Autographs
Rare Autograph Letter from James Wilson, Signer of the Declaration of Independence & Founding Father
JAMES WILSON (1742-1798). One of the Founding Fathers of the United States and a Signer of the United States Declaration of Independence. Elected twice to the Continental Congress, major role in drafting the United States Constitution, represented Pennsylvania, legal theorist, one of the six original Justices appointed by George Washington to the Supreme Court of the United States.
May 27, 1798-Dated Federal Period, Autograph Letter Signed, “Jas. Wilson”, Cumberland, (North Carolina), 2 pages, measuring about 7.5” x 11.75”, Fine. Wilson writes to Wm. B. Giles Esq.. It reads, in part:

“In compliance with my promise I presented the Order to Mr. Gray & obtained his signature; this Order with your letters have been shewn to Mr. George Miller with whom I have had sufficient influence to make a sale of his Crop to Messrs. Banks & Hatcher to the amount of about £500 payable in convenient time to serve Mr Taft in Shire’s demand against him...”

This Letter was written just 3 months prior to Wilson’s death. Folds, toning, edge chips on address leaf. A Rare Autograph Letter.
James Wilson was one of the most prominent lawyers of his time, Wilson is credited for being the most learned of the Framers of the Constitution. A fellow delegate in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia made the following assessment of James Wilson: "Government seems to have been his peculiar 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's most lasting impact on the country came as a member of the Committee of Detail, which produced the first draft of the United States Constitution in 1787 (a year after the death of his first wife). He wanted senators and the president to be popularly elected. He also proposed the Three-Fifths Compromise at the convention, which made only three-fifths of the South's slave population total to be counted for purposes of distributing taxes and apportioning representation in the House and Electoral College. Along with James Madison, he was perhaps the best versed of the framers in the study of political economy. He understood clearly the central problem of dual sovereignty (nation and state) and held a vision of an almost limitless future for the United States.

Wilson addressed the Convention 168 times. A witness to Wilson’s performance during the convention, Dr. Benjamin Rush, called Wilson's mind "one blaze of light." Madison and Wilson not only far outdistanced the others at the Convention as political theorists, they were also two of the closest allies in both the convention debates and ratification effort afterward.

Though not in agreement with all parts of the final, necessarily compromised Constitution, Wilson stumped hard for its adoption, leading Pennsylvania, at its ratifying convention, to become the second state (behind Delaware) to accept the document.

His October 6, 1787 "speech in the statehouse yard" (delivered in the courtyard behind Independence Hall) has been seen as particularly important in setting the terms of the ratification debate, both locally and nationally. It is second in influence behind the Federalist Papers. It was printed in newspapers and copies of the speech were distributed by George Washington to generate support for the ratification of the Constitution. In particular, it focused on the fact that there would be a popularly elected national government for the first time.

He distinguished "three simple species of government" monachy, aristocracy, and "a republic or democracy, where the people at large retain the supreme power, and act either collectively or by representation."

Wilson was later instrumental in the redrafting of the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776, leading the group in favor of a new constitution, and entering into an agreement with William Findley (leader of the Constitutionalist Party) that limited the partisan feeling that had previously characterized Pennsylvanian politics.