One of our relatively forgotten Founding Fathers is James
Wilson, a signatory of The Declaration of Independence, a member
of the Continental Congress, and among the first six Supreme
Court justices chosen by President George Washington. One the
most prominent lawyers of his time, Wilson is often credited as
being the most learned of the Framers of the Constitution. James
Wilson was also someone who fretted over the youth of America
and strongly advocated teaching young children the principles of
liberty, freedom, and justice which inspired the American
Revolution. Wilson takes on the teacher’s role in the following
passage (from Of the Study of the Law in the United States),
where we find him touching on the topic of the American
character and how both the law and religion can degenerate into
ridiculousness when in the hands of their “injudicious friends”
who today many would say have become the majority. Were I called
upon for my reasons why I deem so highly of the American
character, I would assign them in