JAMES WILSON — NATION BUILDER

War, "with a view to bringing the military into a better understanding with the civil administration." The faction in control of the Pennsylvania Assembly which superseded Wilson was the same which had drafted the instructions to him and the other Pennsylvania delegates in Congress in November, 1775, directing oppo sition to independence. The effort to knife Wilson had long been in contemplation. His friend, Colonel Thomas Smith, afterwards a Pennsylvania member of Congress and sub sequently a Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, writing concerning Wilson to a mutual friend, General Arthur St. Clair, on August 3, 1776, said: "He has enemies — created, I sincerely believe, by his superior talent. Their malice has hitherto been impotent, but they are such industrious, undermining, detracting rascals, that I hardly think they will rest until they have got him out, and a ready tool in his place." Six months later, on January 31, 1777, Wilson's client and close friend, Robert Morris, the "Financier of the Revolution," wrote him: "I am told our Assembly do not intend you shall be in the new list of delegates. ... I well know that the honesty, merit, and abil ity which you possess in so eminent a degree, would not be sufficient pleas against the pre vious determination of a strong party, for that, I am told, is the case. However, you will enjoy your family and friends at home, if you are deprived of the opportunity of continuing those services to your country, which she so much needs, and which, if I mis take not, she will feel the want of until better men, in better times, shall call you forth again." The party in power did act, and on Feb ruary 5th elected new delegates superseding Wilson and other signers of the Declaration of Independence, including George Clymer, Benjamin Rush, George Ross, and John Morton. On February 19th, Wilson wrote his friend, General St. Clair, who, like him self, had come from Scotland and between whom there was a close bond of sympathy : "You have probably heard that I am re moved from the delegation of Pennsylvania.

I retire without disgust, and with the con scious reflection of having done my duty to the public and to the state which I repre sented. ... I am still hurried as much as ever. ... I shall have more leisure by and by." Wilson had written St. Clair in July, shortly before the attempt was made to keep "John Penn, Esq.," and his Tory Chief Justice from banishment : "As to the politics of Pennsylvania,they are not in the situation I could wish. If a regular system was formed between General Howe and the friends of our Constitution, [the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776], his motions could not have been better timed." And Washington declared: "The disaffection in Pennsylvania . . . is much beyond anything you have con ceived, and the depression of the people of this state [New Jersey] render a strong sup port necessary to prevent a systematical submission." The force of public opinion among the people of Pennsylvania, however, was such that two of those who had been elected de clined to serve, and on February 22A, Wilson, with George Clymer, was again returned to Congress. The then dominant party in Pennsylvania bided its time, and seven months later, on September 14, 1777, as stated above, superseded Wilson in Con gress, and for more than five years the nation was without his services there. This act, the more the situation becomes known, will serve to deepen the stain which Wilson's removal placed upon those responsible for it, and its consequences, measured by what the nation lost, it is not possible even to estimate. Dr. Benjamin Rush, who served in Congress with Wilson, records of him: "He was a profound and accurate scholar. He spoke often in Congress, and his elo quence was of the most commanding kind. He reasoned, declaimed, and persuaded, according to the circumstances, with equal effect. His mind, while he spoke, was one blaze of light. Not a word ever fell from his lips out of time or out of place, nor could a word be taken from or added to his speeches without injuring them. He ren dered great and essential services to his country in every stage of the Revolution."