Mark Cole
From the time he was a member of the Second Continental Congress, through the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia that drafted the U.S. Constitution, through his service as an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, James Wilson was involved in every significant debate of the founding era of the United States.
During the Second Continental Congress, he was a critical link to moderates in Pennsylvania and other states. During the Constitutional Convention, he was very active in his support for the document; in fact, only Gouverneur Morris made more speeches during the 1787 Convention.
While on the United States Supreme Court, Wilson wrote opinions which built the framework for the doctrine of judicial review eventually articulated by John Marshall. And even while on the Supreme Court, he was also a law professor at the College of Philadelphia. His lectures on jurisprudence were published after his death and are considered to be very valuable and very influential contributions to early American Constitutional law.
In his political theory, Wilson was basically the polar opposite of Jefferson at every turn. Though he was personally a staunch supporter of independence, Wilson, together with other moderates in Pennsylvania, delayed the vote on Richard Henry Lee’s independence resolution in order to consult with citizens of the district he represented. 
Once independence was obtained, Wilson advocated the arch-federalist position that the States were no longer in existence as the colonies had given up their sovereignty and were now merely parts of the whole, the union, the United States. On the Supreme Court, he helped lay the groundwork for the doctrine of judicial review.
Whatever one makes of Wilson’s opinions, it cannot be denied that he was one of the intellectual giants among the signers of the Declaration and the framers of the Constitution. Wilson was no mere politician jockeying for position.
As M.E. Bradford notes, “During the [Constitutional] Convention, Wilson was almost unique among the framers in reasoning from a systematic philosophical position, resting on a general metaphysic, to recommend that particular provisions be included in the Constitution.”
But while Wilson’s intellectual achievements are formidable, it cannot be forgotten that just as he was not a mere politician, he was also not a mere intellectual. Wilson, like the other signers, placed his name on the Declaration and thus openly and defiantly committed what the British crown would label treason.
He willingly placed a target on his chest and dared the Crown to hunt him down. He willingly placed himself in the line of fire. He took considerable personal risk to assist the cause of independence. And, interestingly, he linked arms with men whom he would later violently disagree on the nature and meaning of the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution.
Given the different political opinions among the founders, that such an event as the founding of America could even happen is one of the great triumphs of the common good over the private ambition of individuals in world history. That men as different as James Wilson and Thomas Jefferson could work together is a fact that every generation of Americans should learn and re-learn and learn again.
Without men like James Wilson, it could not have happened.
Check out Mark’s book:
Lives, Fortunes, Sacred Honor: The Men Who Signed the Declaration of Independence
