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Summary:  A book from the personal library of Pennsylvanian James Wilson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and influential advocate for ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Wilson signed the volume in ink near the top of the title page, "James Wilson."

James Wilson.  Signed Book.  Abbé Raynal, A Philosophical and Political History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans of the West Indies, Vol. II (of five) (London, T.Cadell, 1777), 3^rd ed., trans., John Justamond.  Includes (Book VI) p.339-465: Discovery of America.  Conquest of Mexico; and settlements of the Spaniards in that part of the new world, & (Book VII) p.466-595: Conquest of Peru...  596 pp., with fold-out map.

Inventory# 21852     $2,500

Historical Background:

James Wilson (1742-1798) was born in Scotland and educated at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow, imbibing the principles of the Scottish Enlightenment. Unable to graduate due to his father’s death, Wilson emigrated to America, and became a tutor at the College of Philadelphia, and assistant to Pennsylvania lawyer John Dickinson. For many years, Wilson practiced law in Reading and Carlisle, and became a powerful force in Pennsylvania politics. In 1774, he published "Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority of the British Parliament," an influential revolutionary pamphlet. Wilson was twice elected to the Continental Congress, and served concurrently as a brigadier general in the state militia. Like other Pennsylvanians in Congress, including his mentor, Dickinson, Wilson was pressured by his constituents to forestall declaring independence. Wilson himself eventually changed his mind, voting for and signing the Declaration of Independence. As a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, Wilson sat on the Committee of Detail, which produced the first draft. He proposed the Three-Fifths Compromise, and was, next to James Madison, the most active participant in the Convention. Wilson was a major proponent for ratification in his home state, which became the second state to approve the new constitution in 1787. President Washington named him as one of the six original justices of the Supreme Court.

Guillaume-Thomas Françoise, Abbé de Raynal was a renowned French philosopher and propagandist who helped establish the intellectual climate for the French Revolution. A Philosophical and Political History was his most famous work; it went through thirty editions by 1789, was put on the (Catholic) Index in 1774, and publicly burned. The book was found objectionable because of its treatment of religion and its advocacy of the popular right to consent to taxation, as well as the ultimate right of revolution, among other things.

Abbé Raynal was significant in American history for his belittling of the flora and fauna, as well as human achievement, in the Western Hemisphere. Raynal observed that "America has not yet produced one good poet, one able mathematician, one man of genius in a single art or a single science." Thomas Jefferson, in Notes on the State of Virginia, countered Raynal’s condescension with a myriad of observations and reflections on nature and society, and a healthy dose of patriotism.

Condition: Full calf with titles stamped in gilt on a morocco spine label. Boards scuffed with significant wear at the corners. Loss at the head and foot of the spine. Joints cracked with front board detached. Contents toned but tight. A sound copy, worthy of restoration, in good condition. The book is housed in an attractive custom half leather box and slipcase. The box has five raised spine bands with titles stamped in gilt in three of the compartments.