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deserves grateful remembrance than James Wilson." Alton B. Parker, the last candidate of the Democracy for the presidency refers to him as "the man who laid the corner-stone of constitutional interpretation in this country upon deep and solid foundations, " and adds : "As the result of his labors and those of John Marshall and Joseph Story and their associates and successors, there has been perfected a system of jurisprudence, which is the most original, as it promises to be the most imposing monument of our national ideas and institutions." Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, William H. Moody, when the Nation's Attorney General, declared that Wilson, "exercised an influence in the convention which equaled, if it did not surpass, that of any other man," and that: "He sought a government with sufficient power to perform the duties of a nation, and in constructing it was controlled by a few great principles clearly understood and tenaciously pursued. Recognizing that the ultimate sovereignty rested with the people of the United States, he desired a govern ment whose powers should proceed directly from them and operate directly upon them; a government which in truth should be of the people, by the people, and for the people. ... He was a believer in democracy and in nationalism, — the first man, I believe, in all our history who united the two opinions. . . . He appreciated the proper relations of the two governments, state and national, each entrusted with its own supreme powers, to each other and to the people who created both, and how, through the judiciary, the limits upon their powers, imposed by the Constitution could be made effective. He left the deep impress of his design upon the work of the convention. When it was done he had mastered its great outlines and was ready to expound and defend them. With the keen vision of a seer, he discerned that the structure of the Government was destined for the ages, for vast territories and uncounted millions." With these ringing words of patriotism, Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Edward D. White, of Louisiana, closed his tribute at the Wilson Memorial and Interment services :
"As I stand here, a participant in these ceremonies commemorative of the placing of all that remains of James Wilson to rest in the bosom of his adopted mother, this great commonwealth of Pennsylvania, my mind turns not to extol his virtues but rather lifts itself up to that Wise and All-Merciful Ruler who holds in the hollow of His hands the destinies of peoples and nations, with the supplication that these ceremonies may enkindle in all our hearts a keener purpose to preserve and perpetuate the government which our fathers gave us. Not a govern ment of a great and stolid bureaucracy; not a government of infirmity in national power; not a government destructive of the rights of the states; not a government of the sordid few to the detriment of the many, or of the many to the destruction of those inalienable rights of life, liberty, and property upon which our civilization depends. Not any or all of these, but the government of the Constitution, a government of liberty protected by law, which affords the sub stantial hope that civil liberty may not pass away from the face of the earth." And now, for more than one hundred years, that civil liberty for which Wilson strove and struggled, has not only been perpetuated on the American Continent, but has been extending over the world in pre cisely the way Wilson foreshadowed at the close of one of his masterful arguments for the Constitution in the Pennsylvania Rati fying Convention, — that of December n, 1787: "By adopting this system, we shall probably lay a foundation for erecting temples of liberty, in every part of the earth. It has been thought by many, that on the success of the struggle America has made for freedom, will' depend the exertions of the brave and enlightened of other nations. — The advantages resulting from this system will not be confined to the United States; it will draw from Europe many worthy characters, who pant for the enjoyment of freedom. It will induce princes, in order to preserve their subjects, to restore to them a portion of that liberty of which they have for many ages been deprived. It will be subservient to the great designs of Providence, with regard to this globe; the multiplication of mankind, their improvement in knowledge, and their advancement in happiness."
