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them more than a thousand blankets. During the winter of 1781 he gave up his own house for the accommodation of the officers of the legion of Col. Laurens and did all in his power to render officers and soldiers comfortable. His industry was equal to his patriotism seldom retiring until after twelve and up again by the dawn of day.

Mr. Williams was a member of the convention of his state when the Federal Constitution was adopted and gave it his hearty sanction. He was never permitted to retire from the public arena until prostrated by disease which terminated his useful career on the 2d of August 1811. He had lived the life of a good man-his end was peaceful, calm and happy.

He was a fine figure of the middle size, dark complexion and hair, piercing black eyes, an aquiline nose, an open and ingenuous countenance, a stentorian voice and strong physical powers. He was blessed with a clear head, a noble heart, a sound judgment, an acute perception and a logical mind. Not a blot could be found upon the fair fame of his public or private character. During the latter part of his life he was troubled with an increasing aeafness and spent much of his time in Christian devotion. But few men have served their country as much and no one more faithfully than did WILLIAM WILLIAMS.

JAMES WILSON.

THE history of party spirit is red with blood. Its career has been marked with desolation and ruin. It often rides on the whirlwind of faction or on the more dreadful tornado of fanaticism. It has blotted kingdoms and empires from existence, consumed nations, blighted the fairest portions of creation and sacrificed millions upon its sanguinary altar. Confined to no time or place-it has taken deep root in our own country. Its poison has contaminated our political and religious atmosphere most fearfully. It has had its victims of blood in this land of republican and Christian professions. Its miasma has reached our ballot boxes, violated the peaceful fireside, traduced private character, invaded patriotism, induced perjury, countenanced forgery, corrupted our elective franchise and produced mobocracy in its most direful aspect. Great and good men have been victimized by reckless partisans who stop at nothing and stoop to everything to accomplish their purposesright or wrong. They look at the end regardless of means.

In recurring to the eventful period of the American Revolution those who are not familiar with the history of the local politics of that day

may naturally conclude that party spirit found no place in the bosoms of those who were engaged in a common cause against a common enemy. Far different was the fact. Many of the best men of that trying period were scourged, lacerated and for a time paralyzed by reckless party spirit.

Among its victims was James Wilson, born of respectable parents near St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1742. His father was a farmer in moderate circumstances which he moderated still more by rushing into the whirlpool of speculation-an unfortunate propensity that adhered to this son. He graduated at St. Andrews, Edinburgh. This done he took lessons in rhetoric under Dr. Blair and in logic under Dr. Watts. He then came to Philadelphia and obtained the situation of usher in the college of that city. His moral worth, strong talents and high literary a tainments gained for him the esteem and marked respect of Dr. Richard Peters, Bishop White and many others whose friendship and influence were most desirable. Those who knew him best admired him

most.

He subsequently studied law under John Dickinson and settled at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he rose rapidly to the head of the Bar. A powerful exhibition of Ciceronian eloquence and legal acumen at the trial of an important land case between the Proprietaries and Samuel Wallace gained for him an early professional celebrity. The Attorney General, Mr. Chew, fixed his eyes upon him soon after he commenced his argument and gazed at him with admiring astonishment until he closed his lucid speech. He was immediately retained in another important land cause and was considered equal to any member of the Pennsylvania Bar. He removed ultimately to Annapolis, Maryland and at the end of a year to Philadelphia where he was liberally patronised but rushing occasionally into the whirlpool of speculation his circumstances were uniformly embarrassed. As an evidence of his goodness of heart, amidst the most keen reverses he remitted money regularly to his poor widowed mother in Scotland to the day of her death using every means in his power to smooth her path to the tomb.

With the intolerant commencement of British oppression the political career of Mr. Wilson began. He boldly spoke and ably wrote in favor of equal rights and liberal principles. He was an early and zealous advocate of the American cause. Of a consistent and reflecting mind he sometimes censured the rashness of others which brought upon him malicious slanders which enabled his enemies several times to envelope him so completely in the dark fog of party spirit as to partially

paralyze his exertions until the sun of truth would rise and dispel the vapors of calumny.

He was a member of the Provincial Convention of 1774, convened for the purpose of devising plans for the redress of grievances imposed by England. During the session he was nominated to the Congress soon to meet. He was bitterly opposed by Mr. Galloway but was elected by a handsome majority. He was continued a member of Congress until 1777 when his enemies succeeded in their long nursed machinations against him. At the commencement of hostilities he was commissioned colonel and appointed a commissioner to treat with the Indians. On the 4th of July 1776 he proved his sincerity in the cause of Liberty by a fearless vote and a bold signature in favor of the Declaration of Independence. In the minds of all who were not blinded by party spirit his action on that day refuted the base slanders that had been promulged against him. At the shrine of this dread monster the brightest subjects of purity have often been sacrificed. No goodness of heart-no brilliancy of talent-no exalted worth-no sanctity of character can shield a public man from the base assaults of party spirit-be he benefactor, philanthropist, saint, sage or hero. Even Washington writhed under the ostracism of this withering scourge. Some men are born demi-gogs and live under the influence of Gog and Magog during their deleterious existence.

Mr. Wilson was an esteemed and active member of the Continental Congress. Born a Scot he would not have exemplified the marked trait of his nation had he not been cool and cautious in everything. He, with many others, opposed the immediate adoption of the Declaration of Independence-not because they doubted its justice but because they believed the Colonies were not in a physical condition to sustain it. His patriotism and republicanism both stood forth in bold relievo when the question was finally put. He venerated the instrument and was bound by principle to submit to the will of the majority in what he believed to be clearly right although he believed it premature. His opposition was based upon the single fact of the physical weakness of the Colonies clearly expressed, yet his partisan enemies branded him with a want of patriotism. The people were not long deceived and esteemed him the more for his candor.

In 1782 he was again elected to Congress and was hailed as one of its most efficient members. The same year he was appointed one of the counsellors and agents of Pennsylvania to meet the commissioners who convened at Trenton, New Jersey, for the final settlement of the protracted controversy between Connecticut and that commonwealth

relative to certain lands in the Wyoming Valley. The luminous and unanswerable arguments of Mr. Wilson had a controlling influence over the commissioners who decided in favor of Pennsylvania and closed an unpleasant litigation of years.

During the interim when he was not in Congress he held the office of advocate-general for the French which led him to a close investigation of national and maritime law. For this service the French king gave him 10,000 livres. He was at the same time a director in the Bank of North America and had the full confidence of Robert Morris as a safe and able financial adviser. As an active and discreet member of important committees he stood in the front rank. He traced the lines of every subject with the compass of wisdom and closed its bearings and measurement with mathematical precision. He arrived at the desired goal with less show but with more certainty than some whose zeal was more impetuous but not more pure than his. He sought more to bestow lasting benefits on his country than to elicit the huzzas of the multitude. He well knew that effervescent popularity was not an index of that substantial usefulness which lives long after that transient vapor consigns its ephemeral subjects to the mellow repose of peaceful oblivion. Balloon politicians may become inflated by the hydrogen of party spirit and rise in the political atmosphere followed by the eyes and elated by the shouts of thousands. A single spark of fire from the furnace that created the gas will show most of them to be treacherous and unsafe gasometers. Modest worth avoids ethereal excursions. It stands like a rock of granite on the terra firma of deep thought, calm reflection and sound discretion. Nothing but a sense of imperious duty can induce the very men who should be there to enter the whirling vortex and thorny arena of politics. How many such men are now in public stations guarding the rights and directing the proper destiny of our nation is a subject worthy of careful and anxious inquiry. If the people in mass are not true to themselves demagogues will not be true to them.

Mr. Wilson was one of the most useful members of the Convention that formed the Federal Constitution. He strongly opposed the popular project of the appointment of members of Congress by the legislatures of the States and was mainly instrumental in placing their election in the hands of the people. This principle should have been applied to every office named in that instrument not subject to the control and supervision of the President and Senate. Mr. Wilson was one of the committee that put the Constitution in form and reported it to the Convention. When completed by amendments and presented to his own

State he was its most powerful advocate and bore down upon the opposition with a sweeping torrent of eloquence and logic that was irresistible. He was also a member of the Convention of Pennsylvania to amend its Constitution, in which he took a decided stand in favor of placing the elective franchise in the hands of the people. The last vestige of aristocracy trembled before him and the last whisper of slander against the purity of his republicanism died upon the lips of echo. The boldest features of liberal principles in the old revised Constitution of that State were penned by James Wilson. Had his views been fully incorporated in that instrument I presume a second revision would not have been made.

When the Supreme Court of the United States was organized Washington selected Mr. Wilson for one of its judges. This high office he filled with great ability up to the time of his death. In 1790 he was appointed the first professor of the Law College in Philadelphia. When that and the University of Pennsylvania were united he filled the chair. As a learned and eloquent lawyer he had no superior at the Philadelphia bar. He was honored with the degree of LL.D. and during the first year of his professorship delivered an admirable course of lectures to the law students. Like most of the Scotch literati, towards them he was distant and reserved. His writings were vigorous and logical. In 1774 he wrote a spirited essay on the assumptions of the British Parliament not warranted by Magna Charta and portrayed the blessings arising from a republican form of government in such fascinating colors that it exercised a wide and salutary influence. To the uninitiated in party politics it may seem strange that any one accused James Wilson of aristocracy or a want of patriotism. A purer friend of his country or a more ardent advocate of the cause of freedom could not be found among the sages of '76. He passed through the ordeal of party persecution several times but truth-telling time forced his enemies to retrace their steps disgraced and shamed.

On the 28th of August 1798 this venerable sage, eminent lawyer, able statesman, profound jurist and impartial judge took a final leave of earth and closed his eyes in death. He died of strangury whilst absent on his circuit. Fortunately he was with his friend Judge Iredell in Edenton North Carolina where his ashes repose in peace. During his last illness he realized the proverbial hospitality of the south and was cared for in the kindest manner.

The private character of Judge Wilson was beyond reproach. He was a warm friend, an affectionate husband, a faithful father, a consolation to the widow and the fatherless, an upright and honest man.

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