JAMES WILSON — NATION BUILDER ment which he had on various occasions shown towards the subjects of his Majesty." The arduous duties of the office demanded close attention, and much study and re search were necessary. "I fancy myself," said Wilson, "in the situation of a planter who undertakes to settle and cultivate a farm in the woods where there has not been one tree cut down nor a single improvement made." By the treaty between the Ameri can government and France, which Wilson had played so important a part in initiating, commercial relations and a consular system were to be established, and it devolved upon Wilson early in 1780 to draft the agreement on behalf of France. In doing so, he out lined the jurisdiction and procedure of courts in international commercial causes, as well as an elaborate consular system, which later became the basis for that of the United States. Wilson's preparations for these duties were referred to in a letter to John Holker, then the Counsel-General for France, in which Wilson said : "A close study of the laws of England and of this country for upwards of thirteen years, and an extensive practice during the greatest part of that period, entitle me to say that I am not altogether unacquainted with them. I have given attention to the laws of nations. Since I have been honored with the nomi nation to be Advocate-General, I have directed my studies to the laws and ordi nances of France; but I am very deficient in the knowledge of them. Nothing but in tense application, for a considerable time, can make me so much master of them as to do justice to the office, or to derive repu tation from it to myself. As the trade of France with the United States shall in crease, the number of processes,- in which the kingdom will be interested, and of cases, in which law opinions must be given, will in crease in proportion. To give a safe opinion upon any particular point, however simple or detached it may appear, requires a gen eral knowledge of the laws from which it ought to be deduced." Some difficulty subsequently arose con cerning Wilson's compensation, and he wrote M. Gerard declining a proposition which had been submitted, saying:
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"It would in other respects reduce me to a degree of dependence to which I will not submit. You know my sentiment from the beginning was that my salary and my com mission should be dependent only on the King." Finally, after a long correspondence, the Duke de Luzerne informed Wilson, in April 1782, that it was not the intention of the King to attach an annual salary to the office of Advocate-General, although this was a condition of the agreement originally made with the French minister. Instantly Wil son's spirit of patriotism was aroused, and, although notifying the French minister that he would not have accepted the office except upon the terms that a salary be annexed, he added : "But, sir, I am a citizen of the United States, and feel what I owe to France. While the King is making such generous and such expensive efforts in behalf of my coun try, every service of which my situation and circumstances will admit is due to him. With the greatest cheerfulness, therefore, I will, during the war, give my best service and assistance, in the line of my profession and practice, concerning such matters as the ministers and consuls of France will do me the honor of laying before me." "Finally," as Wilson's biographer, in Sanderson's " Lives of the Signers," with bit ing sarcasm remarks, when writing in 1824, "after several years of labor, Mr. Wilson re ceived from his most Christian Majesty, in November, 1783, the princely remuneration of — ten thousand livres;" yet Wilson had the conscious satisfaction of knowing, which to a man of his patriotism and character was worth more than dollars and cents, that he had fulfilled a mission which largely helped to maintain throughout the Revolution the close bond of friendship between the United States and France, so essential to the former; for without France's cordial friendship those "enemies from within," the Tory party, might have triumphed, even though the British could not by force of arms. (To be continued.) Philadelphia, Pa., January, 1907.
