Constituting Citizens: James Wilson's Vision of American Constitutionalism

• In Event: The Founders' Evolving Constitution

Abstract

Our paper provides a detailed overview of American revolutionary and founding era political thought and situates James Wilson within that context. We examine Wilson’s political writings and speeches to distill the two guiding principles of his political thought: the idea that the people are (and always remain) sovereign and that government exists primarily to secure individual natural rights. While many scholars accept that the natural rights view of politics – that government exists primarily to secure individual natural rights – broadly influenced statesmen of the revolutionary and founding eras, others have argued that Wilson was an exception in this regard (e.g., Hall 1997). Rather than viewing Wilson’s writings and speeches through the lens of his later work, however, we analyze his early political writings and speeches (including his first pamphlet, Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority [written in 1768, published in 1774], an influential work that contributed to the growing push for American independence, and his An Address to the Inhabitants of the Colonies [1776] to illustrate that the sovereignty of the people and the security of individual rights together form the foundation of Wilson’s political thought from these earliest writings to his arguments during the federal convention and subsequent ratification debates to his Lectures on Law. In this respect, Wilson substantially adhered to the core principles and conception of political legitimacy that prevailed among most American statesmen of the era, elaborating a dynamic vision of the Constitution that is ultimately responsive to the people.

Authors

• Michelle Schwarze, University of Wisconsin, Madison

• James R. Zink, North Carolina State University