(Series:) ‘Scots from the Past’ – James Wilson

JAMES WILSON (1742-98)

ONE OF THE SIGNATORIES of both the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution, and the architect of the US Supreme Court, James Wilson preferred to remain out of the limelight. A stickler for legal principle, he nearly did not put his name to the Declaration of Independence because of his scruples that the Middle States, which he represented, were divided on the issue and that therefore he did not have a clear mandate to sign. By finally agreeing to endorse the Declaration, he broke the deadlock in which the Pennsylvania delegation found itself. His signature made sure that it opted for independence.

Born in Scotland in 1742, Wilson received his education at the University of St. Andrews, Edinburgh and Glasgow. At the age of twenty-three he set sail for the New World; aided by letters of introduction, he obtained employment there as a tutor with the College of Philadelphia, which shortly afterwards conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts. Attracted to law as a profession, he was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1767 and set-up in practice in Reading the following year. He married Rachel Bird, who bore him six children, and began to build for himself a promising practice, as he personally handled nearly half the cases which were brought to the county court.

 

AS the years went by, he identified himself more and more with the colony in its battles with the British Government. He fought with the weapon he knew best, legal argument. In 1774 his essay on the ‘Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Government’ was distributed to members of the first Continental Congress and caused quite a stir. He was the first to articulate in legal form the claim that the British Parliament could have no jurisdiction over the American colony since there was no representation in Parliament for Americans, an argument reduced by others to the catchy slogan ‘No taxation without representation’. The statement that ‘all members of the British Empire are distinct states, independent of each other, but connected together under the same sovereign’, which appears in the Declaration, is a clear indication of how influential his arguments were.

As a member of the Pennsylvanian Provincial Congress in 1775 he made a passionate speech on the possibility of an unconstitutional act being made by Parliament. Here, in embryo, is the principle of judicial review, the American system in which acts passed by government can be checked against the constitution which was to evolve in the Supreme Court.

During the next years he was a member of the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, where a fellow delegate described him, thus:

… Government seems to have been his particular study. All the political institutions of the world he knows in detail, and can trace the causes and effects of every revolution from the earliest stages of the Grecian commonwealth down to the present time.

Wilson spoke throughout his career of the need for parliaments to contain a full representation of the people they governed. Only then, he said, could national government be strong and at the same time command respect. This led him logically to consider the problem of poor representation, which was plaguing Congress at the time. Freely he spoke against representatives who did not take their roles seriously enough and who stayed away in their home states, neglecting their responsibilities in the National Congress and making efficient government almost impossible. There was a prime illustration of this when, in 1783, American diplomats were sent back to Congress for the final version of the Treaty of Paris, designed to end the war between Britain and America. A quorum of nine states was needed to ratify the treaty, but there seemed little hope that this would be achieved. Weeks passed and there was even an attempt to convene Congress in the bedroom of a sick delegate in order to get approval before the long-awaited treaty was confirmed.

 

IN 1789, Wilson became professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania and in the same year, associate justice of the Supreme Court, the institution he had helped to create; but his performance here was less prophetic and original than his early career had promised.

 

(SERIES) EPILOGUE

‘Scots from the Past’, a series of separate articles, focussed on a number of different Scottish characters who, in one way or another, added to the extraordinary talent, expertise and skill that Scotland has offered to the world. Ever since the European Renaissance and revolution between the 14-18^th centuries that brought to the world cultural and educational reform, numerous Scots emerged as frontrunners that were either catalysts or influential in providing momentum for change in society. History clearly shows that Scotland, a country itself transformed through the Renaissance, has often promoted its scientific and technological developments and inventions for the benefit of the wider world. It has often been central too, or expanded upon, almost every known area and niche within public life.

The articles offered in this series – click the tag-footer ‘scots from the past’ which will produce a summary of journals previously published – is only but a small representative sample of talent and innovative skill that Scotland has produced and offered to the world from its rich cultural past. I could have looked at more well known Scots such as James Clerk Maxwell or Alexander Graham Bell from the field of Science; renowned Scottish writers like Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott or Thomas Carlyle; or, pioneers such as Sir Hugh (Lord) Dowding RAF and Sir Alexander Fleming (Medicine) – but, a great deal is already known about these people with a great deal already in the public domain concerning their enormous contributions to society. Lord Dowding, however, may likely appear as a separate entry, at some time in the future: Dowding’s role in the Battle of Britain was crucial, in preparation before it and strategically during it.

During the eighteenth century Scotland underwent an amazing transformation. Demoralised by economic failure and civil wars, it somehow managed to turn defeat into glorious opportunity, its brightest minds leading a Renaissance which has lasted over two hundred years. Their achievements outside Scotland led Winston Churchill to say:

… Of all the small nations of this earth, perhaps only the ancient Greeks surpass the Scots in their contribution to mankind.

At the edge of Europe, this small nation gave us the invention of the steam engine, the telephone, radar, and television. Scots explored the globe, expanding our understanding of the world, while medical discoveries like penicillin changed our view of disease. It was due in no small part to the ingenious and indefatigable Scots that England’s colonies became an empire at all.

 

© Mark Dowe 2009: all rights protected

mark.dowe@googlemail.com, Twitter: MarkDowe2009

 

Scotland is rich in heritage, culture and history.