American Minute with Bill Federer
America great? Justice James Wilson
"It is the BEST form of government which has EVER been offered to the WORLD"
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He was one of six founding fathers to
sign
both the
Declaration of Independence
and the
Constitution.
President Washington appointed him to be
a Justice on the Supreme Court.
His name was
James Wilson.
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Born in Scotland,
James Wilson
was one of the first to argue against British dominance.
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In 1774,
James Wilson
wrote "Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Parliament," reasoning that
since the colonies had no representation in Parliament, the Parliament had no authority over the colonies.
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In 1775,
James Wilson
was commissioned as a
Colonel
and by the end of the Revolution he was promoted to the rank of
Brigadier General
of the
Pennsylvania State Militia.
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One of the most educated and prominent lawyers in America,
James Wilson
was chosen as a
delegate to the Constitutional Convention,
where he spoke 168 times,
more than any other delegate
except Gouverneur Morris.
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James Wilson's
speech in Pennsylvania's statehouse yard, October 6, 1787, was, after the Federalist Papers, considered
the most influential argument
in
persuading the States of ratify the U.S. Constitution.
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To interpret statutes,
James Wilson
wrote:
"The first and governing maxim
in the interpretation of a statute is to
discover the meaning of those who made it."
He added:
"Every prudent and cautious
judge
... will remember, that his duty and
his business is, not to make the law, but to interpret and apply it."
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The
first law professor of the University of Pennsylvania,
James Wilson
wrote in his
Lectures on Law,
1789-91, that
all law comes from God,
being divided into
four categories:
"Law Eternal,"
"Law Celestial,"
"Laws of Nature,"
and:
"Law
... communicated to us by
reason and conscience
... has been called
NATURAL; as promulgated by the Holy Scriptures,
it has been called
REVEALED ...
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... But it should always be remembered, that this
law, natural or revealed
... flows from the same divine source; it is
the law of God ...
Human law
must rest its authority, ultimately, upon the authority of that law, which is
divine
...
All men
are equally
subject
to the
command of their Maker ..."
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James Wilson
described the "Will of God" as the:
"... efficient cause of moral obligation - of the eminent distinction between right and wrong ... (and therefore the) supreme law ... (revealed) by
our conscience, by our reason, and by the Holy Scriptures."
Wilson
noted:
"Far from being rivals or enemies,
religion and law are twin sisters,
friends, and mutual assistants. Indeed, these
two sciences run into each other."
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Wilson
predicted those who are a part of the deep state establishment would resist changes, writing October 6, 1787:
"It is the
nature of man
to
pursue his own interest in preference to the public good
...
Every person
... who enjoys ... a
place of profit
under the
present establishment,
will
object
to the proposed innovation ... because
it affects his schemes of wealth."
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James Wilson
was only 55 when he died on August 21, 1798.
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The
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
recorded in 1824:
"The late
Judge James Wilson,
of the
Supreme Court of the United States, Professor of Law
in the
College in Philadelphia
... for our present form of government we are greatly indebted to his exertions ...
In his Course of Lectures (3d Vol. of his
Works,
122), he states that ...
'Christianity is part of the common-law.'"
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James Wilson
was referencing
William Blackstone
who wrote in his
Commentaries of the Laws of England
(1765-1769):
"Christianity is part of the laws of England
... The law of England ... gives liberty, rightly understood, that is, protection to a jew, turk, or a heathen, as well as to those who profess the true religion of Christ."
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James Wilson
examined the purpose of government in his
Lectures on Law,
1790-91:
"Does man exist for the sake of government? Or is
government instituted for the sake of man? ...
What was the primary and the
principal object in the institution of government?
... To acquire a new
security for ... those rights
... which we were previously entitled by the immediate
gift ... of our all-wise and all-beneficent Creator? ...
Yet we are told,
that ...
in order to acquire the security, we must surrender the great objects to be secured
... that we may ... depend on the pleasure of that power, to which the surrender is made.
Is this a bargain
to be proposed to those, who are both
intelligent and free? No ..."
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Wilson
concluded:
"Freemen,
who know and love their
rights, will not exchange
their
armor of ... gold,
for one of a
baser and lighter metal,
however finely it may be
blazoned with tinsel."
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Justice James Wilson
wrote in
Chisholm v. State of Ga.
, 2 U.S. 419 (1793), 453-466:
"Man
, fearfully and wonderfully made, is
the workmanship
of his
all perfect CREATOR:
A State,
useful and valuable as the contrivance is,
is the inferior contrivance of man;
and from his native dignity derives all its acquired importance ...
A State,
I cheerfully admit,
is the noblest work of Man: but Man,
himself, free and honest, is, I speak as to this world,
the noblest work of God ...
Cicero says so sublimely, 'Nothing, which is exhibited upon our globe, is more acceptable to
that divinity which governs the whole universe,
than those communities and
assemblages of men,
which, lawfully associated, are denominated
States' ...
Let
a State
be considered as
subordinate to the People
...
By a
State
I mean,
a complete body of free persons united together for their common benefit,
to enjoy peaceably what is their own, and to do justice to others ...
Under that Constitution
there are '
citizens,'
but
no 'subjects.'"
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What
Wilson
was underscoring was that
Kings
have
"subjects"
who are
subjected
to the King's will.
Republics have
"citizens,"
who are effectively
co-rulers, co-sovereigns, co-kings.
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James Wilson
continued:
"As a citizen,
I know the Government of that State to be
republican;
and
my short definition of such a Government is,
one constructed on this principle, that
the Supreme Power resides in the body of the people."
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In America,
citizens
pledge allegiance to the flag "... and
to the republic for which it stands."
It is basically a pledge to
we, the people, being in charge of ourselves.
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When someone protests the flag, they are effectively saying,
I don't want to be king anymore
- I protest this system where people participate in ruling themselves.
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In his
Lectures on Law
delivered in the College of Philadelphia, 1790-91,
James Wilson
wrote:
"Permit me to mention
one great principle,
the
vital
principle
...
The
principle
I mean is this, that the
supreme or sovereign power
of the society
resides in the citizens
at large;
and ...
they always retain the right
of abolishing, altering, or
amending their constitution,
at whatever time, and in whatever manner, they shall deem it expedient ..."
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Wilson
continued:
"The learned Author of the
Commentaries
(William Blackstone) concludes this very passage, by telling us, that
'there are inherent, though latent powers of society,
which no climate, no time, no constitution, no contract
can ever destroy or diminish ...'
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...
(England's Glorious) Revolution of 1688
(where
the people made William and Mary their monarchs)
did more than set a mere precedent ...
A
revolution principle
... certainly should be taught as
a principle of the constitution of the United States,
and of every State in the Union.
This
revolution principle
- that,
the sovereign power residing in the people,
they may change their constitution and government whenever they please
..."
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He added:
"In a free country,
every citizen
forms a
part of the sovereign power:
he possesses
a vote ...
In free states, such as ours, the
sovereign or supreme power resides in the people ...
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... In the original constitution of
Rome,
the
sovereign power,
the
dominium eminens,
as it is called by the civilians, always resided in
the collective body of the people ...
As to
the people,
however,
in whom the sovereign power resides
... from their authority the constitution originates: for their safety and felicity it is established:
in their hands it is as clay in the hands of the potter: they have the right to mold, to preserve, to improve, to refine, and to finish it as they please."
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James Wilson
stated December 1, 1787, at Pennsylvania's Convention to Ratify the Constitution of the United States:
"The sovereignty
resides in
the people;
they have not parted with it."
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Was America ever great?
How unique is America's experiment of the people ruling themselves?
Only when one examines
the rest of the world
and
the rest of human history
does one appreciate what a
great opportunity Americans have been given
of
determining the fate of their own lives.
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James Wilson
wrote, November 26, 1787:
"Governments, in general, have been the result of force, of fraud, and accident.
After a period of 6,000 years has elapsed since the creation,
the United States exhibit to the world
the first instance ... of a nation ... assembling voluntarily
... and deciding calmly concerning that
system of government
under which they
would wish that they and their posterity
should live."
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A similar statement was made by
Daniel Webster,
July 4, 1802:
"We live under the
only government that ever existed
which was framed by the unrestrained and deliberate consultations of
the people.
Miracles do not cluster. That which has happened but once in
6,000 years
cannot be expected to happen often."
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James Wilson's
and
Daniel Webster's
comments are confirmed by the fact that the
most common form of government
in all of recorded human history is
monarchy.
Kings ruled by dispensing honor and shame, and the threat of death, which kept subjects in fearful obedience.
Sultan Balban of Delhi, India (1266–1286) declared:
"Fear of the governing power ... is the basis of all good government."
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Record keeping
began around 3,300 BC with the invention of
"writing" in the Mesopotamian Valley
- Sumerian cuneiform on clay tablets.
This means
there exists only around 5,000 to 6,000 years of recorded history.
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Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson
stated in the
Cosmos TV
series (2014, natgeotv.com, episode 10, "The Immortals"):
"It was the people who once lived here,
around 5,000 years ago,
who first started chopping up time into smaller bite-size portions of hours and minutes. They call this place Uruk. We call it Iraq.
The part of
Mesopotamia
- the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The 'city' was invented here.
And one of humanities greatest victories was won over the ceaseless battle of time.
It was here that we learned how to write."
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Franklin Roosevelt
acknowledged the same, February 10, 1940:
"5,000 years of recorded history
have proven that mankind has always believed in God in spite of many abortive attempts to exile God."
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Richard Overy,
editor of
The Times Complete History of the World,
stated in "The 50 Key Dates of World History" (October 19, 2007):
"No date appears before the
start of human civilizations
about 5,500 years ago
and the beginning of a
written or pictorial history."
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Astronomer Johannes Kepler
wrote in book five of
The Harmonies of the World
(1619):
"The book is written, to be read either now or by posterity ... It may be well to wait a century for a reader, as God has waited
6,000 years
for an observer."
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Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan
wrote in "Prince of Peace"
(New York Times,
September 7, 1913):
"6,000 years of recorded history
and yet we know no more about the secret of life than they knew in the beginning."
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Throughout the 6,000 years of recorded history, what happened in America was extremely rare.
Yale President Ezra Stiles
had stated May 8, 1783:
"Most of the States of all ages ... have been founded in rapacity, usurpation and injustice ...
The military
history of all nations,
being but a description of the wars and invasions of the mutual robbers and devastators of the human race ...
All the
forms of civil polity
have been tried by mankind,
except one:
and that seems to have been
referred in Providence to be realized in America."
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John Adams
wrote in his notes of
A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law,
February 1765:
"I always consider the
settlement of America
with reverence and wonder, as the
opening of a grand scene and design in Providence
for the illumination of the ignorant, and
the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth."
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John Jay,
the First Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, stated September 8, 1777:
"The
Americans
are the
first people whom Heaven has favored
with an opportunity of ...
choosing the forms of government under which they should live.
All other constitutions have derived their existence from violence or accidental circumstances ...
Your lives, your liberties, your property,
will be at the disposal only of your
Creator
and
yourselves."
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Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson
wrote:
"America
... appears like a
last effort of divine Providence
in behalf of the
human race."
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President Calvin Coolidge
stated in 1924:
"The
history of government
on this earth has been almost entirely ...
rule of force held in the hands of a few.
Under our Constitution,
America
committed itself to
power in the hands of the people."
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President Millard Fillmore
stated in 1852:
"Our free institutions ... were planted in the free charters of
self-government
under which the English colonies grew up ...
European nations have had no such
training for self-government,
and every effort to establish it by bloody revolutions has been, and must without that preparation continue to be, a failure."
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Theodore Roosevelt
stated October 24, 1903:
"In
no other place
and at
no other time
has the
experiment
of
government of the people, by the people, for the people,
been tried on so vast a scale as here in our own country."
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President Ronald Reagan
stated in 1961:
"In this country of ours took place the
greatest revolution that has ever taken place in the world's history.
Every other revolution simply exchanged one set of rulers for another.
Here for the
first time in all the thousands of years of man's relation to man
... the founding fathers established the idea that
you and I had within ourselves the God-given right and ability to determine our own destiny."
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James Wilson
stated in Pennsylvania's statehouse yard, October 6, 1787, regarding the U.S. Constitution:
"I will confess, indeed, that I am not a blind admirer of this plan of government ...
But when I reflect how widely men differ in their opinions ... I am satisfied that anything nearer to perfection could not have been accomplished.
If there are errors, it should be remembered that ... the concurrence of two-thirds of the Congress may at any time introduce alterations and amendments.
Regarding it, then ... I am bold to assert that
it is the best form of government
which has
ever been offered to the world."
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Schedule Bill Federer for informative interviews & captivating PowerPoint presentations: 314-502-8924
wjfederer@gmail.com
American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission is granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate, with acknowledgment.
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