James Wilson

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under James Wilson (disambiguation) .

The official portrait of Wilson as a Supreme Court Justice

James Wilson (born September 14, 1742 in Carskerdo , Fife , Scotland ; † August 21, 1798 in Edenton , North Carolina , USA ) was one of the signatories of the United States ' Declaration of Independence , was twice elected to the Continental Congress and was instrumental in creating one Contributed to the draft constitution of the United States . He was a leading legal theorist and one of the six original Supreme Court justices appointed by George Washington in 1789 . Wilson was considered a luminary what the topic Government was concerned, and generally considered the most educated of the Founding Fathers of the United States . A colleague delegate to the 1787 Philadelphia Convention , which produced the American Constitution, described James Wilson as follows: “It appears that the government is particularly the subject of his inquiry; he knows all the political institutions in the world down to the last detail and can gradually name all the causes and effects of all revolutions from the earliest stages of the ancient Greek community to the present day. ”Together with James Madison , he was probably also the best expert in the field of economics .

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James Wilson was in 1742 as one of seven children of a Presbyterian peasant family in Carskerdo in the district Fife born in the Scottish lowlands. He was educated at the University of St Andrews , the University of Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow , however, was unable to finish due to the death of his father, his Law studies with a degree. He then went to America in 1765, where he quickly found a job as a tutor at the College of Philadelphia . After arriving in Philadelphia , he got a job as an assistant to the resident attorney John Dickinson , where he acquired much of his legal expertise. After a few years as an assistant, he passed his bar exam and then opened his own law firm, first in Reading and then in Carlisle , a small town west of Harrisburg . He became one of the most sought-after lawyers of his time.

With his pamphlet published in 1774 " Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Parliament " (German: "Considerations on the nature and scope of the legislative powers of the British Parliament") he took a revolutionary stance. Although it was considered by scholars of the time to be synonymous with the seminal writings of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams , Wilson had written it as early as 1768. It is thus possibly the first properly formulated argument against British supremacy on the American continent.

Wilson also began a military career, he was Colonel of the 4th Battalion of Associators in 1775 and rose in rank to Brigadier General of the State Militia .

As a member of the Philadelphia Congress in 1776, Wilson was a staunch supporter of American independence and well respected by his fellow MPs. However, since Pennsylvania was divided over the separation of the states from England, he initially refused to vote in Congress on this issue because he did not want to oppose the wishes of his voters. This changed when he gained clear support for his position from the population.

It is often mistakenly assumed that John Trumbull's famous painting depicts the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In reality, however, it is shown how the five members of the drafting committee present their work to the Congress. The picture also adorns the back of a US $ 2 bill.

Wilson's most lasting impact on his country came from his membership in the Committee of Detail , which drafted the first draft constitution for the United States in 1787, a year after his wife's death. He wanted senators and the president to be popularly elected, and he also proposed the Three-Fifth Compromise at a committee meeting that would allow only three-fifths of the number of slaves to be used in calculating each state's number of delegates to the House of Representatives and tax distribution counted on the individual states. The main reason for this proposal was the fact that the slave-holding farmers of the southern states wanted to add their slaves to the population of their state, which determined the number of representatives to be delegated. The northern states considered this to be unjust. This ultimately resulted in this compromise.

Wilson clearly recognized the problems that arose from dual sovereignty: on the one hand, the sovereignty of the individual states, but also the sovereignty of the confederation of states vis-à-vis other nations. At the same time, he saw a limitless future for the United States and therefore strongly advocated the adoption of the Constitution, although he did not agree with all parts of the final version, which necessarily contained compromises. He held election speeches for this purpose and ensured that Pennsylvania became the second state after Delaware to accept the document at the ratification assembly. Of particular importance in this context was a speech he gave on October 6, 1787 in the State House Yard and which set standards both locally and nationally. Specifically, it focused on the fact that for the first time in its history the United States was to have a popularly elected government for the whole country. Wilson later worked on the revision of the draft Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 and led the faction that advocated a new constitution. He made a deal with William Findley , leader of the opposition faction, which limited the strictly partisan approach of the people to the politics of their state and led the discourse to turn more to the real issues.

In 1790, Wilson began giving a series of law lectures at the College of Philadelphia . This was only the second series of law lectures at a United States college. Like many of his educated contemporaries, he viewed law studies as a branch of comprehensive general education, not just as preparation for pursuing a profession in the field. He dropped out of lectures in April of the following year as it was his turn to serve as a Supreme Court judge. There is evidence that he began a second course in late 1791 or early 1792, when the College of Philadelphia was already incorporated into the University of Pennsylvania , but his lectures stopped and started at an unspecified time. Except for the first, the lectures were not postponed in writing during his lifetime; after his death it was published by his son Bird Wilson in 1804.

Most recently, Wilson's life was largely shaped by his failure. By investing in lands he inflicted himself up and was therefore in Burlington ( New Jersey plugged in) short jail. His son paid his debts, and Wilson went to North Carolina to escape other creditors, but was briefly detained again there. Nevertheless, he was employed there as a district judge. In 1798 he fell ill with malaria, but managed to overcome the disease; he nevertheless died of a stroke in August of the same year while visiting a friend in Edenton . Wilson was then buried first in a cemetery in this location, but his grave was moved to Philadelphia at Christ Churchyard in 1906, over 100 years later .

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1. ^ Library of Congress: James Wilson
2. ↑ americanrevolution.org Key to Trumbull's picture

Web links

• James Wilson in the database of Find a Grave (English)