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JAMES WILSON
was born in Caskardy, Scotland, on September 14, 1742.
He entered St. Andrews University in 1757 and emigrated
to America in 1765 to take a teaching position at the
College of Philadelphia. He read law with an attorney
and in 1768 began a private law practice in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Wilson was elected a delegate to the First Continental
Congress in 1775 and was a signer of the Declaration of
Independence. He also served as a delegate to the Second
Continental Congress. As a delegate to the Constitutional
Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, Wilson was a member
of the committee that produced the first draft of the
Constitution. He signed the finished document on September
17, 1787, and later served as a delegate to the Pennsylvania
Ratification Convention. On September 24, 1789, President
George Washington nominated Wilson one of the original
Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United
States. The Senate confirmed the appointment two days
later. Wilson served on the Supreme Court for eight years
and died on August 21, 1798, at the age of fifty-five.
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