James Wilson 2 Essay Research Paper JAMES

James Wilson 2 Essay, Research Paper

JAMES WILSON (1742-1798)

James Wilson, although he was not famous, was a very important member of society. He was the Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, a member of the Continental Congress, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and the first professor of law at Philadelphia College. He Was born in Scotland and came to New York during the time of the Stamp Act

Highest Political Office: Associate Justice, United States Supreme Court

Other Accomplishments: Member, Continental Congress (1775-1777; 1782; 1783; 1785-1787); Signer of the Declaration of Independence; First Professor of Law at Philadelphia College (1790)

James Wilson was an early supporter of the American Revolution and gained much notoriety with the publication of his “Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Parliament.” He became very conservative in his later years and was the target of public indignation. He was born in Scotland, came to New York during the time of the Stamp Act (1765), and eventually studied law under John Dickinson in Pennsylvania. He eventually became the first professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania in 1791. It was said of James Wilson that “when Wilson speaks, he wastes no time and considers no man s feelings.”

His Politics: He emerged as a political leader after the American Revolutionary War, and as a member of the Congress of the Confederation (1783; 1785-1786) under the Articles of Confederation, was strongly in favor of an amendment to give the government the power to tax.

He was a strong supporter of a republican form of government in which the people choose the representatives in government, and was in favor of the “power” of the people during a time period when many of the political visionaries did not believe in democracy. The democracy that we know today did not really take shape until the 1820 s with the advent of Andrew Jackson. Wilson felt that people and their individual rights took priority over those of property rights, and was opposed to slavery. He also believed in the concept of “federalism” in which there was a division of power between the states and national government. However, the final authority ultimately went to the central government. At the Constitutional Convention he was a leader of the many floor debates and a member of the committee chosen to draft the Constitution. He then led the fight for ratification in Pennsylvania, which became the second state to approve the new Constitution.

Closest Crony Among the Founding Fathers: John Rutledge

What He Said: “The government ought to possess not only first the force but secondly the mind or sense of the people at large. The legislature ought to be the most exact transcript of the whole society.” “Why should a national government be unpopular. Will a citizen of Delaware be degraded by becoming a citizen of the United States.” “Federal liberty is to states what civil liberty is to individuals … I do not see the danger of the states being devoured by the national government.” On the contrary, I wish to keep them from devouring the national government.”

James Wilson

Pennsylvania

Image: National Portrait Gallery,

Smithsonian Institution

Wilson was born in 1741 or 1742 at Carskerdo, near St. Andrews, Scotland, and educated at the universities of St. Andrews, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. He then emigrated to America, arriving in the midst of the Stamp Act agitations in 1765. Early the next year, he accepted a position as Latin tutor at the College of Philadelphia (later part of the University of Pennsylvania) but almost immediately abandoned it to study law under John Dickinson.

In 1768, the year after his admission to the Philadelphia bar, Wilson set up practice at Reading, Pa. Two years later, he moved westward to the Scotch-Irish settlement of Carlisle, and the following year he took a bride, Rachel Bird. He specialized in land law and built up a broad clientele. On borrowed capital, he also began to speculate in land. In some way he managed, too, to lecture on English literature at the College of Philadelphia, which had awarded him an honorary master of arts degree in 1766.

Wilson became involved in Revolutionary politics. In 1774 he took over chairmanship of the Carlisle committee of correspondence, attended the first provincial assembly, and completed preparation of Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Parliament. This tract circulated widely in England and America and established him as a Whig leader.

The next year, Wilson was elected to both the provincial assembly and the Continental Congress, where he sat mainly on military and Indian affairs committees. In 1776, reflecting the wishes of his constituents, he joined the moderates in Congress voting for a 3-week delay in considering Richard Henry Lee’s resolution of June 7 for independence. On the July 1 and 2 ballots on the issue, however, he voted in the affirmative and signed the Declaration of Independence on August 2.

Wilson’s strenuous opposition to the republican Pennsylvania constitution of 1776, besides indicating a switch to conservatism on his part, led to his removal from Congress the following year. To avoid the clamor among his frontier constituents,

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