had mistranslated the address. In his report to Richmond, Mann claimed a great diplomatic achievement for himself, but Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin told Mann it

7480-542: A theatre, but a school, museum, and art gallery housed collectively under the name of the Academy of Fine Arts and Sciences of the United States. The idea for this organization originated with the French scholar and soldier Chevalier Alexandre-Marie Quesnay de Beaurepaire who had come to the United States in March 1777 to fight in the American Revolutionary War . Quesnay intended to create an American organization modeled after

7700-644: A tobacco wharf at Alexandria, funds they felt should be raised through wharfage fees. He also played a major role as the Burgesses deliberated how to divide Prince William County as settlement expanded; in March 1759, Fauquier County was created by legislative act. In this, Mason opposed the interest of the family of Thomas, Lord Fairfax , who wanted existing counties expanded instead, including Fairfax. This difference may have contributed to Mason's decision not to seek re-election in 1761. Mason biographer Jeff Broadwater notes that Mason's committee assignments reflected

7920-544: A vacancy in Fairfax County's delegation to the third Virginia Convention. In May 1775, Washington wrote from Philadelphia , urging that the vacancy be filled. By this time, blood had been shed between American patriot militias and the British Army at the Battles of Lexington and Concord , which launched the American Revolutionary War . Mason attempted to avoid election on the grounds of poor health and his obligations as

8140-485: A view that has been disproven by the overwhelming historical evidence against it, notably some of the seceding states' own secession documents . The principal political battle leading to Southern secession was over whether slavery would be permitted to expand into the Western territories destined to become states. Initially Congress had admitted new states into the Union in pairs, one slave and one free . This had kept

8360-741: A year before Mason died. Obscure after his death, Mason later came to be recognized in the 20th and 21st centuries for his contributions to Virginia and the early United States. Mason was born in present-day Fairfax County , in the Colony of Virginia , in British America , on December 11, 1725. Mason's parents owned property in Mason Neck, Virginia and a second property across the Potomac River in Maryland , which had been inherited by his mother. Mason's great-grandfather George Mason I

8580-579: Is therefore uncertain, which of these many English adaptations was utilized by Gilfert and his company at the RT in 1819, although it was most likely by one of the British writers and not Payne. On July 6, 1821, the celebrated English actor Junius Brutus Booth gave his first performance in the United States at the RT in the title role of Shakespeare's Richard III . In 1822 Gilfert's company staged an English language production of German playwright August von Kotzebue 's Die Sonnen-Jungfrau (English: The Virgin of

8800-404: Is too great, save that of honor". The message stated that if the French or British governments made their recognition conditional on anything at all, the Confederacy would consent to such terms. European leaders all saw that the Confederacy was on the verge of defeat. The Confederacy's biggest foreign policy successes were with Brazil and Cuba . Militarily this meant little. Brazil represented

9020-450: Is your own." The Townshend Acts of 1767 were Britain's next attempt to tax the colonies, placing duties on substances including lead and glass, which provoked calls from the northern colonies for a boycott of British goods. Virginia, more dependent on goods imported from Britain, was less enthusiastic, and as local planters tended to receive goods at their river landings, a boycott would be difficult to enforce. In April 1769, Washington sent

Richmond Theatre (Richmond, Virginia) - Misplaced Pages Continue

9240-700: The Antebellum South and promote Southern national identity; an ideology necessary for the Confederate States of America 's success. Well received, it is one of the few Confederate war plays that has survived, with most of the other plays of this genre only being known through newspaper accounts. Hewitt created over a dozen more original war plays, among them The Log Fort; or. Woman's Heroism , The Prisoner of Monterey; or. The Secret Panel , The Scouts; or. The Plains of Manassas , and The Vivandière . Hewitt's large output of plays and songs during

9460-519: The Confederate States ( C.S. ), the Confederacy , or the South , was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 5, 1865. The Confederacy was composed of eleven U.S. states that declared secession ; South Carolina , Mississippi , Florida , Alabama , Georgia , Louisiana , Texas , Virginia , Arkansas , Tennessee , and North Carolina ; they warred against

9680-743: The Continental Army . But Mason could not avoid election to the Committee of Safety , a powerful group that took over many functions in the governmental vacuum. Mason proffered his resignation from this committee, but it was refused. Illness forced Mason to abstain himself from the Committee of Safety for several weeks in 1775, and he did not attend the fourth convention, held in December 1775 and January 1776. With independence from Britain widely accepted as necessary among prominent Virginians,

9900-556: The French Academy of Sciences (also known as the National Institute of Sciences and Arts). After nearly a decade of advocacy by Quesnay, a three and a quarter acre plot of land was purchased for 300 pounds from John Turpin on May 20, 1786, through funds raised through subscription to Quesnay's Academy. This land was located at the brow of Shockoe Hill . At the time, the main road on Shockoe Hill did not extend to

10120-524: The General Assembly from Jefferson City. The executive committee of the convention called the members together in July, and declared the state offices vacant and appointed a Unionist interim state government. The exiled governor called a rump session of the former General Assembly together in Neosho and, on October 31, 1861, it passed an ordinance of secession . The Confederate state government

10340-417: The General Assembly , "I know of no person better qualified ... than Colonel Mason, and shall be very happy to hear he has taken it in hand". Despite his involvement in western real estate, Mason saw that land was being cleared and planted with tobacco faster than the market for it could expand, meaning that its price would drop even as more and more capital was tied up in land and slaves. Thus, although

10560-590: The Jim Crow laws through activities such as building Confederate monuments and influencing the authors of textbooks . The modern display of the Confederate battle flag primarily started during the 1948 presidential election , when the battle flag was used by the Dixiecrats . During the civil rights movement , racial segregationists used it for demonstrations. A consensus of historians who address

10780-508: The Mason-Dixon line (not named for George Mason), the 1780 settlement of the boundary dispute with Pennsylvania, was unfavorable to Virginia, he voted for it enthusiastically. Also in 1780, Mason remarried, to Sarah Brent, from a nearby plantation, who had never been married and was 52 years old. It was a marriage of convenience, with the new bride able to take some of the burden of parenting Mason's many children off his hands. Following

11000-723: The Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia , citing health and family commitments. In 1787, Mason was named one of his state's delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, his only lengthy trip outside Virginia. Many clauses in the Constitution were influenced by Mason's input, but he ultimately did not sign the final version, citing the lack of a bill of rights among his most prominent objections. He also wanted an immediate end to

11220-536: The Treaty of Paris in 1783, which established an sovereign United States and largely ended armed hostilities, life along the Potomac River returned to normal. In December 1783, Madison returned to Gunston Hall after returning from the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia . In 1781, the Articles of Confederation had tied the states in a loose bond, and Madison sought a more sound federal structure, seeking

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11440-402: The Union villain. Other characters that appeared in these Confederate melodramas included a portrayal of the virtues of Southern womanhood through the character of the cavalier's wife or betrothed, and a faithful servant or slave who was gifted at minstrelsy . John Hill Hewitt penned the first of these Confederate war dramas, The Scouts; or. The Plains of Manassas , which was used to nostalgize

11660-528: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of Confederate Veterans . Intense periods of Lost Cause activity developed around the turn of the 20th century and during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s in reaction to growing support for racial equality . Advocates sought to ensure future generations of Southern whites would continue to support white supremacist policies such as

11880-648: The Upper South — Virginia , Arkansas , Tennessee , and North Carolina —then seceded and joined the Confederacy. On February 22, 1862, Confederate States Army leaders installed a centralized federal government in Richmond, Virginia , and enacted the first Confederate draft on April 16, 1862. By 1865, the Confederacy's federal government dissolved into chaos, and the Confederate States Congress adjourned , effectively ceasing to exist as

12100-541: The Virginia Declaration of Rights , 1776. That convention, in May 1776, unanimously instructed Jefferson and other Virginia delegates to Congress to seek "a clear and full Declaration of Independency". At the same time, the convention resolved to pass a declaration of rights. Ill health delayed Mason's arrival until May 18, 1776, after the vote, but he was appointed to a committee led by Archibald Cary , which

12320-519: The assassination of Abraham Lincoln , joined the permanent company of players at the Marshall Theatre in 1858, and remained until 1860 when he began a national tour. He had a particular triumph at the theatre as Shakespeare's Richard III. His brother Edwin, who was nearly five years older, had been performing on the Marshall stage since 1856; often playing the title roles in tragedies like Richard III , Richelieu , King Lear and Henry V . Together,

12540-488: The ballad opera The Devil to Pay by Charles Coffey and John Mottley . The Richmond Theatre was destroyed by fire on December 26, 1811, in what historian Meredith Henne Baker described as "early America's first great disaster". The fire broke out during a benefit performance held in honor of the French actor Alexander Placide and his daughter, actress Jane Placide . The repertoire for that evening included two full-length plays as well as four musical works performed by

12760-567: The slave trade and a supermajority requirement for navigation acts , fearing that restrictions on shipping might harm Virginia. He failed to attain these objectives in Philadelphia and later at the Virginia Ratifying Convention of 1788. His prominent fight for a bill of rights led fellow Virginian James Madison to introduce the same during the First Congress in 1789; these amendments were ratified in 1791,

12980-709: The "peoples most identical to us in Institutions", in which slavery remained legal until the 1880s and the abolitionist movement was small. Confederate ships were welcome in Brazilian ports. After the war, Brazil was the primary destination of those Southerners who wanted to continue living in a slave society, where, as one immigrant remarked, Confederado slaves were cheap. The Captain–General of Cuba declared in writing that Confederate ships were welcome, and would be protected in Cuban ports. Historians speculate that if

13200-452: The 1811 fire. After Gilfert left in October 1823, the board found it difficult to find a long-term replacement to lease the theatre. In the succeeding years share prices in the theatre dropped significantly, and the theatre was occupied by a series of traveling theatre companies of lesser quality. The James H. Caldwell company occupied the theatre for a brief season in 1824, and the theatre was mainly inactive after this until 1827. The theatre

13420-483: The 1811 fire. It opened on June 11, 1819. There were still public fears over fire, particularly in regards to a structure next door to the theatre that was viewed by the public as a fire hazard. Accordingly, that property was purchased by the governing board of the Richmond Theatre shortly after it opened, and it was razed in order to alleviate public concerns over another fire. Gilfert and his company leased

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13640-516: The 1850s as "America's age of actors" because it was the beginning of a period when American-born actors experienced a surge of popularity among the American public. The Marshall Theatre during this period staged works starring several well-known American actors of the period, including brothers Edwin and John Wilkes Booth , and John Drew , as well as the aforementioned actors Cushman and Forrest. John Wilkes Booth, who later achieved notoriety for

13860-454: The 21st century agree on the centrality of slavery in the conflict, they disagree sharply on which aspects of this conflict (ideological, economic, political, or social) were most important, and on the North 's reasons for refusing to allow the Southern states to secede. Proponents of the pseudo-historical Lost Cause ideology have denied that slavery was the principal cause of the secession,

14080-406: The American Declaration of Independence . From the first article, cataloguing the rights of man, Mason derived the following articles, which make clear that the role of government is to secure and protect those rights, and if it fails to do so, the people have a right to amend or abolish it. Property could not be taken for public use without the owner's consent, and a citizen could only be bound by

14300-403: The American Civil War, and became a cultural center for the Confederate south . More than 400 different plays were staged at the theatre during the Civil War; among which were roughly 60 new works. The theatre scene in Richmond was bolstered during this time by those wishing to demonstrate the intellectual adeptness of Confederate society while simultaneously being challenged by those who perceived

14520-411: The Bleeding Nun which also incorporated aspects of British pantomime . After the first act of this second play, a chandelier with lit candles was raised by one of the stage hands, and it swung and caught fire to the backdrop which was made of paper. The fire spread across the ceiling of the building and set the roof ablaze. Within ten minutes the fire had spread throughout the building. The audience in

14740-437: The Booth brothers starred in several Shakespeare plays at the Marshall Theatre, among them Hamlet with Edwin in the title role and John Wilkes as Horatio. Richmond-based sculptor Edward Virginius Valentine was a friend of the Booth brothers, and made a bust of Edwin Booth from life during the 1858 theatre season. The actors John Brougham and William Evans Burton toured to the theatre in February 1858 where they performed

14960-423: The British Coldstream Guards , who entered the Confederacy via Mexico, Fitzgerald Ross of the Austrian Hussars , and Justus Scheibert of the Prussian Army . European travelers visited and wrote accounts for publication. Importantly in 1862, the Frenchman Charles Girard 's Seven months in the rebel states during the North American War testified "this government ... is no longer a trial government ... but really

15180-406: The British merchant fleet. In mid-1862, fears of a race war (like the Haitian Revolution of 1791–1804) led to the British considering intervention for humanitarian reasons. John Slidell, the Confederate States emissary to France, succeeded in negotiating a loan of $ 15,000,000 from Erlanger and other French capitalists for ironclad warships and military supplies. The British government did allow

15400-480: The Colony. His son, George Mason II (1660–1716), was the first to move to what in 1742 became Fairfax County, then at the frontier between English and Native American controlled areas. George Mason III (1690–1735) like his father and grandfather served in the House of Burgesses and also as county lieutenant . George Mason IV's mother, Ann Thomson Mason, was the daughter of a former Attorney General of Virginia who immigrated from England. Colonial Virginia at

15620-421: The Committee of Safety and elsewhere in defending the Fairfax County area. Most of the legislation Mason introduced in the House of Delegates was war related, often aimed at raising the men or money needed by Congress for Washington's Continental Army. The new federal and state governments, short on cash, issued paper money. By 1777, the value of Virginia's paper money had dropped precipitously, and Mason developed

15840-419: The Confederacy asserted its independence and appointed dozens of diplomatic agents abroad. None were recognized by a foreign government. The US government regarded the Southern states as being in rebellion or insurrection and so refused any formal recognition of their status. The US government never declared war on those "kindred and countrymen" in the Confederacy but conducted its military efforts beginning with

16060-512: The Confederacy by counties in East Tennessee were checked by martial law. Although slaveholding Delaware and Maryland did not secede, citizens exhibited divided loyalties. Regiments of Marylanders fought in Lee's Army of Northern Virginia . Overall, 24,000 men from Maryland joined Confederate forces, compared to 63,000 who joined Union forces. Delaware never produced a full regiment for

16280-404: The Confederacy counted about one-fourth its population. They voted 43% for pro-Union candidates. The four states which entered after the attack on Fort Sumter held almost half the population of the Confederacy and voted 53% for pro-Union candidates. The three big turnout states voted extremes; Texas, with 5% of the population, voted 20% for pro-Union candidates; Kentucky and Missouri, with one-fourth

16500-564: The Confederacy dissolved on May 5. After the war, during the Reconstruction era , the Confederate states were readmitted to the Congress after each ratified the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlawing slavery. Lost Cause mythology , an idealized view of the Confederacy valiantly fighting for a just cause, emerged in the decades after the war among former Confederate generals and politicians, and in organizations such as

16720-469: The Confederacy had achieved independence, it probably would have tried to acquire Cuba as a base of expansion. Most soldiers who joined Confederate national or state military units joined voluntarily. Perman (2010) says historians are of two minds on why millions of soldiers seemed so eager to fight, suffer and die over four years: George Mason George Mason (December 11, 1725 [ O.S. November 30, 1725] – October 7, 1792)

16940-556: The Confederacy on March 16, 1861, and appointed Dr. Lewis S. Owings as the new territorial governor. They won the Battle of Mesilla and established a territorial government with Mesilla serving as its capital. The Confederacy proclaimed the Confederate Arizona Territory on February 14, 1862, north to the 34th parallel . Marcus H. MacWillie served in both Confederate Congresses as Arizona's delegate. In 1862,

17160-585: The Confederacy pinned its hopes for survival on military intervention by the UK or France . The Confederate government sent James M. Mason to London and John Slidell to Paris. On their way in 1861, the U.S. Navy intercepted their ship, the Trent, and took them to Boston, an international episode known as the Trent Affair . The diplomats were eventually released and continued their voyage. However, their mission

17380-428: The Confederacy", which included the following stanza: Shut for one happy evening from the flood That roars around us, here you may behold— As if a desert way Could blossom and unfold A garden fresh with May— Substantialized in breathing flesh and bloody Souls that upon the poet's page Have lived from age to age And yet have never donned this mortalclay. The New Richmond Theatre (NRT) remained busy throughout

17600-416: The Confederacy". The theatre's inauguration also featured the announcement of the winner of a poetry competition whose prize money was the substantial sum of $ 300.00 (equivalent to over $ 9,000.00 in 2024). Entries were submitted before the theatre opened, and the winner was announced at the theatre's opening night. Poet Henry Timrod was awarded the prize, and the actor Walter Keeble read his poem, "Laureate of

17820-418: The Confederacy, but neither did it emancipate slaves as did Missouri and West Virginia. District of Columbia citizens made no attempts to secede and through the war, referendums sponsored by Lincoln approved compensated emancipation and slave confiscation from "disloyal citizens". Citizens at Mesilla and Tucson in the southern part of New Mexico Territory formed a secession convention, which voted to join

18040-464: The Confederacy. The war itself began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces bombarded the Union's Fort Sumter , in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina . Background factors in the run up to the Civil War were partisan politics , abolitionism , nullification versus secession , Southern and Northern nationalism, expansionism , economics , and modernization in the antebellum period . As

18260-709: The Confederate New Mexico campaign to take the northern half of the U.S. territory failed and the Confederate territorial government in exile relocated to San Antonio, Texas. Confederate supporters in the trans-Mississippi west claimed portions of the Indian Territory after the US evacuated the federal forts and installations. Over half of the American Indian troops participating in the War from

18480-529: The Confederate States of America. The new provisional Confederate President Jefferson Davis issued a call for 100,000 men from the states' militias to defend the newly formed Confederacy. All Federal property was seized, including gold bullion and coining dies at the U.S. mints in Charlotte , North Carolina; Dahlonega , Georgia; and New Orleans . The Confederate capital was moved from Montgomery to Richmond, Virginia, in May 1861. On February 22, 1862, Davis

18700-431: The Confederate population, voted 68% for pro-Union. Following South Carolina's unanimous 1860 secession vote, no other Southern states considered the question until 1861; when they did, none had a unanimous vote. All had residents who cast significant numbers of Unionist votes. Voting to remain in the Union did not necessarily mean individuals were sympathizers with the North. Once fighting began, many who voted to remain in

18920-485: The Confederates "suffered a severe loss of confidence in themselves" and withdrew into an interior defensive position. By December 1864, Davis considered sacrificing slavery in order to enlist recognition and aid from Paris and London; he secretly sent Duncan F. Kenner to Europe with a message that the war was fought solely for "the vindication of our rights to self-government and independence" and that "no sacrifice

19140-618: The Constitution, which protected slavery, to be honored, and the Union, which was a fellowship with slaveholders, to be preserved. Thus they were committed to values that could not logically be reconciled." The first secession state conventions from the Deep South sent representatives to the Montgomery Convention in Alabama on February 4, 1861. A provisional government was established, and a representative Congress met for

19360-568: The Great Bandit ), a work often misattributed to Friedrich Schiller . The theatre was then taken over by a company led by Thomas Abthorpe Cooper whose first appearance in Richmond was in the title role of William Shakespeare 's Hamlet in April 1806. Cooper performed several more parts at the Richmond Theatre in the following months, among them Rolla in August von Kotzebue 's The Virgin of

19580-450: The House of Burgesses assembled, Mason was initially appointed to a committee concerned with raising additional militia during that time of war. In 1759, he was appointed to the powerful Committee on Privileges and Elections. He was also placed on the Committee on Propositions and Grievances, which mostly considered local matters. Mason dealt with several local concerns, presenting a petition of Fairfax County planters against being assessed for

19800-470: The House of Burgesses when George William Fairfax , holder of one of Fairfax County's two seats, chose not to seek reelection. Also elected were Mason's brother Thomson for Stafford County , George Washington for Frederick County , where he was stationed as commander of Virginia's militia during the French and Indian War , and Richard Henry Lee , who worked closely with Mason through their careers. When

20020-619: The Indian Territory supported the Confederacy. On July 12, 1861, the Confederate government signed a treaty with both the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indian nations. After several battles, Union armies took control of the territory. The Indian Territory never formally joined the Confederacy, but did receive representation in the Congress. Many Indians from the Territory were integrated into regular Confederate Army units. After 1863,

20240-655: The NRT was the war musical The Virginia Cavalier (1863) which used lyrics by George W. Alexander, Commandant of the Castle Thunder Confederate prison. Also a surviving play, the work was largely a knock-off of the earlier The Guerrilas , containing an almost identical plot. It starred the actress and singer Sallie Partington who was one of the performers who starred in the New Richmond Theatre's inaugural production of As You Like It . Her performance in The Virginia Cavalier popularized

20460-614: The North American colonies, Mason came to support the colonial side, using his knowledge and experience to help the revolutionary cause, finding ways to work around the Stamp Act of 1765 and serving in the pro-independence Fourth Virginia Convention in 1775 and the Fifth Virginia Convention in 1776. Mason prepared the first draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights in 1776, and his words formed much of

20680-498: The Ohio Company's claims, was widely applauded as a defense of the rights of Americans against royal decrees. Involvement with the Ohio Company also brought Mason into contact with many prominent Virginians, including George Washington , his Fairfax County neighbor. Mason and George Washington were friends for many years until they finally broke over their differences regarding the federal constitution . Peter R. Henriques, in

20900-536: The Ohio Company's land grant. He and Jefferson were among the few delegates to be told of George Rogers Clark 's expedition to secure control of the lands north of the Ohio River. Mason and Jefferson secured legislation authorizing Governor Henry to defend against unspecified western enemies. The expedition was generally successful, and Mason received a report directly from Clark. Mason sought to remove differences between Virginia and other states, and although he felt

21120-507: The QA, and made significant alterations to the QA and its theatre. It was renamed the Richmond Theatre, and at this time Academy Square became known as Theatre Square. West and Bignall continued to operate the theatre until it was destroyed by fire on January 23, 1798. Quesnay's theatre building had a capacity of 1600 people The Virginia Ratifying Convention of 1788 was held there beginning on June 2 for three weeks, after having begun previously at

21340-723: The Resolves, appointing Mason and Washington to a special committee in the emergency. According to early Virginia historian Hugh Grigsby, at Alexandria, Mason "made his first great movement on the theatre of the Revolution". Washington took the Resolves to the Virginia Convention in Williamsburg. Although delegates made some changes, the adopted resolution closely tracked both the Fairfax Resolves and

21560-470: The Richmond Theatre for five years. University of North Texas scholar Martin Staples Shockley stated that Gilfert's company was "perhaps the best [theatre] company in America during that time." However, while the quality of productions were high, the theatre failed to turn a profit; partly due to mismanagement and partly due to persistent fears among the public towards attending theatres following

21780-417: The Richmond Theatre on the night of the fire totaled more than 600 people, and the building had only three exits, causing congestion as people tried to flee through the theatre's three exits. John Marshall was one of several men living close to the theatre who left their homes to attempt to rescue people from the burning theatre. A minimum of 76 people died in the fire, making it the most deadly urban disaster in

22000-419: The Richmond Theatre. Built between 1812 and 1814, the church contains a crypt where 72 victims from the Richmond Theatre fire are buried. After the devastating 1811 fire, there was tremendous opposition to rebuilding of a theatre in Richmond, and in general there was a wave of opposition against theatrical enterprises that extended across America in the years immediately following that disaster. Construction on

22220-558: The Richmond public and press, and she received very positive reviews, the best of her career, while performing in that city. Priscilla and her father starred in nineteen performances with the Compact Corps Dramatique stock company at the RT from December 7, 1836, through April 10, 1837. Their repertoire included John Tobin 's The Honey Moon with Priscilla as Juliana and her father as Duke Aranza; Shakespeare's Othello with Priscilla as Desdemona and her father in

22440-436: The South's slavery-based economy. The convergence of race and slavery, politics, and economics raised South-related policy questions to the status of moral questions over, way of life, merging love of things Southern and hatred of things Northern. As the war approached, political parties split, and national churches and interstate families divided along sectional lines. According to historian John M. Coski: The statesmen who led

22660-502: The Sun ). The company could have used any one of multiple extant English language adaptations; including ones by British writers Frederick Reynolds and Anne Plumptre , or one by American playwright William Dunlap . The theatre did stage numerous plays by Dunlap during its twenty-year history, among them Thirty Years, or The Life of a Gambler , Fraternal Discord , and Dunlap's adaptation of Edward Fitzball 's play The flying Dutchman, or,

22880-743: The Sun ; the gambler Beverly in Edward Moore 's The Gamester ; Pierre in Thomas Otway 's Venice Preserv'd ; and the title roles in several more Shakespeare plays, including Othello , Macbeth , and Richard III . Other works performed at the Richmond Theatre in 1806 included the plays Speed the Plough (1806) by Thomas Morton , The Irishman in London by William Macready the Elder , The Sailor's Daughter by Richard Cumberland ; and

23100-531: The Union accepted the majority decision, and supported the Confederacy. Many writers have evaluated the War as an American tragedy—a "Brothers' War", pitting "brother against brother, father against son, kin against kin of every degree". Initially, some secessionists hoped for a peaceful departure. Moderates in the Confederate Constitutional Convention included a provision against importation of slaves from Africa to appeal to

23320-584: The Union and Confederate sides as belligerents . In 1863, the Confederacy expelled European diplomatic missions for advising their resident subjects to refuse to serve in the Confederate army. Both Confederate and Union agents were allowed to work openly in British territories. The Confederacy appointed Ambrose Dudley Mann as special agent to the Holy See in September 1863, but the Holy See never released

23540-535: The Union victory at the Battle of Antietam , Lincoln's preliminary Emancipation Proclamation and abolitionist opposition in Britain put an end to these possibilities. The cost to Britain of a war with the U.S. would have been high: the immediate loss of American grain-shipments, the end of British exports to the U.S., and seizure of billions of pounds invested in American securities. War would have meant higher taxes in Britain, another invasion of Canada, and attacks on

23760-446: The United States during the American Civil War . With Abraham Lincoln 's election as President of the United States in 1860, a portion of the southern states were convinced that their slavery-dependent plantation economies were threatened, and began to secede from the United States . The Confederacy was formed on February 8, 1861, by South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. They adopted

23980-525: The Upper South. Non-slave states might join, but the radicals secured a two-thirds requirement in both houses of Congress to accept them. Seven states declared their secession from the United States before Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861. After the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter April 12, 1861, and Lincoln's subsequent call for troops, four more states declared their secession. Kentucky declared neutrality, but after Confederate troops moved in,

24200-509: The actor Joseph Jefferson to be their stage manager who served in that role in the 1856–1857 season. Jefferson was successful in raising the quality of productions at the Marshall Theatre, and was able to bring several well-known American actors to the Richmond stage, including the actress Charlotte Cushman and actor Edwin Forrest . Prior to the 1850s, American theatre was dominated by celebrity actors from Europe. Theatre historians refer to

24420-414: The actors Charles Burke (1822–1854) and George Jordan. In 1850 the theatre was one of the stops for the famous soprano Jenny Lind , popularly referred to as the "Swedish Nightingale". In 1854 the theatre staged an adaptation of the pro-slavery novel The Cabin and Parlor; or, Slaves and Masters by Charles Jacobs Peterson ; a work written in response to the anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin which

24640-413: The advice of his Council of State, whose members were elected by the legislature. The draft was considered by the committee, and it issued a report on June 24, at which time Jefferson's preamble and several amendments authored by him were included—George Wythe, who advocated for Jefferson's draft before the committee, found discussion far enough advanced that members were only willing to yield to Jefferson on

24860-639: The approach of Federal armies in mid-1862, the government's archives were readied for removal. As the Wilderness Campaign progressed, Congress authorized Davis to remove the executive department and call Congress to session elsewhere in 1864 and again in 1865. Shortly before the end of the war, the Confederate government evacuated Richmond, planning to relocate further south. Little came of these plans before Lee's surrender. Davis and most of his cabinet fled to Danville, Virginia , which served as their headquarters for eight days. During its four years,

25080-477: The boundaries of Gunston Hall estate, so that it occupied all of Dogue's Neck, which became known as Mason's Neck. One project that Mason was involved in for most of his adult life was the Ohio Company , in which he invested in 1749 and became treasurer in 1752—an office he held forty years until his death in 1792. The Ohio Company had secured a royal grant for 200,000 acres (81,000 ha) to be surveyed near

25300-545: The capital, Williamsburg , had limited economic activity when the legislature was not in session. Local politics was dominated by large landowners, including the Masons. The Virginia economy rose and fell with tobacco , the main crop, which was raised mostly for export to Great Britain . In 1736, Mason began his education with a Mr. Williams, who was hired to teach Mason for the price of 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of tobacco per annum. His studies began at his mother's house. But

25520-550: The colonies was received. The Sugar Act of 1764 had its greatest effect in New England and did not cause widespread objection. The Stamp Act the following year affected all 13 colonies, as it required revenue stamps to be used on papers required in trade and in the law. When word of passage of the Stamp Act reached Williamsburg, the House of Burgesses passed the Virginia Resolves , asserting that Virginians had

25740-572: The committee of notables sent to inform Henry of his election. There was criticism of the constitution—Edmund Randolph later wrote that the document's faults indicated that even such a great mind as Mason's was not immune from "oversights and negligences": it did not have an amending process and granted two delegates to each county regardless of population. The 1776 constitution remained in force until 1830, when another convention replaced it. According to Henry C. Riely in his journal article on Mason, "The Virginia Constitution of 1776, whatever may have been

25960-413: The construction of blockade runners in Britain; they were owned and operated by British financiers and shipowners; a few were owned and operated by the Confederacy. The British investors' goal was to acquire highly profitable cotton. Several European nations maintained diplomats in place who had been appointed to the U.S., but no country appointed any diplomat to the Confederacy. Those nations recognized

26180-459: The convention approved the Declaration of Rights, Mason was busy at work on a constitution for Virginia. He was not the only one occupying himself so; Jefferson sent several versions from Philadelphia , one of which supplied the constitution's preamble . Essex County 's Meriwether Smith may have prepared a draft, but the text is unknown. As an original writing in Mason's hand is not known,

26400-532: The convention on June 12, 1776. There later was a flurry of contradictory statements from convention members (including Mason) about who composed which articles. Randolph credited Henry with Articles 15 and 16, but Article 16 (dealing with religious freedom), had been written by Madison. Mason had imitated English law in drafting language requiring toleration of those of minority religions, but Madison insisted on full religious liberty, and Mason supported Madison's amendment once made. The committee draft, likely for

26620-644: The convention were Henry, George Wythe , and a young delegate from Orange County , James Madison . Mason was elected for Fairfax County, though with great difficulty. That all men are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent natural Rights, of which they cannot by any Compact, deprive or divest their Posterity; among which are the Enjoyment of Life and Liberty, with the Means of acquiring and possessing Property, and pursuing and obtaining Happiness and Safety. George Mason, draft of Article 1 of

26840-575: The courage, energy, and patriotism of the whole population, and the skill of its leaders, in this struggle against great odds. And I am also of opinion that many will agree with me in thinking that a people in which all ranks and both sexes display a unanimity and a heroism which can never have been surpassed in the history of the world, is destined, sooner or later, to become a great and independent nation. French Emperor Napoleon III assured Confederate diplomat John Slidell that he would make "direct proposition" to Britain for joint recognition. The Emperor made

27060-434: The daughter of the aforementioned Joseph George Holman, who had inherited her father's financial investments into the enterprise. She starred in many productions at the theatre after it opened in 1819. The third Richmond Theatre was a more spacious building than its predecessors, and Gilfert was careful to advertise the many doors extant in the new theatre's design as to make quick exits possible in light of public fears after

27280-399: The demand for the theatre entertainments among a rising population due to war activity. The population of Richmond more than quadrupled in size during the war, creating a need to increase the number of performances at existing theaters and to create more entertainment venues to meet a surging demand. The owner of the NRT was Mrs. Elizabeth McGill, and Hewitt was the first theatrical manager at

27500-399: The divine airs of Handel, Haydn, Mozart, &c I have heard nothing better than a few Waltzes, Marches, Scotch Airs, &c and the same ones repeated night after night. Several of the plays staged at the RT were adapted into English from foreign language plays; often by uncertain authors. For example, Gilfert's first season at the RT in 1819 included a production of The Maid and the Magpie ;

27720-626: The end of transatlantic enslavement of Africans; by 1833 , the Royal Navy patrolled middle passage waters to prevent additional slave ships from reaching the Western Hemisphere. It was in London that the first World Anti-Slavery Convention had been held in 1840. Black abolitionist speakers toured England, Scotland, and Ireland, exposing the reality of America's chattel slavery and rebutting the Confederate position that blacks were "unintellectual, timid, and dependent", and "not equal to

27940-408: The esteem his colleagues held him in, or at least the potential they saw. Broadwater did not find it surprising that Mason did not seek re-election, as he did not attend the sessions between 1759 and 1761. Although the British were victorious over the French in the war, King George III 's government felt that the North American colonies were not paying their way, since little direct tax revenue from

28160-493: The extent to which the final draft was written by him is uncertain. On June 22, 1776, however, William Fleming sent Jefferson a copy of the draft before the Cary Committee, telling him "the inclosed [ sic ] printed plan was drawn by Colo. G. Mason and by him laid before the committee". Mason had submitted his plan sometime between June 8 and 10, 1776. It named the new state the "Commonwealth of Virginia",

28380-413: The fifth convention, to meet in May 1776 at Williamsburg, would need to decide how Virginia would be administered henceforth, as the royal government was dead in all but name. Accordingly, the convention was seen as so important that Lee arranged for his temporary recall from Congress to be a part of the convention, and Jefferson tried but failed to arrange to leave Congress as well. Other notables elected to

28600-621: The following year, he boarded with a Mrs. Simpson in Maryland, and Williams continued as his teacher through 1739. By 1740, Mason was at Chopawamsic , under the tutelage of a Dr. Bridges, likely Charles Bridges , who helped develop the British schools run by the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge , and arrived in British America in 1731. Mason and his brother Thomson likely utilized John Francis Mercer 's library, one of

28820-697: The forks of the Ohio River in present-day Pittsburgh . The challenges of the French and Indian War , Revolutionary War , and competing claims from the Province of Pennsylvania eventually led to the collapse of the Ohio Company. Although the company failed, Mason acquired considerable western lands independently. His defense against the Pennsylvania claims, Selections from the Virginia Charters , written in 1772, originally intended to promote

29040-513: The formation of the Confederacy was the development of white Southern nationalism in the preceding decades. The primary reason for the North to reject secession was to preserve the Union, a cause based on American nationalism . Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 presidential election . His victory triggered declarations of secession by seven slave states of the Deep South , all of whose riverfront or coastal economies were based on cotton that

29260-458: The glorious cause of southern independence. They demanded that their own states join the cause. Scores of demonstrations took place from April 12 to 14, before Lincoln issued his call for troops. Many conditional unionists were swept along by this powerful tide of southern nationalism; others were cowed into silence. Historian Daniel W. Crofts disagrees with McPherson: The bombardment of Fort Sumter, by itself, did not destroy Unionist majorities in

29480-519: The governor, Lord Dunmore , dissolved the legislature rather than accept it. Mason may have helped write the resolution and likely joined the members after the dissolution when they met at Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg. New elections had to be held for burgess and for delegate to the convention which had been called by the rump of the dissolved House of Burgesses, and Fairfax County's were set for July 5, 1774. George Washington planned to run for one seat and tried to get Mason or Bryan Fairfax to seek

29700-545: The great work, I have Sanguine hopes it will be framed so as to Answer it's [ sic ] end, Prosperity to the Community and Security to Individuals". Mason, working in a room at the Raleigh Tavern, drafted a declaration of rights and plan of government, likely to prevent frivolous plans with no chance of adoption from being put forward. Edmund Randolph later recalled that Mason's draft "swallowed up all

29920-474: The ground he was not a lawyer; most of the work fell to Jefferson (returned from Philadelphia), Pendleton, and Wythe. Illness caused by a botched smallpox inoculation forced Mason to miss part of the legislature's spring 1777 session; in his absence delegates on May 22 elected him to the Continental Congress. Mason, who may have been angry that Lee had not been chosen, refused on the ground that he

30140-460: The history of the United States up to that point in time. Several prominent Virginia citizens died in the fire, including Virginia's governor George William Smith ; former United States Senator Abraham B. Venable ; lawyer Benjamin Botts who defended Aaron Burr during his conspiracy trial ; and Mary Clay, the daughter of congressman Matthew Clay . Monumental Church stands on the former site of

30360-721: The hundreds of thousands. Secessionists argued that the United States Constitution was a contract among sovereign states that could be abandoned without consultation and each state had a right to secede. After intense debates and statewide votes, seven Deep South cotton states passed secession ordinances by February 1861, while secession efforts failed in the other eight slave states. The Confederacy expanded in May–July 1861 (with Virginia , Arkansas , Tennessee , North Carolina ), and disintegrated in April–May 1865. It

30580-443: The inclusion of his anti-slavery views. George Washington or George William Fairfax, the burgesses for Fairfax County, may have asked Mason's advice as to what steps to take in the crisis. Mason drafted an act to allow for one of the most common court actions, replevin , to take place without the use of stamped paper, and sent it to George Washington, by then one of Fairfax County's burgesses, to gain passage. This action contributed to

30800-451: The largest in Virginia at the time. Conversations with Mercer and book-lovers who gathered around him could have continued his education informally. The obligations and offices that came with being one of the largest local landowners descended on Mason as they had previously on his father and grandfather. In 1747, Mason was named to the Court of Fairfax County, Virginia , and was elected as

31020-425: The morality of the theatre made operations of such an institution challenging, and he was forced to publicly make it clear that there was separation between the scholars studying at the QA and the visiting theatre troupes utilizing the QA's theatre. Quesnay himself taught dance classes at the academy, but by December 1887 Quesnay's Academy ceased operation. Theatre managers Thomas Wade West and John Bignall took over

31240-399: The most part written by Mason, received wide publicity (the final version much less so) and Mason's words "all men are born equally free and independent" were later reproduced in state constitutions from Pennsylvania to Montana; Jefferson tweaked the prose and included the sentiments in the Declaration of Independence. In 1778, Mason wrote that the Declaration of Rights "was closely imitated by

31460-566: The night; the two men rode together to Alexandria the following day. The 24 propositions that made up the Resolves protested loyalty to the British Crown but denied the right of Parliament to legislate for colonies that had been settled at private expense and which had received charters from the monarch. The Resolves called for a continental congress. If Americans did not receive redress by November 1, exports, including that of tobacco, would be cut off. The freeholders of Fairfax County approved

31680-428: The ordinance of secession. In the 1860 election "Constitutional Democrat" Breckenridge had outpolled "Constitutional Unionist" Bell in the 50 counties by 1,900 votes, 44% to 42%. The counties simultaneously supplied over 20,000 soldiers to each side of the conflict. Representatives for most counties were seated in both state legislatures at Wheeling and at Richmond for the duration of the war. Attempts to secede from

31900-472: The origins of the American Civil War agree that the preservation of the institution of slavery was the principal aim of the eleven Southern states (seven states before the onset of the war and four states after the onset) that declared their secession from the United States (the Union ) and united to form the Confederate States of America (known as the "Confederacy"). However, while historians in

32120-477: The other United States". This was true, as seven of the original states, and Vermont, joined Virginia in promulgating a bill of rights. Four in addition specified rights that were protected, within the body of their constitutions. Feelings were so strong in Massachusetts that voters there in 1778 rejected a constitution drafted by a convention, insisting that a bill of rights had to come first. Even before

32340-530: The other three candidates (Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas and John Bell ). Support for these three collectively, ranged from significant to outright majority, running from 25% in Texas to 81% in Missouri. There were minority views everywhere, especially in the upland and plateau areas of the South, particularly concentrated in western Virginia and eastern Tennessee. The first six signatory states establishing

32560-499: The other, but both men declined. Although the poll was postponed to July 14 because of poor weather, Washington met that day with other local leaders (including, likely, Mason) in Alexandria and selected a committee to draft a set of resolutions, which Washington hoped would "define our Constitutional Rights". The resulting Fairfax Resolves were largely drafted by Mason. He met with Washington on July 17 at Mount Vernon and stayed

32780-540: The period that could have also been utilized, among them Richard Brinsley Sheridan 's Pizarro . In 1828 the RT staged two plays by Richmond native Stephen T. Mitchell, including The Maid of Missolonghi , which was based on a poem by Lord Byron . Future First Lady of the United States Priscilla Cooper Tyler worked as an actress at the RT prior to her marriage to Robert Tyler , the son of United States president John Tyler . She

33000-461: The phantom ship . It is possible that Dunlap's English language adaptation of Kotzebue's 1790 play Menschenhass und Reue , The Stranger; or, Misanthropy and Repentance , was used when it was staged at the theatre. Likewise, Dunlap's Pizarro adapted from Kotzebue's Die Spanier in Peru may have been used, but there were many other English language adaptations of that work known on the American stage of

33220-518: The populous counties along the Ohio and Pennsylvania borders rejected the Confederacy. Unionists held a Convention in Wheeling in June 1861, establishing a "restored government" with a rump legislature , but sentiment in the region remained deeply divided. In the 50 counties that would make up the state of West Virginia , voters from 24 counties had voted for disunion in Virginia's May 23 referendum on

33440-461: The pro-Confederate claimants in Kentucky (December 10, 1861) and Missouri (November 28, 1861) and laid claim to those states, granting them Congressional representation and adding two stars to the Confederate flag. Voting for the representatives was mostly done by Confederate soldiers from Kentucky and Missouri. Some southern unionists blamed Lincoln's call for troops as the precipitating event for

33660-596: The proper balance between federal and state rights. He found Mason willing to consider a federal tax; Madison had feared the subject might offend his host and wrote to Jefferson of the evening's conversation. The same month, Mason spent Christmas at Mount Vernon (the only larger estate than his in Fairfax County). A fellow houseguest described Mason as "slight in figure, but not tall, and has a grand head and clear gray eyes". Mason retained his political influence in Virginia, writing Patrick Henry, who had been elected to

33880-479: The property, and as part of the land sale agreement, Turpin paid for the extension of the road and the creation of Academy Square where Quesnay's Academy was to be constructed. The cornerstone of the building was laid by Richmond's Masonic Lodge No. 13 on June 24, 1786. The building's cornerstone was placed at the Northeast corner of the building. The front of the building was situated on what is now 12th street, and

34100-631: The property. However, Holman died in 1817, the year construction on the theatre began. The building of the third Richmond Theatre was done by what was called "subscription", where a group of individuals would invest money in the theatre and essentially own stock in the theatre enterprise. A total of 104 investors, most of them local to Richmond, owned shares in the theatre with approximately $ 40,000.00 worth of shares sold. Many of them were prominent citizens of Virginia, including Virginia's governor William H. Cabell , justice John Marshall , journalist Thomas Ritchie , and banker James Rawlings (ca. 1788–1838) who

34320-457: The question raised long afterwards as to the contribution of other great leaders, stands, on the authority of Jefferson, Madison, and Randolph—to mention only the highest authority—as his creation." Mason devoted much effort during the American Revolutionary War to safeguarding Fairfax County and the rivers of Virginia, since the British several times raided areas along the Potomac. Control of

34540-600: The rest". The Virginia Declaration of Rights and the 1776 Constitution of Virginia were joint works, but Mason was the main author. Mason likely worked closely with Thomas Ludwell Lee ; the earliest surviving draft shows the first ten articles in Mason's handwriting, with the other two written by Lee. The draft for the Declaration of Rights drew on Magna Carta , the English Petition of Right of 1628, and that nation's 1689 Bill of Rights . Mason's first article would be paraphrased by Jefferson soon after in drafting

34760-667: The rivers and of Chesapeake Bay was urgent as Virginians tried to obtain hard currency by trading tobacco to the French and other European nations. The export of tobacco, generally via the West Indies, allowed Mason and others to obtain, via France and Holland, British-made items such as cloth, clothing patterns, medicines, and hardware. Mason served as a member of the House of Delegates from 1776 to 1781, his longest continuous political service outside Fairfax County, which he represented in Richmond. The other Fairfax County seat turned over several times—Washington's stepson Jackie Custis

34980-405: The same assurance to British Members of Parliament John A. Roebuck and John A. Lindsay. Roebuck in turn publicly prepared a bill to submit to Parliament supporting joint Anglo-French recognition of the Confederacy. "Southerners had a right to be optimistic, or at least hopeful, that their revolution would prevail, or at least endure." Following the disasters at Vicksburg and Gettysburg in July 1863,

35200-405: The same rights as if they resided in Britain, and that they could only be taxed by themselves or their elected representatives. The Resolves were mostly written by a fiery-spoken new member for Louisa County , Patrick Henry . Mason slowly moved from being a peripheral figure towards the center of Virginia politics, but his published response to the Stamp Act, which he opposed, is most notable for

35420-594: The same site at 7th and Broad streets by contractors Joseph Hall and John F. Regnault at a cost of $ 75,000. The materials to build the theatre had to pass through the Union blockade during the American Civil War . Called the New Marshall Theatre during construction, it was referred to as simply the Marshall Theatre in the Richmond Dispatch when it opened with a production of Shakespeare's As You Like It on February 9, 1863. However, later in

35640-410: The scheme for non-exportation of tobacco Mason had proposed some years earlier. The convention elected delegates to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, including Lee, Washington, and Henry, and in October 1774, Congress adopted a similar embargo. Much of Mason's efforts in 1774 and 1775 was in organizing a militia independent of the royal government. Washington by January 1775 was drilling

35860-449: The secession movement were unashamed to explicitly cite the defense of slavery as their prime motive ... Acknowledging the centrality of slavery to the Confederacy is essential for understanding the Confederate. Southern Democrats had chosen John Breckinridge as their candidate during the 1860 presidential election, but in no Southern state was support for him unanimous, as they recorded at least some popular vote for at least one of

36080-426: The second wave of secessions. Historian James McPherson argues such claims have "a self-serving quality" and regards them as misleading: As the telegraph chattered reports of the attack on Sumter April 12 and its surrender next day, huge crowds poured into the streets of Richmond, Raleigh, Nashville, and other upper South cities to celebrate this victory over the Yankees. These crowds waved Confederate flags and cheered

36300-499: The song "The Southern Soldier Boy", and it was published by George Dunn in 1863. Other original Confederate plays that premiered at the NRT included J.J. Delchamp's Love's ambuscade ; or The sergeant's stratagem ; and the anonymous farce Great Expectations; or. Getting Promoted . The latter work was a searing critique of corruption among Confederate quartermasters . Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America ( CSA ), commonly referred to as

36520-512: The state legislature asked for Union troops to drive them out. Delegates from 68 Kentucky counties were sent to the Russellville Convention that signed an Ordinance of Secession. Kentucky was admitted into the Confederacy on December 10, 1861, with Bowling Green as its first capital. Early in the war, the Confederacy controlled more than half of Kentucky but largely lost control in 1862. The splinter Confederate government of Kentucky relocated to accompany western Confederate armies and never controlled

36740-452: The state population after 1862. By the end of the war, 90,000 Kentuckians had fought for the Union, compared to 35,000 for the Confederacy. In Missouri , a constitutional convention was approved and delegates elected. The convention rejected secession 89–1 on March 19, 1861. The governor maneuvered to take control of the St. Louis Arsenal and restrict Federal movements. This led to a confrontation, and in June federal forces drove him and

36960-577: The states "should compel their ablest men to attend Congress ... Where is Mason, Wythe, Jefferson, Nicholas, Pendleton, Nelson?" Washington wrote to Mason directly: Where are our men of abilities? Why do they not come forth to serve their Country? Let this voice my dear Sir call upon you—Jefferson & others—do not from a mistaken opinion that we are about to set down under our own Vine and our own fig tree let our heretofore noble struggle end in ignomy. In spite of Washington's pleas, Mason remained in Virginia, plagued by illness and heavily occupied on

37180-425: The states' militia to muster under his command. The stated purpose was to re-occupy U.S. properties throughout the South, as the U.S. Congress had not authorized their abandonment. The resistance at Fort Sumter signaled his change of policy from that of the Buchanan Administration. Lincoln's response ignited a firestorm of emotion. The people of both North and South demanded war, with soldiers rushing to their colors in

37400-436: The text adopted by the final Revolutionary Virginia Convention. He also wrote a constitution for the state; Thomas Jefferson and others sought to have the convention adopt their ideas, but Mason's version was nonetheless adopted. During the American Revolutionary War , Mason was a member of the powerful House of Delegates of the Virginia General Assembly , but to the irritation of Washington and others, he refused to serve in

37620-745: The theater. McGill and Hewitt did not get along well, and she fired him in June 1862. Richard D'Orsey Ogden replaced him as manager, and C. A Rosenberg was hired as the theater's musical director at the same time. Among the leading actors in the NRT's company were Harry Macarthy , Edmund R. Dalton, Theo Hamilton, Walter Keeble, and Charles Morton. Leading actresses of the company included Clementine Debar Booth, sisters Ella and Eliza Wren, Eloise Bridges, Ida Vernon, and Lucille Weston. Ogden frequently programmed plays by Shakespeare, using versions originally crafted by David Garrick that had been further modified by John Philip Kemble . Ogden himself made additional changes to these versions of Shakespeare's plays. Macbeth

37840-462: The theatre to be an immoral institution. Theatre historian Elizabeth Reitz Mullenix stated the following: Analysis of theatre during the Civil War is crucial, for it represented a shift of national expressions of culture. Richmond's values, along with those of the entire South, changed dramatically because of sectional crisis, and the theatre both influenced the construction—and reflected the transformation—of this national identity. Theatre entertainment

38060-404: The theatre was used as a venue for traveling minstrels and variety acts of a novel nature. Once the economy had sufficiently recovered, a permanent stock company was established at the theatre in 1845; although it was not consistently profitable until the 1850s. Ethelbert A. Marshall (more commonly known as E. A. Marshall) was head of the stock company from 1847 to 1849, and his company included

38280-503: The theatre's management was taken over by the team of George Kunkel (1821–1885), Thomas L. Moxley (died 1890), and John T. Ford , the latter of whom founded the Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Ford left the partnership a few years in, but Kunkel and Moxley remained in charge of the theatre until the spring of 1861. The team of Kunkel, Moxley, and Ford had previous experience in entertainment but were inexperienced in staging serious dramas. To mitigate their lack of knowledge, they hired

38500-437: The theatre's orchestra between the plays. The first play was Denis Diderot 's comedy Le Père de famille given in an English language translation entitled The Father; or, Family Feuds by Louis Hue Girardin who was then principal of the Hallerian Academy and was formerly a professor of modern languages at the College of William & Mary . The second play given was Matthew Gregory Lewis 's melodrama Raymond and Agnes; or,

38720-417: The third Richmond Theatre (RT) by more than ten different professional acting companies. Collectively, these seasons consisted of more than 300 different plays staged across more than 800 performances. The repertoire of these seasons, while a mix of works by both British and American playwrights, tended to emphasize theatrical works imported from England. In addition to the theatre companies, the theatre also had

38940-404: The time had few roads, and boats carried most commerce on Chesapeake Bay or its tributaries, including the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers. Most settlement took place near the rivers, through which planters could trade with the world. Colonial Virginia initially had few towns, since estates were largely self-sufficient and could obtain what they needed without the need to purchase locally. Even

39160-399: The title role; James Sheridan Knowles 's The Hunchback with Priscilla as Julia; Elizabeth Inchbald 's Wives as They Were and Maids as They Are with Cooper as Sir William and Priscilla as Miss Dorillon; and Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing with Priscilla as Beatrice and her father as Benedict. By 1838 the third Richmond Theatre had fallen into serious disrepair and the theatre

39380-452: The tribal governments sent representatives to the Confederate Congress : Elias Cornelius Boudinot representing the Cherokee and Samuel Benton Callahan representing the Seminole and Creek . The Cherokee Nation aligned with the Confederacy. They practiced and supported slavery, opposed abolition, and feared their lands would be seized by the Union. After the war, the Indian territory was disestablished, their black slaves were freed, and

39600-458: The tribes lost some of their lands. Montgomery, Alabama , served as capital of the Confederate States from February 4 until May 29, 1861, in the Alabama State Capitol . Six states created the Confederacy there on February 8, 1861. The Texas delegation was seated at the time, so it is counted in the "original seven" states of the Confederacy; it had no roll call vote until after its referendum made secession "operative". The Permanent Constitution

39820-502: The upper South. Because only three days elapsed before Lincoln issued the proclamation, the two events viewed retrospectively, appear almost simultaneous. Nevertheless, close examination of contemporary evidence ... shows that the proclamation had a far more decisive impact. ...Many concluded ... that Lincoln had deliberately chosen "to drive off all the Slave states, in order to make war on them and annihilate slavery". The order of secession resolutions and dates are: In Virginia,

40040-416: The war earned him the moniker "Bard of the Confederacy". He stated the following about his work writing plays for the NRT during the war: Military dramas, suiting the pulse of a military audience, proved a great feature. They were all replete with the most gushing patriotism. In terms of quality, the most successful war play staged at the NRT was James D. McCabe 's The Guerrillas , which had its premiere at

40260-472: The week, advertisements for that production began calling the theatre the New Richmond Theatre. Eventually the theatre became known as the Richmond Theater, its name at the time it closed 33 years later. When the New Richmond Theatre opened, Confederate Civil War general Joseph E. Johnston described the filled to capacity theatre as full of "government clerks, soldiers, speculators, and hangers-on of every description" who were seeking "elegance and comfort in

40480-464: The white man...the superior race." Frederick Douglass , Henry Highland Garnet , Sarah Parker Remond , her brother Charles Lenox Remond , James W. C. Pennington , Martin Delany , Samuel Ringgold Ward , and William G. Allen all spent years in Britain, where fugitive slaves were safe and, as Allen said, there was an "absence of prejudice against color. Here the colored man feels himself among friends, and not among enemies". Most British public opinion

40700-432: The years 1826–1845. That same year the theatre underwent some remodeling and repairs. After this, performances tended to be variety theatre presentations, rather than legitimate theatre , and the theatre's use significantly dropped with on average only one month of use per year. The theatre fell into disrepair and closed after it was sold in 1838. Between 1818 and 1838 there were a total of 30 theatre seasons presented at

40920-413: Was Douglas Jerrold 's Black-Eyed Susan . The company also staged plays based on novels by Alexander Dumas , Walter Scott , and Ellen Wood . Original works staged at the NRT during the Civil War were by theme war plays. They all had similar components that included making the hero of the work a young Southern cavalier or plantation owner, and casting a Northern gentleman of similar social standing as

41140-458: Was "a mere inferential recognition, unconnected with political action or the regular establishment of diplomatic relations" and thus did not assign it the weight of formal recognition. Nevertheless, the Confederacy was seen internationally as a serious attempt at nationhood, and European governments sent military observers to assess whether there had been a de facto establishment of independence. These observers included Arthur Lyon Fremantle of

41360-451: Was a Cavalier who was born in 1629 in Pershore , Worcestershire, England. Militarily defeated in the English Civil War , Mason and other Cavaliers emigrated to the American colonies in the 1640s and 1650s. Mason I settled in present-day Stafford County, Virginia , where he was awarded land as a reward for bringing his family and servants to the Colony of Virginia, under headright , which awarded 50 acres for each person transported into

41580-500: Was a member of the Compact Corps Dramatique stock company which was headlined by her father, the esteemed English actor Thomas Abthorpe Cooper . Before her arrival in Richmond, reviews of her performances had been less than enthusiastic; although reviewers did not review her harshly and were kind if tepid using words like "promising", or "as yet undeveloped" in reviewing her work. This was most likely out of respect for her father. However, her abilities as an actress were much appreciated by

41800-409: Was about nine years old. His mother managed the family estates until he came of age. In 1750, Mason married, built Gunston Hall , and lived the life of a country squire , supervising his lands, family, and slaves . He briefly served in the House of Burgesses and involved himself in community affairs, sometimes serving with his neighbor George Washington . As tensions grew between Great Britain and

42020-484: Was adopted there on March 12, 1861. The permanent capital provided for in the Confederate Constitution called for a state cession of a 100 square mile district to the central government. Atlanta, which had not yet supplanted Milledgeville , Georgia, as its state capital, put in a bid noting its central location and rail connections, as did Opelika, Alabama , noting its strategically interior situation, rail connections and deposits of coal and iron. Richmond, Virginia ,

42240-491: Was against the practice, with Liverpool seen as the primary base of Southern support. Throughout the early years of the war, British foreign secretary Lord John Russell , Emperor Napoleon III of France, and, to a lesser extent, British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston , showed interest in recognition of the Confederacy or at least mediation of the war. Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone attempted unsuccessfully to convince Palmerston to intervene. By September 1862

42460-440: Was an American planter , politician, Founding Father , and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, where he was one of three delegates who refused to sign the Constitution . His writings, including substantial portions of the Fairfax Resolves of 1774, the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776, and his Objections to this Constitution of Government (1787) opposing ratification, have exercised

42680-483: Was chosen for the interim capital at the Virginia State Capitol . The move was used by Vice President Stephens and others to encourage other border states to follow Virginia into the Confederacy. In the political moment it was a show of "defiance and strength". The war for Southern independence was surely to be fought in Virginia, but it also had the largest Southern military-aged white population, with infrastructure, resources, and supplies. The Davis Administration's policy

42900-421: Was closed after being sold to Major S. Meyers. It went under significant alterations and renovations, and it re-opened as the Marshall Theatre on November 14, 1838. It was named after justice John Marshall. While the theatre's first few seasons offered dramas and sophisticated music, the economic depression of the 1840s following the Panic of 1837 ultimately led to abandoning more elaborate staged productions, and

43120-442: Was cultivated by slave labor. They formed the Confederate States of America after Lincoln was elected in November 1860 but before he took office in March 1861. Nationalists in the North and "Unionists" in the South refused to accept the declarations of secession. No foreign government ever recognized the Confederacy. The U.S. government, under President James Buchanan , refused to relinquish its forts that were in territory claimed by

43340-481: Was destroyed by fire on January 2, 1862. The fire broke out in the theatre on the morning of January 2 and spread to several of the surrounding businesses and houses, many of which were also destroyed. Hewitt and the actor Richard D'Orsey Ogden were both asleep in the theatre when the fire broke out, and while they managed to escape with their lives, they both suffered severe burns. After the fire, Hewitt's company remained active in alternative locations in Richmond until

43560-403: Was elected late in the war—but Mason remained the county's choice throughout. Nevertheless, Mason's health often caused him to miss meetings of the legislature, or to arrive days or weeks late. Mason in 1777 was assigned to a committee to revise Virginia's laws, with the expectation that he would take on the criminal code and land law. Mason served a few months on the committee before resigning on

43780-411: Was erected through the advocacy of John Marshall who was serving as Chief Justice of the United States at the time of the theatre's construction. Through Marshall's efforts, the funds to build this theatre were raised through subscription and construction on the theatre began in 1804. This second theatre was made from brick instead of wood and stood three stories high. It opened on January 25, 1806, and

44000-588: Was formed by delegations from seven slave states of the Lower South that had proclaimed their secession. After the fighting began in April, four additional slave states seceded and were admitted. Later, two slave states ( Missouri and Kentucky ) and two territories were given seats in the Confederate Congress. Its establishment flowed from and deepened Southern nationalism, which prepared men to fight for "The Southern Cause". This "Cause" included support for states' rights , tariff policy , and internal improvements, but above all, cultural and financial dependence on

44220-446: Was in Williamsburg on real estate business. Word had just arrived of the passage of the Intolerable Acts , as Americans dubbed the legislative response to the Boston Tea Party , and a group of lawmakers including Lee, Henry, and Jefferson asked Mason to join them in formulating a course of action. The Burgesses passed a resolution for a day of fasting and prayer to obtain divine intervention against "destruction of our Civil Rights", but

44440-439: Was inaugurated as president with a term of six years. The Confederate administration pursued a policy of national territorial integrity, continuing earlier state efforts in 1860–1861 to remove U.S. government presence. This included taking possession of U.S. courts, custom houses, post offices, and most notably, arsenals and forts. After the Confederate attack and capture of Fort Sumter in April 1861, Lincoln called up 75,000 of

44660-438: Was later revived at the theatre in February 1861. The work was highly political and was a tool of propaganda to bolster Southern national identity in the years leading up to Secession in the United States . This was just one example of a genre of Southern play which used themes of " white supremacy " and "Northern villainy" to promote Southern nationalism. In May 1855 the Marshall Theatre was purchased by Elizabeth McGill. In 1856

44880-418: Was located at what is now the intersection of 12th and Broad just north of Capitol Square . The academy was built with a "barn-like wooden structure". Quesnay's Academy (QA) opened on October 10, 1786, in a performance given by the Old American Company of Comedians under the management of Lewis Hallam Jr. and John Henry . Sources vary as to which work was performed on this date, with some sources claiming it

45100-492: Was needed at home and did not feel he could resign from the General Assembly without permission from his constituents. Lee was elected in his place. This did not end the desire of Virginians to send Mason to the Continental Congress. In 1779, Lee resigned from Congress, expressing the hope that Mason, Wythe, or Jefferson would replace him in Philadelphia. General Washington was frustrated at the reluctance of many talented men to serve in Congress, writing to Benjamin Harrison that

45320-407: Was needed for his ability." Mason sponsored a non-exportation measure; it was passed by a large majority, though it had to be repealed later in the session to coordinate with one passed by Maryland. Despite pressure from many delegates, Mason refused to consider election as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in place of Washington after the Congress elected Washington commanding general of

45540-436: Was older, intellectually superior, and the owner of a flourishing plantation as Washington was struggling to establish Mount Vernon, and it would not have been in the future president's character to seek a close relationship with Mason. Washington, however, had deep respect for Mason's intellectual abilities, and sought Mason's advice on several occasions, writing in 1777 when learning that Mason had taken charge of an issue before

45760-420: Was one of the wealthiest men in Charles County . At the time of his marriage, Mason was living at Dogue's Neck, possibly at Sycamore Point. George and Ann Mason had nine children who survived to adulthood. Ann Mason died in 1773; their marriage, judging by surviving accounts, was a happy one. Mason began to build his home, Gunston Hall , in or around 1755. The exterior, typical of local buildings of that time,

45980-430: Was president of the Farmers’ Bank of Virginia. The business side of the theatre was run by a board elected by the shareholders, with Ritchie elected as the board's first chairman. The board was responsible for leasing the building and the initial lessee was the South Carolina composer and theatre manager Charles Gilfert (1787–1829) Gilfert was also an investor in the theatre and was married to actress Amelia Holman Gilfert ,

46200-512: Was probably based on architectural books sent from Britain to America for the use of local builders; one of these craftsmen, perhaps William Waite or James Wren , constructed Gunston Hall. Mason was proud of the gardens, which still surround the house. There were outbuildings, including slave quarters, a schoolhouse, and kitchens, and beyond them four large plantations, forests, and the shops and other facilities that made Gunston Hall mostly self-sufficient. Mason avoided overdependence on tobacco as

46420-459: Was referred to in the Richmond Enquirer as both the "New Theatre" and the "Richmond Theatre". It was financially profitable during its five-year history. The second Richmond Theatre was initially inhabited by the West and Bignall theatre company. One of the early plays staged at the theatre in 1806 included William Dunlap 's English language version of Jean-Henri-Ferdinand Lamartelière's 1799 play Abelino ou le Grand Bandit (English: Abaellino,

46640-412: Was resolved by the convention adding the words "when they enter into a state of society", thus excluding slaves. Mason spoke repeatedly in the five days of debate, using oratory one hearer described as "neither flowing nor smooth, but his language was strong, his manner most impressive, and strengthened by a bit of biting cynicism when provocation made it seasonable". The Declaration of Rights was passed by

46860-428: Was that "It must be held at all hazards." The naming of Richmond as the new capital took place on May 30, 1861, and the last two sessions of the Provisional Congress were held there. As war dragged on, Richmond became crowded with training and transfers, logistics and hospitals. Prices rose dramatically despite government efforts at price regulation. A movement in Congress argued for moving the capital from Richmond. At

47080-653: Was the most frequently performed work during his tenure but the company also performed other tragedies like Julius Caesar and King Lear and comedies like The Taming of the Shrew . Some of the other plays in the company's repertoire during the war years included John Maddison Morton 's Box and Cox , John Webster 's The Duchess of Malfi , Oliver Goldsmith 's She Stoops to Conquer , Richard Brinsley Sheridan 's The Rivals , and multiple plays by writers Dion Boucicault , Augustin Daly , James Planché , Charles Selby , Eugène Scribe , Charles W. Taylor , and Tom Taylor . Particularly popular with Richmond audiences

47300-407: Was the opera Poor Soldier and others the play School for Scandal . Regardless, sources agree that the repertoire of Hallam and Henry's season in Richmond included the stage works Poor Soldier , School for Scandal , and Alexander the Great ; or , the Rival Queens . Quesnay's dream of an institution mirroring that of the French Academy of Sciences was short lived. Social prejudices against

47520-415: Was to compose a declaration of rights and constitution. Mason was skeptical that the thirty-person Cary Committee could collectively compose anything worthwhile, but he was surprised at how quickly it moved—though his membership had a role in that speed. On May 24, convention president Edmund Pendleton wrote to Jefferson about the committee's deliberations, "as Colo.[nel] Mason seems to have the ascendancy in

47740-450: Was unable to control substantial parts of Missouri territory, effectively only controlling southern Missouri early in the war. It had its capital at Neosho, then Cassville , before being driven out of the state. For the remainder of the war, it operated as a government in exile at Marshall, Texas . Not having seceded, neither Kentucky nor Missouri was declared in rebellion in Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation . The Confederacy recognized

47960-426: Was unsuccessful; historians judge their diplomacy as poor. Neither secured diplomatic recognition for the Confederacy, much less military assistance. The Confederates who had believed that " cotton is king ", that is, that Britain had to support the Confederacy to obtain cotton, proved mistaken. The British had stocks to last over a year and been developing alternative sources. The United Kingdom took pride leading

48180-410: Was used intermittently between 1827 and 1834 under several different managers. Due to the increase of Richmond's population during the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829–1830 , the year 1829 was a very busy year at the Richmond Theatre, with three different theatre seasons offered by three different companies in rapid succession; totaling more performances than any other year in Richmond between

48400-408: Was viewed as an essential support for the Southern war effort, and well-known actors, musicians, and other entertainers were exempt from conscription until nearly the end of the war. War weary soldiers as well as the general public came to the theatre as a place of escape as well as for entertainment. Rather than see a decline in theatre attendance, the war years in Richmond saw a significant increase in

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