Mr. Wilson was also a member of the convention to alter the constitution of Pennsylvania, where he acted a very conspicuous part in defending the elective franchise, as belonging exclusively to the sovereign people. The last vestige of aristocracy trembled beneath his powerful eloquence, and the last whisper of slander against his pure, unsophisticated democracy, was forever silenced and hushed.
The boldest features of liberal principles in the old revised constitution of Pennsylvania were penned by James Wilson; and, could his views have been fully incorporated in that instrument, I doubt much if a convention would ever have been called for its revision.
That the talents and integrity of Mr. Wilson were held in high estimation by Washington, appears from the fact, that he was appointed one of the first Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, in which office he continued until his death, discharging its duties with great ability, integrity, and justice. His manner was dignified, urbane, and pleasing.
In 1790, he was appointed the first professor in the law college of Philadelphia, and the following year, when the college and university of Pennsylvania were united, he was called to fill the chair. In 1791, he was appointed by the legislature of that state to revise its laws, but a disagreement of the two houses relative to the disbursements necessary to prosecute the work, frustrated the plan. As a learned and eloquent lawyer, he stood at the head of the Philadelphia bar. He was honoured with the degree of LL.D. and, during the first year of his professorship, delivered a course of lectures to the students. Towards them he was reserved and distant, another marked characteristic of the Scotch literati. His writings were vigorous and logical, and did much to disseminate just conceptions of a republican form of government. As early as 1774, he wrote an essay, portraying, in language bold and strong, the assumptions of the British parliament not warranted by their constitution, and painted, in fascinating colours, the blessings arising from a republican form of government and the enjoyment of equal rights. To a person unacquainted with the bitterness of party feeling, it must seem mysterious that any one could have been found so base as to accuse him of being an aristocrat. A purer patriot and an abler advocate for the cause of freedom did not exist among the statesmen and sages of ’76. He several times passed through the ordeal of severe and relentless persecution, but truth-telling time, in every instance, forced his enemies to retrace their steps, covered with shame and disgrace.
The private character of this truly great man was, in all respects, amiable and untarnished. It always stood beyond the reach of slander, a pure, unsullied sheet. As a friend, he was warm-hearted and benevolent; as a husband, kind and affectionate; as a father, discreet and exemplary; consistently indulgent, and faithful in imparting that instruction and advice to his children calculated to prepare them for future usefulness and respect.
In 1798, on the 28th of August, this venerable sage, eminent lawyer, able statesman, and profound judge, took his exit “to that country from whose bourne no traveller returns,” in the fifty-sixth year of his age. He died whilst on his circuit, of stranguary, in the hospitable mansion of his colleague, Judge Iredell, in Edenton, North Carolina, where his ashes rest in peace beneath the clods of the valley.
In reviewing the life of this worthy man, no one can doubt his patriotism and purity. No one can doubt his devotedness to the American cause and his firm and uniform opposition to British oppression. Influenced, as he was, by the noblest motives; guided, as he was, by liberal principles, it is painful to reflect, that he was often wounded in the house of his professed friends, and placed under the castigating lash of persecution by those who had sworn to support the same cause he so ardently and ably espoused. The solution of the problem may be found in the present state of things, without travelling back to that time, of all others, when party should have hidden its hydra head.
At the present day, the dark intrigues of party are proverbial. Low cunning is practised by men in the same ranks, to over-reach an approaching rival, and all the machinery of slander put in requisition to destroy him. Is he a man of superior talents and worth? Means proportionably base must be resorted to, in order to insure his destruction and drive him from the course. Disgusted at such corruption, the very men best calculated to advance our dearest interests and add new lustre to our national glory, are those who most dread the political arena and shrink from the public gaze. How small a proportion of such men as James Wilson, Benjamin Franklin, and others of the same stamina, are now to be found in our legislative halls. We pay large sums of money every year for party legislation, and but a small proportion of business is accomplished, calculated to benefit our country. Let the people, the YEOMANRY, awake to this subject, and no longer be led blindfold towards the vortex of destruction. Unless we are true to ourselves, we need not expect purity in our legislators. The genuine salt grows less and less as time advances, and a dangerous carelessness is annually manifested in selecting men of proper industry and purity of moral and republican principles to transact our public business. Some of them are victims of the artful and designing, or are mere partisans, legislating for themselves and their immediate friends more than for the advancement of public good and national glory. These are facts that are self-evident to every reflecting, observing man, facts that demand our serious attention and timely correction, before the unholy leaven extends its baneful influence so far as to destroy our beautiful fabric of LIBERTY, and prostrate, at one bold stroke, the hopes of FREEMEN.