On December 1, 2009 a group of Atlanta and Marietta Dames drove to the Georgia State Capitol for pictures with Gov. Sonny Perdue signing a proclamation declaring December 15th Bill of Rights Day in the State of Georgia.
On the Bill of Rights Day we honor George Mason of Virginia, one of the little known heroes of the American Revolution. In 1776 he wrote the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the first articulation of the ideas that would become our Bill of Rights. His insightful writings influenced Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence and James Madison in the drafting of the Constitution.
Mason took a vigorous part in the debates at the 1787 constitutional convention. He was a leader of those who pressed for the addition of explicit States rights and individual rights to the Constitution as a balance to the increased federal powers and did not sign the document in part because it lacked such a statement. His efforts eventually succeeded in convincing the Federalists to add the first ten amendments of the Constitution, collectively known as the Bill of Rights.
The Seal of the Georgia Society is that of the Colonial Trustees of Georgia, encircled by the name of the Society. Two figures resting upon urns represent the rivers Savannah and Altamaha, the northeastern and southwestern borders of the colony.