United States,” not the states. The base of the pyramid was broad so that the height of
government could rise high.
James Wilson came to the Federal Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 with strong,
consistent beliefs about government and its purpose, the structure of government, and the people
and their role in government.
He believed there was a “people of the United States” even though others at the
convention were not convinced this was the case. Moreover, he believed “the people of the
United States” are sovereign and can choose whatever form of government they wished.
Government, according to Wilson in his 1774 pamphlet on the authority of the British
Parliament, has as one of its primary responsibilities “the happiness of society.” At the
convention he argued another of government’s primary responsibilities is protecting individual
rights. In his law lectures he asserted that one of the foremost responsibilities was the cultivation
of the mind and spirit.
Wilson knew a government could achieve these ends by “raising the federal pyramid to a
considerable altitude and to give it a broad of basis as possible.”
close to the people. At the 1789 Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention he warned that each
degree of separation from the people a government experiences represents an increased degree of
danger. The way to limit the degrees of separation is to have the people actively involved in
their government by both choosing those who would govern and by they, themselves, taking part
in governing.
For the broad-based pyramid Wilson argued for separation the powers of government.
He championed a national government with three distinct branches and a bicameral legislature.
At the convention he fought for direct election by the people of the members of the house and
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