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Two National Treasures: Blueprint of the Founding - Bill of Rights Born - $5,000,000 (Sarasota)
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TWO NATIONAL TREASURES:
~Founder James Wilson’s Copy of the “Rosetta Stone” of Western Legal Education, the Academic Blueprint of America’s Founding, William Blackstone’s “An Analysis of the Laws of England”~
~Highlighted by the Only Known “Join Or Die” Segmented Snake Image Hand Drawn by an American Founder~
~Wilson’s Post-Constitutional Convention Marginal Notations Confirming Blackstone’s Pervasive Influence at the Recent Convention~
~Plus, the June 10, 1789 Birth Certificate of the United States Bill of Rights~
Preliminary Note: This offer is intended to facilitate a private and relaxed sale, thereby avoiding the stress, for both buyer and seller, of offering these items at auction.
OVERVIEW:
1. THE BLUEPRINT AND THE CONSTITUTION ARCHITECT - Copy of the seminal work of William Blackstone, “An Analysis of the Laws of England” (hereafter called Analysis), owned and annotated by one of the principal architects of the United States Constitution, James Wilson
How influential was this book? As will be explained, Blackstone profoundly influenced Founder James Wilson and, thereby, heavily influenced the content of the United States Constitution. This book changed the world.
2. THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS - Firsthand documentation from inside Federal Hall of the inception of the United States Bill of Rights, documented in the Founders’ journal of record, the early, non-commercial, Founder-funded Gazette of the United States
DESCRIPTION ITEM #1 - To understand the immense influence of the first item, I will quote a history writer who summarized the view of many historians:
“The Founders found their philosophy in John Locke, their passion in Thomas Paine, but they found the blueprint for a new nation in Blackstone.”
If Blackstone’s famous second book, Commentaries on the Laws of England, was the blueprint for the Founders, Blackstone’s first book, Analysis, was the blueprint for the blueprint. Analysis was Professor Blackstone’s university syllabus that boiled down and demystified the vast body of once arcane English Common Law into a single concise book. Blackstone then expanded this syllabus into his four-volume Commentaries. Analysis, thus, was the wellspring - the source of the Nile - for much of Western Civilization’s legal education via the Commentaries.
There is not a more impactful copy of Blackstone’s synoptic 30,000-foot-view Analysis than the copy now offered, once owned and annotated by one of the Constitution’s primary architects, James Wilson.
Most scholars agree that James Wilson was the second most influential delegate at the Constitutional Convention, just after James Madison. Wilson spoke 168 times at the Convention and is credited with being the leading advocate of the Constitution’s spirit and iconic preamble, “We the People”. Wilson is also largely responsible for defining the office of the president, the reluctant inclusion of the Three-Fifths Compromise, the establishment of judicial review, and the innovation of the Electoral College. Wilson also led the Constitutional Convention’s Committee of Detail, resulting in the very first draft of the Constitution being written in Wilson’s hand.
TEN DAYS THAT SHAPED THE CONSTITUTION - Little known today, the five-man Committee of Detail had substantial latitude in the formation and key details of the Constitution. Midway through the Convention, this elite committee labored while the other exhausted Convention delegates took a ten day recess. James Wilson, steeped in world history and legal philosophy, was uniquely qualified for this moment. Although John Rutledge was chairman of the committee, most evidence indicates that James Wilson led the painstaking construction of the Constitution, largely into the form it has today.
Following ratification of the Constitution and the commencement of the new government, Wilson was commissioned to deliver 24 law lectures per year at the College of Philadelphia. Wilson, not being one to act in half measures, wholeheartedly prepared to teach America about the new Constitution that he had substantially co-authored.
Confirming the profound influence of Blackstone, James Wilson chose the now offered copy of Analysis as the outline to prepare his lectures. In sequence, Wilson’s lectures followed the same four-division format used in Analysis. In substance, Wilson cited Blackstone more than any other source, using Blackstone to both explain and sharply contrast the new American constitutional order.
Notations show that Wilson completed writing his required 24 lectures, paused at lecture 25, wrote 8 more lectures, and paused again. Wilson then projected, by notations, which chapters of Analysis would be incorporated into the next year’s lectures. Wilson’s introductory lecture was a grand affair, attended by George Washington, John Adams, and much of the First Congress.
AMERICA’S OWNERS MANUAL - In today’s parlance, Wilson’s written lectures were intended to be the “owners manual” for the “use and care” of the recently adopted Constitution. To Wilson, these lectures were a natural expository follow-up to his work at the Constitutional Convention.
Wilson’s untimely demise would prevent him from fulfilling his dream of writing the definitive treatise on the new American jurisprudence. More importantly, James Wilson, a scholarly Scottish immigrant, had already woven the principles of the enormously influential Scottish Enlightenment and the best of Blackstone into the Constitution.
In total, there are over 30 notations, artifacts, and two specific citations in the offered copy of Analysis that confirm James Wilson’s ownership and application of this fundamental blueprint for the blueprint of America’s founding.
JOIN OR DIE SEGMENTED SNAKE SKETCH - James Wilson was consumed with uniting the thirteen states into a nation. While preparing his lectures and notating the text of Analysis, Wilson paused and drew a rough sketch of his friend Benjamin Franklin’s creation, the Join or Die segmented snake symbol. Highly relevant to the founding, the snake is shown biting a paragraph about disputed land titles. Prior to the Constitution, interstate land disputes had been a major impediment to national unity. Wilson had been heavily involved in settling such disputes, most notably in successfully representing Pennsylvania in their land charter dispute with Connecticut. The new Constitution’s Article III Section 2, heavily promoted by Wilson at the Constitutional Convention, established federal judicial authority to address interstate conflicts, thereby resolving a longstanding roadblock to nationhood.
The Join or Die symbol had been created by Franklin during the earlier French and Indian War and was revived during the Revolution. Franklin created the symbol to promote the urgent need for colonial unity to deal with the French and Indian War crisis. James Wilson, driven by the same cause of national unity during the founding, paused while preparing his lectures and drew the rough sketch shown in the photos. In a fleeting moment, this powerful symbol that promoted national unity was drawn by one of the chief unifiers of the United States. This sketch, by itself, is nearly priceless, probably being the only such sketch drawn by an American Founder.
DESCRIPTION ITEM #2 - (Note: These two items are being offered as a set, as documentation of the origin of the Constitution is perfectly complimented by documentation of the origin of the Constitution’s first ten amendments.)
Complimenting the one-of-a-kind James Wilson historical treasure is firsthand documentation of the inception of the Bill of Rights. Importantly, this document is NOT a newspaper. It looks like a newspaper, but in actuality, it is a folio size four-page journal.
The Gazette of the United States was conceived and initially funded personally by America’s Founders. At the time, there was not yet a U.S. Treasury Department to fund the publication. The Gazette’s private funding was organized by Alexander Hamilton. Publication commenced in coordination with the start of the new government. The Gazette was intended to be the official journal of record, emulating the English government’s London Gazette. When the Founders’ startup capital was gone, federal funding of the Gazette never materialized. Why? The rapid onset of partisanship and the Gazette’s increasingly pro-administration stance prevented it. For a short time (including this early issue), the Gazette was the Founder-funded, non-commercial, official journal of record.
HISTORICAL BOOKEND TO JULY 4, 1776 & MORE - On July 4, 1776, the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were declared. On June 8, 1789, the written guarantee of those inalienable rights was born. In addition to documenting the historical bookend to the Declaration of Independence, the June 10, 1789 Gazette documents a major landmark in the lineage of Magna Carta.
NOTE ON SCARCITY: ONE OF ONLY 600 COPIES PRINTED - In a letter dated July 26, 1789, the Gazette’s publisher, John Fenno, stated to his friend Joseph Ward that the Gazette’s circulation had reached 600 subscribers. A search of the Library of Congress U.S. Newspaper Directory indicates that only 17 copies of this June 10, 1789 imprint have been preserved in institutional holdings. An unknown number of copies, undoubtedly small in number, are in private hands.
Volumes could be written (and have been) about the history surrounding these two national treasures. It is the seller’s highest hope that these items are purchased by someone with a shared vision that they be used for educational purposes and the elevation of James Wilson to his rightful place in the American conscience. With the approach of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the intertwined Declaration of Independence, the timing is perfect.