Born on November 3rd, 1798 in Fairfax County Virginia, Mason was a U.S. representative from 1837 to 1839 and he was also a senator from 1847 to 1861. Mason also drafted the Fugitive Slave Act 1850. In 1861, Confederate president Jefferson Davis made him a commissioner to Great Britain to obtain British help for the Confederacy. Charles Wilkes, commander of the U.S. warship San Jacinto, seized the British ship Trent, and took Mason and the confederate commissioner to France, John Slidell. After release in 1862, he stayed in Britain in a futile attempt to gain British recognition for the confederate states. Mason died on April 28, 1871, after remaining in Europe, and becoming a distinguished lawyer.
