i3»
THE GREEN BAG
finance, as he was on so many other subjects, and as soon as he was returned to Congress, January, 1783, proposed the plan of general taxation, which was adopted February 12, 1783. His brilliant and unanswerable argu ment on the power of the Congress under the Articles of Confederation to incorporate the Bank of North America is referred to, and quoted from at some length by the writer, in The North American Review at pp. 986-987 of Vol. 183 (Nov., 1906), and will not be repeated here. • No student of Wilson or of the many problems resulting from the claims of state rights doctrinaires can afford not to read the argument 1 in full. James DeWitt Andrews of the New York and Chicago Bars, and editor of the last edition of Wilson's works," says this argu ment "stands as a constitutional exposition second to no constitutional argument or opinion delivered before or since. Indeed it not only embraced every ground or argu ment which Marshall was called upon to treat, but it assumed and defined precisely the position which was necessarily taken in the Legal Tender decisions." It should be added that Hamilton's great report to Washington — Hamilton's chief claim to fame — of February 23, 1791, on finance, was founded on this argument by Wilson, and it is possible that the historian of the future will be able to trace an even closer connection on the part of Wilson with that powerful document. However this may be, all that can now be said is that a manuscript copy of Hamilton's report, forty-six pages in length, is among the Wilson papers in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. During this time Wilson's party in Penn sylvania was gradually but surely over coming that of George Bryan and the other adherents to the Pennsylvania constitution of 1776. On May 23, 1782, Wilson was unanimously elected by the Supreme Execu1 See Wilson's Works (Andrews' Edition), Vol. 1, pp. 549-577" Callaghan & Co., Chicago, 1896.
tive Council, Brigadier-General of the militia. Although not in Congress, he was maintaining an active interest in national affairs and exerting every energy on behalf of the colonies in the bitter conflict with the mother country. How active we may judge from the fact that it was to him General Arthur St. Clair wrote from " Head quarters, October 19, 1781," congratulating him (Wilson) on the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. Said St. Clair: "I was lucky enough to get up in time to take my command, which is no less than the whole American troops, and to have been in the trenches during the operations. / most heartily congratulate you upon this event which cannot fail to have the most beneficial consequence, and reflect great lustre upon our arms." In 1781 Pennsylvania sought Wilson's services as counsel in the contest with Connecticut over the latter 's claims to the lands of the "Wyoming settlement," and a commission was issued to him under the Great Seal of the state. The case was won in December, 1782, before an arbitration court, appointed by Congress, sitting at Trenton, as a result of Wilson's skillful handling. Wilson's brief is still preserved. In 1784 an attempt was made by Connecti cut to re-open the contest and the then President of Pennsylvania's Supreme Execu tive Council, John Dickinson, writing the Pennsylvania delegates in Congress, referred to Wilson's "professional knowledge and laborious preparation for the late trial," at the same time asserting that the attempts of Connecticut to re-open the case "are very extraordinary and are to be opposed with the most persevering vigilance." The matter dragging, Wilson then in Congress, having taken his seat January 2, 1783, reported to President Dickinson, on Febru ary 26, 1785 : "The controversy respecting the settle ments at Wyoming depends before Congress in a very disadvantageous state of suspense. I think that both the interests and the honor of Pennsylvania require that a speedy and explicit decision be had upon
