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WILSON, JAMES (1742—1798)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 693 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WILSON, See also:JAMES (1742—1798) , See also:American statesman and jurist, was See also:born in or near St See also:Andrews, See also:Scotland, on the 14th of See also:September 1742. He matriculated at the University of St Andrews in 1757 and was subsequently a student at the See also:universities of See also:Glasgow and See also:Edinburgh. In 1765 he emigrated to See also:America. Landing at New See also:York in See also:June, he went to See also:Philadelphia in the following See also:year and in 1766—1767 was instructor of Latin in the See also:college of Philadelphia, later the university of See also:Pennsylvania. Meanwhile he studied See also:law in the See also:office of See also:John See also:Dickinson, was admitted to the See also:bar in 1767, removed first to See also:Reading and soon afterward to Csr1isle, and rapidly See also:rose to prominence. In See also:August 1774 he published a pamphlet Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the See also:British See also:Parliament, in which he argued that parliament had no constitutional See also:power to legislate for the colonies; this pamphlet strongly influenced members of the See also:Continental See also:Congress which met in September. Wilson was a delegate to the Pennsylvania provincial See also:convention in See also:January 1775, and he sustained there the right of See also:Massachusetts to resist the See also:change in its See also:charter, declaring that as the force which the British See also:Government was exercising to compel obedience was " force unwarranted by any See also:act of parliament, unsupported by any principle of the See also:common law, unauthorized by any See also:commission from the See also:crown," resistance was justified by " both the See also:letter and the spirit of the British constitution "; he also. by his speech, led the colonies in shifting the See also:burden of responsibility from parliament or the See also:king's ministers to the king himself. In May 1775 Wilson became a member of the Continental Congress. When a See also:declaration of See also:independence was first proposed in that See also:body he expressed the belief that a See also:majority of the See also:people of Pennsylvania were in favour of it, but as the instructions of the delegates from Pennsylvania and some of the other colonies opposed such a declaration, he urged postponement of See also:action for the purpose of giving the constituents in those colonies an opportunity of removing such instructions. When independence was finally declared the unanimity of all the colonies except New York had been obtained. Receiving a commission as See also:colonel in May 1775, Wilson raised a See also:battalion of troops in his See also:county of See also:Cumberland, and for a See also:short See also:time in 1776 he took See also:part in the New See also:Jersey See also:campaign, but his See also:principal labours in 1776 and 1777 were in Congress. In January 1776 he was appointed a member of a See also:committee to prepare an address to the colonies, and the address was written by him; he served on a similar committee in May 1777, and wrote the address To the Inhabitants of the See also:United States, urging their See also:firm support of the cause of Independence; he drafted the See also:plan of treaty with See also:France together with instructions for negotiating it; he was a member of the See also:Board of See also:War from its See also:establishment in June 1776 until his retirement from Congress in September 1777; from January to September 1777 he was chairman of the Committee on Appeals, to hear and determine appeals from the courts of See also:admiralty in the several states; and he was a member of many other important committees.

In September 1777 the See also:

political See also:faction in his See also:state which had opposed Independence again came into power, and Wilson was kept out of Congress until the See also:close of the war; he was back again, however, in 1783, and 1785—1786, and, advocating a See also:sound currency, laboured in co-operation with See also:Robert See also:Morris to See also:direct the See also:financial policy of the See also:Confederation. Soon after leaving Congress in 1777 Wilson removed to See also:Annapolis, See also:Maryland, to practise law, but he returned to Philadelphia in the following year. In 1779 he was commissioned See also:Advocate-See also:General for France, and in this capacity he represented See also:Louis YVI. in all claims arising out of the See also:French See also:alliance until the close of the war. In 1781—1782 he was the principal counsel for Pennsylvania in the See also:Wyoming Valley dispute with See also:Connecticut, which was decided in favour of Pennsylvania in See also:December 1782 by an See also:arbitration See also:court appointed by Congress. Wilson was closely associated with Robert Morris in organizingthe See also:Bank of See also:North America, and in the Act of Congress incorporating it (December 31, 1781) he was made one of the See also:directors. In 1782 the legislature of Pennsylvania granted a charter to this bank, but three years later it passed an act to See also:repeal it. Wilson responded with a famous constitutional See also:argument in which he sustained the constitutionality of the bank on the basis of the implied See also:powers of Congress. As a constructive statesman Wilson had no See also:superior in the Federal Convention of 1787. He favoured the independence of the executive, legislative and judicial departments, the supremacy of the Federal government over the state governments, and the See also:election of senators as well as representatives by the people, and was opposed to the election of the See also:President or the See also:judges by Congress. His political See also:philosophy was based upon implicit confidence in the people, and he strove for such provisions as he thought would best See also:guarantee a government by the people. When the constitution had been framed Wilson pronounced it " the best See also:form of government which has ever been offered to the See also:world," and he, at least, among the framers regarded it not as a compact but as an See also:ordinance to be established by the people. During the struggle for ratification he made a speech before a See also:mass See also:meeting in Philadelphia which has been characterized as " the ablest single presentation of the whole subject." In the Pennsylvania ratification convention (See also:November 21 to December 15, 1787) he was the constitution's principal defender.

Having been appointed See also:

professor of law in the university of Pennsylvania in 1790, he delivered at that institution in 1790—1791 a course of lectures on public and private law; some of these lectures, together with his speeches in the Federal convention, before the mass meeting in Philadelphia, and in the Pennsylvania ratification convention, are among the most valuable commentaries on the constitution. Wilson was a delegate to the state constitutional convention of 1789—1790, and a member of the committee which drafted the new constitution. In 1789 See also:Washington appointed him an See also:associate See also:justice of the United States Supreme Court, and in 1793 he wrote the important decision in the See also:case of Chisolm v. See also:Georgia, the purport of which was that the people of the United States constituted a See also:sovereign nation and that the United States were not a See also:mere confederacy of sovereign states. He continued to serve as associate justice until his See also:death, near See also:Edenton, North Carolina, on the 28th of August 1798. Wilson's See also:Works, consisting principally of his law lectures and a few speeches, were published under the direction of his son, See also:Bird Wilson (3 vols., Philadelphia, 1803—1804). A revised edition in two volumes with notes by James D. Andrews was published in See also:Chicago in 1896. See also Documentary See also:History of the Constitution of the United States of America, vols. i. and iii. (Washington, 1894) ; J. B. McMaster and F.

D. See also:

Stone, Pennsylvania and the Federal Constitution, 1787—1788 (Philadelphia, 1888) ; L. H. See also:Alexander (ed.), James Wilson (Philadelphia, 1908), a See also:biographical See also:sketch entitled " James Wilson, Nation-Builder," by L. H. Alexander, in the See also:Green Bag, vol. 19 (1907); " James Wilson, Patriot, and the Wilson See also:Doctrine," by Alexander, in the North American See also:Review, vol. 183 (1906) ; Justice J. M. See also:Harlan, " James Wilson and the Formation of the Constitution," in the American Law Review, vol. 34; B. A.

Konkle et al. " The James Wilson Memorial," in the American Law See also:

Register, vol. 55 (1907).

End of Article: WILSON, JAMES (1742—1798)

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