Commonwealth Club: The Lost Founder: James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People’s Constitution

Founding Father James Wilson’s bold vision for American democracy was lost to scandal. As a young lawyer, Wilson made the case for American independence in an essay that inspired the famous words “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” He wrote the first draft of the Constitution and, along with the much more famous James Madison, played an essential role in its creation. Wilson believed that the people are the ultimate source of all power. He argued successfully for a strong central government and a powerful presidency, but fought unsuccessfully for a direct vote for the president and the Senate. Appointed as a justice to the first Supreme Court, Wilson was later brought down by reckless land speculation and died of malaria in the back room of a North Carolina tavern while hiding from his creditors. Because of that scandal, instead of being remembered as one of our nation’s great political thinkers, Wilson has been virtually written out of American history books. But journalist Jesse Wegman brings to life this most prescient of our earliest patriots and makes a convincing argument that scandal should not have diminished the life and impact of a brilliant, complicated man whose vision for our country could not be more relevant today.