The Lost Founder: James Wilson (1742-1798) and the Dream of a New America

FAIN: FZ-292716-23

Jesse Wegman
Unaffiliated independent scholar

Research and writing of a book on Founding Father and Supreme Court Justice, James Wilson (1742-1798).

This will be the first general-interest biography of James Wilson, a poor farmer’s son from Scotland who immigrated to America and became the most respected lawyer and political thinker in the country. He was one of the main architects of the Constitution and served on the first Supreme Court, generating legal theories that still inform American law. He was a visionary, believing that all political power resides in the hands of common people, an unpopular idea among his fellow founders. But he was also a complicated, flawed man who was nearly murdered by the people he championed, and whose mismanagement of his personal finances resulted in him being the only Supreme Court justice ever to go to prison. His flight from his lenders and the authorities led to a death in ignominy and his name being erased from history. “The Lost Founder” will resurrect Wilson’s story and explain how this most democratic of all founding fathers can help steer us toward the country we want to live in today.