James Wilson (September 14, 1742-August 21, 1798) was a Supreme Court Justice appointed by President George Washington, 1789-98. Born and educated in Scotland, he held the distinction of being one of six Founding Fathers to sign both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. James Wilson was very active in the Constitutional Convention, having spoken 168 times. In 1790, James Wilson became the first Law Professor of the University of Pennsylvania.
In his Lectures on Law, delivered at the College of Philadelphia, 1789- 91, James Wilson explained that all law comes from God, and can be divided into four categories: "law eternal," "law celestial," "laws of nature," and:
<That law, which God has made for man in his present state; that law, which is communicated to us by reason and conscience, the divine monitors within us, and by the sacred oracles, the divine monitors without us....
As promulgated by reason and the moral sense it has been called natural; as promulgated by the holy scriptures, it has been called revealed law.
As addressed to men, it has been denominated the law of nature; as addressed to political societies, it has been denominated the law of nations.
But it should always be remembered, that this law, natural or revealed, made for men or for nations, flows from the same divine source; it is the law of God....
Human law must rest its authority, ultimately, upon the authority of that law, which is divine.> 1742JW001
<Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants. Indeed, these two sciences run into each other.> 1742JW002
<The first and governing maxim in the interpretation of a statute is to discover the meaning of those who made it.> 1742JW003
James Wilson remarked in Pennsylvania's ratifying convention, November 26, 1787 (Jonathan Elliot, ed., The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, 2d. ed. Rev. 5 vols., Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincot, 1907, 2:422, 426):
<Governments, in general, have been the result of force, of fraud, and accident. After a period of 6,000 years has elapsed since the creation, the United States exhibit to the world the first instance, as far as we can learn, of a nation...assembling voluntarily...and deciding calmly concerning that system of government under which they would wish that they and their posterity should live.> 1742JW004
In expounding on the "Will of God," James Wilson described it as the:
<Efficient cause of moral obligation-of the eminent distinction between right and wrong....[and therefore the] supreme law....[It is revealed] by our conscience, by our reason, and by the Holy Scriptures.> 1742JW005
In the records of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Updegraph v. Commonwealth, 1824, Judge James Wilson is mentioned:
<The late Judge Wilson, of the Supreme Court of the United States, Professor of Law in the College in Philadelphia, was appointed in 1791, unanimously, by the House of Representatives of this state....He had just risen from his seat in the convention which formed the constitution of the United States, and of this state; and it is well known, that for our present form of government we are greatly indebted to his exertions and influence. With his fresh recollections of both constitutions, in his Course of Lectures (3d Vol. of his Works, 122), he states that....Christianity is part of the common-law.> 1742JW006
--
American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1742JW001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). James Wilson, 1789-1791, in his Lectures on Law, delivered at the College of Philadelphia. James DeWitt Andres, Works of Wilson (Chicago,1896), 1:91-93. Charles Page Smith, James Wilson: Founding Father (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1956), p. 329. John Eidsmoe, Christianity and the Constitution- The Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, A Mott Media Book, 1987, 6th printing 1993), pp. 44-45.
1742JW002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). James Wilson, 1790-1791, in his Lectures on Law, delivered at the College of Philadelphia. James DeWitt Andres, Works of Wilson (Chicago,1896), 1:91-93. Charles Page Smith, James Wilson: Founding Father (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1956), p. 329. John Eidsmoe, Christianity and the Constitution- The Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, A Mott Media Book, 1987, 6th printing 1993), pp. 44-45.
1742JW003. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). James Wilson, 1790-1791, in his Lectures on Law, delivered at the College of Philadelphia; "Introductory Lecture: Of the Study of the Law in the United States." James Wilson, The Works of the Honorable James Wilson, Bird Wilson, editor (Philadelphia: Bronson and Chauncey, 1804), Vol. I, p. 14.
1742JW004. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). James Wilson, November 26, 1787, at Pennsylvania's ratifying convention. (Jonathan Elliot, ed., The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, 2d. ed. Rev. 5 vols., Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincot, 1907, 2:422, 426)
1742JW005. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). James Wilson, 1789, in his lectures at the College of Philadelphia. James DeWitt Andres, Works of Wilson (Chicago,1896), 1:91-93. Charles Page Smith, James Wilson: Founding Father (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1956), p. 331. John Eidsmoe, Christianity and the Constitution-The Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, A Mott Media Book, 1987, 6th printing 1993), pp. 45.
1742JW006. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). James Wilson, Updegraph v. The Commonwealth, 11 Serg, & R. 393, 403 (1824).