Who are the Founding Fathers? James Wilson (Pennsylvania)

James Wilson is one of only six people who hold claim to signing both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He served as a member of Continental Congress, Delegate to the Congress Assembled, Delegate to the Convention of 1787, and an Associate Justice of the United States. During the Convention of 1787 was one of the more vocal Delegates, never shy to offer his opinion.

Born in Carskerdo, Scotland  on Septemeber 14, 1742.  James Wilson attended Universities of St. Andrews, Glasgow, and Edinburgh initially studying to become a Presbyterian minister, but never earned a degree. He emigrated to Continental North America in 1766, and very shortly afterward enrolled into the College of Philadelphia. and, studied Law with John Dickinson. In 1767 he was admitted into to the Pennsylvania Bar, and set up his own successful practice in Reading Pennsylvania.

In 1774 James Wilson became involved in the Politics of the brewing revolt by the Colonist against the British Crown. He took over the chairmanship of the Carlisle committee of correspondence. That year he  attended the first provincial assembly, and also finished his essay: Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Parliament. The influence John Locke is apparent in certain aspects of his beliefs and writings. In one passage he says, “All men are by nature, equal and free. No one has a right to any authority over another without his consent…The consequence is, that the happiness of the society is the first law of every government”. This is a view very much in line with John Locke and his Two Treatises of Government. This essay circulated widely in the Colonies and England, and established James Wilson as a Whig Leader [Whigs were supporters of Independence from England including, if needed, war during the time immediately preceding and including the American Revolution.  Not to be confuse with the mid 19th century Whig Party].

In 1775, James Wilson was elected to both the Provincial Assembly and the Continental Congress, and sat mainly on military and Indian affairs committees. To the surprise of many,  despite his curiosity about the basis of "this power of Parliament over us," and the fact Wilson was  a strong supporter of total independence for the American Colonies from Great Britain, he could not initially vote for Independence. His sense of duty to his constituents, and the fact that Pennsylvania was divided on the issue of separation, Wilson refused to vote against the will of his constituents. James Wilson sided with the moderates in Congress and voted for a 3-week delay in considering Richard Henry Lee's resolution of June 7, 1776 for independence. After returning to Pennsylvania and consulting with his constituents, he returned to Philadelphia. It was his vote that broke the deadlock of the Pennsylvania delegation, and affirm Pennsylvania’s desire for Independence, and signed his name to the Declaration of Independence for Pennsylvania. Wilson then took up the important part in the discussion concerning military and commercial questions. His views opposed those of the southern delegates on questions of slavery and taxation. When hostilities began, he was selected to be a colonel of a battalion of militia raised in Cumberland county, and he took part in the New Jersey campaign of 1776.

Later in 1776 Wilson's was adamant in his opposition to the Pennsylvania Constitution on the grounds that its unicameral legislature and its lack of a system of checks and balances would lead to mob rule rather than to ordered government. His opposition resulted in his removal from being a delegate to the Continental Congress  in 1777 and being relieved of his militia commission. After being removed from the Congress he moved to Annapolis, Maryland for a year practicing law during the winter of 1777-78 and then took up residence in Philadelphia.

Wilson closely identified with the aristocratic and conservative republican groups, multiplying his business interests, and accelerating his land speculation. In the fall of 1779, during a period of inflation and food shortages, a mob which included many militiamen, set out to attack the conservative leadership. Wilson was a prime target. He was repeatedly accused of "engrossing," the practice of hoarding goods against the public need in order to drive up prices. He and some 35 of his colleagues barricaded themselves in his home at Third and Walnut Streets, thereafter known as "Fort Wilson." During a brief skirmish, after many shots were fired, several people on both sides were killed or wounded and Wilson and his friends were rescued by the city troops.

In 1779 Wilson was appointed by France as Advocate General for France in America (1779-83), dealing with commercial and maritime matters. In 1781, although he was not then a delegate to the Continental Congress, they recognized his skill as a financier and was appointed a director of the original Bank of North America, only recently founded by Robert Morris to help finance the war effort. In 1782, by which time the conservatives had regained some of their power Wilson was elected to Congress. After a two year absence Wilson was reelected to Congress in 1785-1787, where he worked closely with Robert Morris on the financial matters of state. It was during this period in Congress he became one of the first Delegate to promote strengthening the central government , and he urged the states to surrender their western land claims, he proposed greater  powers to raise revenue and taxation for Congress, and argued for a representative Congress based on free population. His outspoken positions of government made him as one of the most farsighted leaders in the early days of the United States, and these views among others would help shape the Convention of 1787.

Already a maverick about what powers a “Central” or “National” government should have. Throughout much of the debate James Wilson found himself on the side of arguments as James Madison, though not all. James Wilson became one of the great speakers in the Convention of 1787, only Edmund Randolph of Virginia spoke more.  He was an advocate of a strong National Government with Three Distinct Branches of Government, that the First House of the Legislature “… for drawing the most numerous branch of the legislature immediately from the people”. He considered, “considered the election of the first branch by the people not only as the corner-stone, but as the foundation, of the fabric”, of a Republic. He opposed State Legislatures choosing Senators. The Executive (President) he argued should be composed of a single person and not a council, and the Executive should have an absolute negative (veto) on the Legislature. He also supported a council of revision (prelude to the concept of Judicial review). He opposed the unitary appointment of Justices (this helped lead to consent of the Senate). James Wilson was a member of the Committee of Detail, charged with refining the drafts of the Constitution. Over a century later when his notes from being on the Committee of Detail were discovered, he helped vindicate Charles Pinckney in his proposed draft of the Constitution, which had been in dispute. Throughout the Convention even with his strong beliefs, he was the politician compromising where he could, to ensure the larger portion of what he desired became part of the Constitution.

After the Convention he led the ratification struggle in Pennsylvania which became the 2nd State to ratify the Constitution on December 12, 1787. He also helped reform the Pennsylvania government established under its 1776 constitution that he had opposed, by helping to draft a new constitution from 1789-1790. He was also chosen as the first professor of law at the College of Philadelphia in. For his services, in 1789 President Washington named him as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, though Wilson expected to be appointed Chief Justice. In 1793, as a widower with six children of his own, he remarried to Hannah Gray;, and they had one son who died in infancy. At the same time, however, he was speculating in lands in western New York, Pennsylvania, and Georgia and promoting a grandiose scheme to recruit European immigrants to settle there. The investments proved ruinous, and Wilson was forced to move in 1797, in the last months of his life, to Burlington, New Jersey, to escape debtor's prison. The next year in 1798, while on federal circuit court business, he arrived in Edenton, North Carolina. He was taken to the home of fellow Associate Justice of James Iredell, in a state of acute mental stress. Within a few months while still in North Carolina, on August 28, 1798, James Wilson died.

Written with the aid of the following sites; http://www.ushistory.org : http://www.jameswilson.org/ : http://www.history.army.mil/