James Wilson's Reel

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

1- 4 The 1st and 4th couples set to partners then the 1st couple cast off while the 4th couple cast up; the 2nd and 3rd couples step up and down on bars 3-4
5- 8 Crossing up to begin the 1st couple dance half a figure of eight round the 2nd couple to end on opposite sides in second place, while the 4th couple, crossing down to begin, dance half a figure of eight round the 3rd couple to end on own sides in third place
9-12 The 1st woman and 4th man dance across the set under an arch formed by the 1st man and 4th woman then the 1st man and 4th woman dance across the set under an arch formed by the 1st woman and 4th man
13-16 The 1st and 4th couples repeat bars 9-12 to end facing out
17-18 The 4th and 1st couples turn their corner persons (2nd man and 1st woman, 3rd man and 4th woman right hands; 2nd woman and 1st man, 3rd woman and 4th man left hands) to end at the ends of the set, first couple facing down and 4th couple facing up
19-20 The 1st couple, on opposite sides, dance down the dance under an arch made by the 4th couple who dance up
21-22 The 1st and 4th couples turn their new corner persons (2nd man and 4th man, 3rd man and 1st man left hands; 2nd woman and 4th woman, 3rd woman and 1st woman right hands) to end on sidelines in order 2413, 1st and 3rd couples on opposite sides
23-24 All set
25-32 The 2nd and 4th couples and the 1st and 3rd couples dance rights and lefts

Repeat three more times from new positions each time

(Dance crib compiled by the deviser, Lewis N Derrick 2022)

Dance Information

Suggested tune: Cookie Shine.

Devised 1990; first published 2022.

Copyright 1990 Lewis N. Derrick.

(Dance information reproduced here with the kind permission of the deviser, Lewis N Derrick)

Wilson's most lasting impact on the country came as a member of the Committee of Detail, which wrote out the first draft of the United States Constitution.

Wilson was born at Carskerdo, near Ceres, Fife, Scotland on September 14, 1742. He was the fourth of the seven children of Alison Landall and William Wilson, a Presbyterian farming family. He studied at the universities of St Andrews, Glasgow and Edinburgh, but never obtained a degree. While he was a student, he studied Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, including Francis Hutcheson, David Hume and Adam Smith. He also played golf. Imbued with the ideas of the Scottish Enlightenment, he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in British America in 1765, carrying letters of introduction that enabled him to begin tutoring and then teaching at The Academy and College of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania). He petitioned there for a degree and was awarded an honorary Master of Arts several months later. In 1790, the university awarded him the honorary degree of LL.D.

After studying law under John Dickinson, he was admitted to the bar and set up a legal practice in Reading, Pennsylvania. He wrote a well-received pamphlet arguing that Parliament's taxation of the Thirteen Colonies was illegitimate due to the colonies' lack of representation in Parliament. He was elected to the Continental Congress and served as president of the Illinois-Wabash Company, a land speculation venture.

He was elected twice to the Continental Congress, was a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence, and was a major participant in drafting the United States Constitution. A leading legal theorist, he was one of the six original justices appointed by George Washington to the Supreme Court of the United States. In his capacity as first Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania, he taught the first course on the new Constitution to President Washington and his cabinet in 1789 and 1790.

Wilson was a delegate to the 1787 Philadelphia Convention, where he served on the Committee of Detail, which produced the first draft of the United States Constitution. He was the principal architect of the executive branch and an outspoken supporter of greater popular control of governance, a strong national government, and legislative representation proportional to population. Along with Roger Sherman and Charles Pinckney, he proposed the Three-Fifths Compromise, which counted slaves as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of representation in the United States House of Representatives. While preferring the direct election of the president through a national popular vote, he proposed the use of an electoral college, which formed the basis of the Electoral College ultimately adopted by the Convention. After the convention, he campaigned for the ratification of the Constitution, with his "speech in the statehouse yard" reprinted in newspapers throughout the country, and opposed the Bill of Rights. Wilson also played a major role in drafting the 1790 Pennsylvania Constitution.

In 1789, Wilson became one of the first associate justices of the Supreme Court. He also became a professor of law at the College of Philadelphia (which later became the University of Pennsylvania).

The Official Portrait Of Supreme Court Justice James Wilson

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