Wilson, James, 1742-1798

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person

Name Entries *

Wilson, James, 1742-1798

Computed Name Heading

Name Components

Surname :

Wilson

Forename :

James

Date :

1742-1798

eng

Latn

authorizedForm

rda

Genders

Male

Exist Dates

Exist Dates - Date Range

1742-09-14

1742-09-14

Birth

1798-08-21

1798-08-21

Death

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Biographical History

James Wilson (September 14, 1742 – August 21, 1798) was an American statesman, politician, legal scholar, and Founding Father who served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1789 to 1798. He was elected twice to the Continental Congress, was a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence, and was a major force in drafting the United States Constitution. A leading legal theorist, he was one of the six original justices appointed by George Washington to the Supreme Court of the United States. In his capacity as first Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania, he taught the first course on the new Constitution to President Washington and his cabinet in 1789 and 1790.

Born near Leven, Fife, Scotland, Wilson immigrated to Philadelphia in 1766 and became a teacher at the College of Philadelphia. After studying law under John Dickinson, he was admitted to the bar and set up a legal practice in Reading, Pennsylvania. He wrote a well-received pamphlet arguing that Parliament's taxation of the Thirteen Colonies was illegitimate due to the colonies' lack of representation in Parliament. He was elected to the Continental Congress and served as president of the Illinois-Wabash Company, a land speculation venture.

Wilson was a delegate to the 1787 Philadelphia Convention, where he served on the Committee of Detail, which produced the first draft of the United States Constitution. He was the principal architect of the executive branch and an outspoken supporter of greater popular control of governance, a strong national government, and legislative representation proportional to population. Along with Roger Sherman and Charles Pinckney, he proposed the Three-Fifths Compromise, which counted slaves as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of representation in the United States House of Representatives. While preferring the direct election of the president through a national popular vote, he proposed the use of an electoral college, which formed the basis of the Electoral College ultimately adopted by the Convention. After the convention, he campaigned for the ratification of the Constitution, with his "speech in the statehouse yard" reprinted in newspapers throughout the country, and opposed the Bill of Rights. Wilson also played a major role in drafting the 1790 Pennsylvania Constitution.

In 1789, Wilson became one of the first Associate Justices of the Supreme Court. He also became a professor of law at the College of Philadelphia (which later became the University of Pennsylvania). Wilson suffered financial ruin from the Panic of 1796–1797 and was briefly imprisoned in a debtors' prison on two occasions. He suffered a stroke and died while visiting a friend in North Carolina, becoming the first U.S. Supreme Court justice to die. He was buried in the Johnston cemetery on Hayes Plantation near Edenton, but was reinterred in 1906 at Christ Churchyard, Philadelphia.

eng

Latn

External Related CPF

https://viaf.org/viaf/15571278

https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q365181

https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n85181074

https://id.loc.gov/authorities/n85181074

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Languages Used

eng

Latn

Subjects

Actions and defenses

Banks and banking

Land speculation

Law

Mutiny

Philadelphia History

Real property

Social life and customs

Women's history

Yazoo Fraud, 1795

Nationalities

Britons

Americans

Activities

Occupations

Delegates, U.S. Continental Congress

Jurists

Lawyers

Professors (teacher)

Scholars

Legal Statuses

Places

Philadelphia

PA, US

AssociatedPlace

Residence

Reading

PA, US

AssociatedPlace

Residence

Edenton

NC, US

AssociatedPlace

Death

Glasgow

SCT, GB

AssociatedPlace

Residence

Edinburgh

SCT, GB

AssociatedPlace

Residence

Fife

SCT, GB

AssociatedPlace

Birth

Convention Declarations

<conventionDeclaration><citation>VIAF</citation></conventionDeclaration>

General Contexts

Structure or Genealogies

Mandates

Identity Constellation Identifier(s)

w6jr1s1q

87349377