In their repeated attempts to comes to terms with the character of America's political and philosophic founding, scholars inevitably encounter James Wilson's contribution and are compelled to pause, even if briefly. For there is no denying that Wilson was among the most influential statesmen of his time, a key figure in the making of the United States during those critical years between the Declaration of Independence and the ratification of the 1787 Constitution. Moreover, Wilson's statesmanship is matched by sustained reflections on the principles that inform America's independence and the newly constituted Union. There is perhaps no more penetrating account of the central tenets of liberal, democratic republicanism by any American founder to rival Wilson's 1790-1791 Lectures on Law (Robert G. McCloskey, ed., The Works of James Wilson, 2 vols., [Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1967]). In the Lectures Wilson provides a detailed account of natural law, natural rights, the origin of government by consent, as well as a description of the form and end of government founded on such principles. Yet in spite of providing a comprehensive vision of the American regime, and in spite of Wilson's contributions as a statesman, scholars seem unable to grant him a place in the American pantheon. It remains true that in telling the story of the makers of the American republic, the names Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Adams, Washington, and others easily come to mind, while Wilson's remains obscure.