The 39 Days of the Brave: - James Wilson Day 20

[First Coast Tea Party]

Constitution Signer

 

JAMES WILSON

 

James Wilson was an Early American legal philosopher and a Framer of the Constitution and his thorough knowledge of political theory made him a leading authority in the Continental Convention.  Wilson was later appointed to Associate Justice on the US Supreme Court and he continually supported representation of the American people. He was born on 14 September 1742 in Carskerdo, Scotland and was educated at several universities of Scotland. An intellectual, Wilson moved to Philadelphia in 1766 where he studied law and attained the bar in 1767.  

 

Wilson published a pamphlet (1774), which found its way to the Continental Congress, arguing that Parliament had no authority to pass laws on the unrepresented American colonies. Thus, his main contribution to the Revolutionary cause was legal and political rather than military.  

 

Wilson was elected to the Continental Congress for Pennsylvania (1775-77 and 1785-87), where he assumed a position for separation from Britain.  He was a brilliant orator, able to apply logic to every debate and he reached the apex of his career in the Constitutional Convention. However, despite his personal opinion for independence, the people of Pennsylvania were divided. He was able to delay the final vote of approval for 3-weeks in order to consult with his constituents. 

 

Wilson was so vocally opposed to the form of the new Pennsylvania state constitution, that he was recalled from Congress in 1777.  Without a replacement, he was restored till the end of his term and in 1781, Congress appointed him as a director of the Bank of North America.  In 1789, George Washington nominated Wilson to be a Justice of the US Supreme Court. 

 

In 1790, he was chosen as the first professor of law at the College of Philadelphia where he began a digest of the laws of Pennsylvania, a project never completed due to his death on 28 August 1798 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.eath: 9 September 1806, New York. associate justice of the Supreme Courth (1793-1806)rsey.  ral court system. 

 

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_founding_fat...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Wilson

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/continental/wilson.html

http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/wilson.htm

 

 

[Tim Clark]

Very interesting character.

[chris vaca]

I am so amazed at how much I don't know about the history of our country.