Of the Natural Rights of Individuals
Do people exist for the sake of government? Or is it the other way around? That’s the question James Wilson attempts to answer in his 1790 work, “Of the Natural Rights of Individuals.” A signer of the Declaration of Independence and member of the...
Anti-Federalists Strike Back: Two Responses to James Wilson’s State House Speech
On September 17, 1787, the Philadelphia Convention, finished drafting the U.S. Constitution. The Anti-Federalists wasted no time in denouncing the document. The first stand-alone counterattack against the anti-federalists took place in Philadelphia on October 6, 1787,...
The First Salvo in the Ratification Debates: James Wilson’s State House Speech
While most people today think of the Federalist Papers as the leading defense of the Constitution’s original meaning, it was actually a speech by James Wilson that had a far greater impact on ratification. On September 17, 1787, the Philadelphia Convention,...