As a young lawyer, James Wilson made a celebrated case for American independence in an essay that helped inspire the Declaration of Independence. He went on to write the first draft of the Constitution, inserting the immortal words “We the People,” and, along with the more famous James Madison, played perhaps the essential role in its ultimate creation.
Wilson believed that in a democracy, the people were the ultimate source of all power. He argued successfully for a strong central government and a powerful presidency and unsuccessfully for a president elected by popular vote and a Senate apportioned by population. He was recognized for his ideas and leadership. But only a decade after the Constitution was ratified, he died of malaria in the back room of a North Carolina tavern while hiding from his creditors.
Instead of going down as one of the nation’s great political thinkers, Wilson was virtually written out of history. But in The Lost Founder, published by Celadon Books, Wegman brings to life the most prescient of the earliest patriots and makes a convincing argument that scandal should not diminish the life and relevance of a brilliant, complicated man whose vision for his country could not be more relevant today.
