bitterness, and gave rise to several duels, among them the encounter with his brother-in-law, John M. McCarty, which resulted in Mason's death at the age of thirty-two. The quarrel was an exceed- ingly violent one, and Mason insisted that his op- ponent should fight, while McCarty did all in his power to avoid a meeting. The latter at first pro- posed that muskets, charged with buckshot, should be used and the distance fixed at twelve feet. This was finally increased to six paces, and a sin- gle ball was substituted for buckshot. Col. Mason fell at the first fire and died before he could be removed from the field. He left an only child, Stevens Thomson, who subsequently volunteered in the Mexican war, was promoted captain of rifles, and fell mortally wounded while making a charge on the enemy at Cerro Gordo. — The fourth George's grandson, Richard Barnes, soldier, b. in Fairfax county. Va., 16 Jan., 1797; d. in St. Louis, Mo., 25 July, IboO, was appointed 2d lieu- tenant in the 8th U. S. infantry, 2 Sept., 1817. He was promoted 1st lieutenant in the same month, and made captain, 31 July, 1819, major, 1st dra- goons, 4 IMarch, 1833, lieutenant-colonel, 4 July, 1836, and colonel, 30 June, 1846. He was brevetted major, 31 July, 1829, for ten years' faithful service in one grade, and brigadier-general, 30 May, 1848, for meritorious conduct. He served in the Black Hawk war and commanded the U. S. forces in Cali- fornia, being ex-officio the first military and civil governor of that state. — James Murray, senator, another grandson of the fourth George, b. on Ma- son's island, Fairfax co., Va., 3 Nov., 1798 ; d. near Alexandria, Va., 28 April, 1871, was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1818, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began to practise in Winchester, Va. He was a member of the house of delegates from 1826 till 1832, of the Vir- ginia constitutional convention in 1829, a presiden- tial elector on the Jackson ticket in 1833, and was elected a member of congress as a Jackson Demo- crat, serving from 4 Sept., 1837, till 3 March, 1839. At the expiration of his term he was ofi'ered a re- election, but declined, and returned to the prac- tice of his profession. In 1847 he was elected by the Virginia legislature U. S. senator, to fill an mi- expired term, and was twice re-elected. His last term would have expired in 1863. but he left his seat early in 1861 on the secession of his state. During his term of fourteen years, although he made no notable speeches and was never regarded as a brilliant senator, he manifested a capacity for steady work, which made him a valuable member. For ten years he was chairman of the committee on foreign relations. A decided Demo- crat and a strict constructionist of the State-rights school, he vehemently opposed all anti-slavery agi- tation, and was the author of the fugitive-slave law of 1850. His arguments in its favor were characterized by much of the vindictive sectional feeling and partisan eloquence of that day. In the autumn of 1861 he was appointed, with John Slidell, Confederate commissioner to England, and set sail from Charleston for Cuba on 12 October. After remaining a few days at Havana, where they were formally received by the captain-gen- eral, the commissioners took passage on the Brit- ish mail-steamer " Trent," and were passing through the Bahama channel when they were captured by Capt. Charles Wilkes, brought to the United States, and subsequently confined in Fort Warren, Boston harbor. After his release, on 2 Jan., 1862, on the demand of the British authorities, Mr. Ma- son and his colleague sailed for Europe, where they continued to urge the recognition of the Con- federacy until its final collapse. At the close of the war Mr. Mason went to Canada, where he re- mained three years, but he returned to Virginia in 1868, and resided there until his death. — Stevens Thomson, governor of Michigan, grandson of Stevens Thomson, b. in Loudoun county, Va., in 1811 ; d. in New York city, 4 Jan., 1843, was taken to Kentucky by his father, John T. Mason, where he was educated. In 1831 he was appointed by President Jackson secretary of the territory of Michigan, and in that capacity, on the transfer of the governor, Lewis Cass, to the war department at Washington, he became acting governor. Dur- ing this period a controversy began between Ohio and Michigan regarding their boundary-line. It excited intense interest and aroused bitter feelings, and thousands of troops were marched to the fron- tier in expectation of a bloody conflict. Gov. Ma- son, throughout the entire controversy, though but a mere youth, acted with calmness, ability, and courage. In 1835, when the territory became a state, he was unanimously elected its first gov- ernor, and at the end of his term was re-elected. On leaving office in 1839 he retired from public life, and, removing to New York city, began the practice of the law. — Stevens Thompson Mason's sister, Emily Virg'inia, b. in Lexington, Ky., 15 Oct., 1815, was educated at Troy female seminary, N. Y. For several years before the civil war she resided in Fairfax county, Va., and when hostili- ties began she left her home near Alexandria and offered her services in the Confederate hospitals. She served as matron at Greenbrier, White Sul- phur Springs, Charlottesville, Lynchburg, and Rielimond, Va., successively. In order to obtain money to educate the orphan daughters of Con- federate soldiers, Miss Mason collected and ar- ranged " Southern Poems of the War " (Balti- more, 1867), which met with a very large sale. After the war she spent fifteen years in Paris, France, most of the time acting as assistant prin- cipal of an American school for young ladies. Miss Mason has written a " Life of Gen. Robert E. Lee " (Baltimore, 1871), and has also edited the "Journal of a Young Lady of Virginia in 1782 " (1871).
MASON, George Champlin, author, b. in Newport, R. L, 17 July, 1820; d. in Philadelphia, 30 Jan., 1894. He was a kinsman of Christopher Grant Champlin (q. v.). He was educated at Newport, and followed the profession of an architect. He was for thirty years a director of the Redwood library in Newport, and a trustee of the Newport
hospital from its foundation in 1873. Besides editing the Newport " Mercury" from 1851 till 1858 and otherwise contributing to the press, Mr. Mason published " Newport and its Environs " (Newport, 1848) ; " Newport Illustrated " (New Y^ork, 1854) ; " The Application of Art to Manufactures " and "George Ready," a story (1858); "Reunion of Sons and Daughters of Newport" (Newport. 1859) ; "New-
port and its Cottages " (Boston, 1875) : " The Old
House Altered " (New York, 1878) ; " The Life and
Works of Gilbert Stuart " (1879) ; and " Reminis-
cences of Newport " (Newport. 1884).
MASON, James Louis, soldier, b. in Providence, R. I., in 1817; d. in San Francisco, Cal., 5 Sept., 1853. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1836, standing second in his class, and was made 2d lieutenant in the corps of engineers. During 1836-'46 he served as assistant in building Fort Adams, Newport, R. I., as superintendent engineer of the construction of the pier, dike, and light-house on Goat island in Newport harbor, and of the building of Fort Montgomery, N. Y. He participated in the war with Mexico.
