Wilson, James (1742-1798)

US lawyer, political thinker, and Supreme Court justice. He was a signatory of the Declaration of Independence and was a central figure at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 where he argued strongly for popular election of both houses of Congress and the president. In 1789 he became one of the first six justices of the Supreme Court. His most important decision was in Chisholm v. Georgia, in which he was able to reaffirm his long-standing belief that sovereignty lay with the people of the USA, not with the state.

He was born in Carskerdo, Scotland. He emigrated from Scotland in 1765, and after reading law under John Dickinson he began a practice in 1768. By 1773 he had also begun the first of his lifelong speculations in land purchases. In 1774 he distributed to members of the First Continental Congress his pamphlet Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Parliament, in which he rejected any authority of the British Parliament over the colonies. He had continued his land speculations even as a justice and was being threatened both by creditors and with impeachment when he died.