“ MASON, JOHN YOUNG (1799–1859) , American political leader and diplomatist, was born in Greenesville county, Virginia, on the 18th of April 1799. Graduating at the university of North Carolina in 1816, he studied law in the famous Litchfield (Connecticut) law school, and in 1819 was admitted to practice in Southampton county, Virginia. He served in the Virginia house of delegates in 1823–1827, in the state constitutional convention of 1829–1830, and from 1831 to 1837 in the National House of Representatives, being chairman of the committee on foreign affairs in 1835–1836. ”