James Murray Mason - Canadian Exile and Clarens

            The final example of the gentry that will be examined is James Murray Mason, the grandson of George Mason IV, first cousin of Thomson Francis Mason, and a former US senator who involved himself heavily with the Confederate cause during the Civil War. James Murray Mason owned a large plantation in Winchester, Virginia named Selma and also drafted the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, a famously unpopular piece of legislation that only polarized the nation further on the issue of slavery which many believe contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War. His son, John A. Mason, served as an officer for the 2^nd Virginia Infantry of the Stonewall Brigade which is not that surprising since many of the younger southern gentry served as Confederate officers.[1] James Murray Mason is most famously known for the Trent Affair, an event that almost involved England in the war when he was serving the Confederacy as a diplomat. A newspaper article from the Staunton Spectator perfectly describes the Trent Affair.

                 “At the breaking out of the late war he left that body [US
                 Senate], along with other southern senators, and in November,
                 1861, he embarked with Mr. Slidell, at Havana, on board the
                 British royal mail steamer Trent, for Southampton, accredited
                 respectively as envoys from the Confederate States of the
                 South to the courts of Great Britain and France. A few hours
                 after the Trent was overhauled by the United States steamer
                 San Jacinto, Commodore Wilkes, and the surrender of Messrs. Mason and Slidell demanded by him. They were
                 surrendered, and imprisoned for some weeks at Fort Warren, in Boston harbor, whence they were liberated on the
                 peremptory demand of the British government, and sailed to for England in January, 1862”.[2]

            James Murray Mason remained in Europe for the remainder of the war, attempting and failing to persuade European powers to fight on behalf of the Confederate States. His daughter, Virginia Mason, paints a picture of his decisions and life after the war in a biography of her father that she authored. According to the account of his daughter, James Murray Mason’s family was staying in Montreal, Canada during the war, and in April of 1866, he sailed to Canada, rejoined them, and lived among several other Confederate exiles in Canada.[3] James Murray Mason must have extremely bitter regarding the war since he refused to apply for a parole or be pardoned for his actions during the war.[4] On July 4^th, 1868, President Johnson offered amnesty to all ex-Confederates involved in the rebellion to which James Murray Mason scoffed at by saying "I do not believe I could endure life in Virginia under existing circumstances; to me it would be torture. I should feel as though I was bound hand and foot and forced to be a silent witness while the graves of my parents were desecrated by savages".[5]

            James Murray Mason did not stay in Canada until his death and did not return to the United States on his accord. Due to encroaching old age, James Murray Mason did not wish for his wife, Eliza Margaretta Mason, to die in a foreign country and made plans to return.[6] James Murray Mason also refused to return to Winchester due to the fact his plantation of Selma was obliterated during the war and the thought of returning there would be painful.[7] A newspaper article and interview of a Union surgeon from the Middletown Whig Press details the destruction of his former home.

                 “It [Winchester] was the home of Hon. James M. Mason, once a distinguished U.S. Senator and now a bogus
                 minister at London. After the Union troops came here his house was demolished, and now, from turret to foundation
                 stone, not a stone remains upon another; the negro houses, the out-buildings, the fences, are all gone and even the
                 trees are many of them girdled”.[8]

Selma was completely obliterated and the usage of “negro houses” indicates that James Murray Mason was likely a slave owner and had slaves working the plantation. Mason was infamously disliked by Union for his career and may have been the reason it was destroyed. Nonetheless, James Murray Mason refused to return to Winchester.

            In 1869, James Murray Mason purchased an estate in the Seminary Hills neighborhood of Alexandria known as Clarens and moved there with his family, content with the choice as his childhood was spent in northern Virginia.[9] According to the 1870 Census, James Murray Mason was disenfranchised (most likely due to his actions during the conflict) and the 1870 Census had two black domestic servants living at his estate.[10] James Murray Mason was a fervent racist and Confederate apologist, and the fact that he hired two black domestic servants would have been nothing but humiliating for the disgraced diplomat. The 1870 Census also indicates that James Murray Mason and his wife were still quite wealthy despite the loss of property.[11] James Murray Mason would pass away peacefully at Clarens on the evening of April 28^th, 1871 with the prior two days being spent unconscious.[12]