ABSTRACT
Different groups of property rights were adversely affected by the government under the Articles of Confederation and that economic motive were behind the movement for a reconstruction of the system. The loan office books of New Hampshire show that Langdon was a large creditor of the new government, and indeed he was one of the heavy original contributors who risked their fortunes on the outcome of the War. George Mason's property at the time of the establishment of the Constitution was unquestionably large, for at his death in 1792 "he devised to his sons alone, some fifteen thousand acres, the greater part of his own acquisition, of the very best land in the Potomac region. Mason admitted his personal interest in certain landed property to be among his many objections to the Constitution—which he refused to approve and the adoption of which he bitterly opposed. Of all the members of the Convention, Robert Morris of Pennsylvania, had diversified economic interests.
