James Wilson
Posted on 12/13/2007 6:59:50 AM PST by Loud Mime
James Wilson
For more on Wilson, an informative summary....
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That is one cool source! Thank YOU!
You’re welcome! I love the internet :)
“This country and this people seem to have been made for each other, and it appears as if it was the design of Providence that an inheritance so proper and convenient for a band of brethren, united to each other by the strongest of ties, should never be split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties.
John Jay (Federalist No. 2)
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I’d say that John Jay would be for control of the borders.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice James Wilson (Lectures, 1790-1791)
It really is too bad that so many of us have forgotten this!
“I’d say that John Jay would be for control of the borders.”
And also not much of a federalist, if I interpreted him correctly.
Judging by those quotes, Wilson seemed to be a bit of an Elitist. Oh wait, I read the quote again. Nevermind.
“It really is too bad that so many of us have forgotten this!”
That was the quote I misread. Reading it again, and understanding it, puts tears in my eyes.
Our founders could have established themselves as lords and what not but chose rather to be servants of the people. It really was a divine act of God that put those men together at one time in history to create the best nation that ever existed (which no longer exists).
Federalism was the balance. More centralized power was the goal of the Constitution after the more decentralized Articles of Confederation proved a failure.
It still exists! We just need to relearn how to use our power!
bump
Very interesting. Thanks for the ping.
By the way, I meant to thank you for adding me to your ping list. But I didn’t. So, anyway, thank you.
While the men of the Constitutional Convention were all men of their time, a few were ahead of their time. When one examines the words of Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, one hears the voice of Andrew Jackson some 35 years before that man strode onto the national stage. With James Wilson, one hears the Progressives a century before they evolved from eastern and mid-western Republicanism. Wilson was to interject into the Convention the idea of electing the president by direct popular vote.
By the time the issue of presidential elections was debated at the Convention, temperatures were high and tempers were short. Philadelphia summers are notoriously hot and humid, and the windows of the State House had been closed throughout the process. In this era before daily bathing and deodorants, the handkerchiefs of the day were perfumed for a good reason. The delegates wanted to go home and avoid contention about this last messy issue.
In imitation of the British Parliament, it was first thought that Congress should elect the president. But that would make the president dependent on Congress and violate Madison’s concept of a separation of powers.
Madison cobbled together the idea of electing the president by a quadrennial convention of the states, but held separately at their respective state capitals rather than at one central location. Madison did not anticipate an American version of the British two party system because George Washington, Convention president, told him not to. Washington was opposed to the establishment of British-style political parties with every fiber of his being. It should be noted that the factions that eventually developed in the Cabinet and Congress did not organize themselves into true political parties until Washington’s body had been cold at least a few hours.
As Madison saw it, a state legislature would select the best and brightest non-officeholders to function as the state’s members of the Electoral College. Once the members met at the state capital, they would examine their consciences and vote for the man they thought would make the best president. Madison believed that the college members would choose either a state or regional favorite son in 4 out of 5 elections, and thus only 1 out of 5 presidential elections would be decided by the Electoral College. The remaining elections would be decided by the House of Representatives once no one won enough electoral votes.
James Wilson had a different idea, and he decided to test it on Madison. The best way to do this was plain old Philadelphia hospitality. Wilson invited Madison to dinner at the house.
James Wilson was a Scotsman who had come to the Colonies at the age of 16, and he still spoke with a pronounced Scottish burr. As a youth he had developed a passion for golf, but as the Colonies lacked a proper golf course, Wilson did the next best thing, building a putting green in his back yard. Following dinner, the very tall Wilson took the very short Madison out fo the putting green, stood behind Madison, and – in one of the funnier scenes of that era – wrapped his arms around Madison in an attempt to teach him a proper golf swing. All the time Wilson gave Madison a running monologue on his own unique solution to the problem of presidential elections.
As Wilson saw it, the presidency was a national office, and it simply made sense to elect the president by direct popular vote regardless of state. But what was simple for Wilson was very complicated for Madison.
Politely, Madison explained the political difficulty of moving forward with Wilson’s idea. The Nationalists, desiring to de-emphasize the states, would embrace it – except for the Chief Nationalist, Alexander Hamilton, who would oppose it vehemently. As Hamilton saw it, the federal government needed to be insulated from the transient whims and popular passions of the people. Hamilton saw the people as an undisciplined mob, needing law and monarchical power to keep it in line. The States’ Men were already queasy with what was coming out of the Convention, and this proposal would be a non-starter with them. All things considered, Madison felt that Wilson’s idea, no matter how deserving, was not right for the time.
What emerged from the Convention satisfied no one, but it was one of those occasions when the Good was better than an the Unrealizable Perfect.
James Wilson died penniless due to speculations on frontier land that blew up in his face.
The first proposal to eliminate the Electoral College came from Andrew Jackson in his first State ot the Union letter to Congress in December 1829, in which Jackson argued for direct popular vote. This was based on Jackson’s loss in 1824 in the House. Similar proposals have emerged after the dangerously close elections of 1968 and 2000. The Electoral College is still there, but Wilson’s solution is out there on the sidelines, waiting to be called into the game.
You’re welcome!
Ping to Publius’s posting above
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