98 THE GREEN BAG JAMES WILSON - NATION BUILDER navy. Such a system was cumbersome, l thirteen struggling colonies a great and responsibility was divided - and,-cddaot powerful nation. BY LUCIEN H UGH A LEXANDER --readily be fik d. ilsons realization of its 4 The mere journal of the Continental Con-. essential weaknesses i n i c s n o I gress, while he was a delegate, is a startling PART T HE Declaration of Independence a reality, Wilsons energies, with those of all the patriot fathers, were at once concentrated upon the herculean task of making that Declaration effective and Independence a reality. Wilson was among the first to recognize the necessity for efficient military organization and we can understand that the example of the strenuous Professor Ferguson at Edinburgh in urging the importance of a Scotch militia had a powerful influence upon his course. For more than a year in advance of the Declaration of Independence he had taken an active part in organizing a militia in Pennsylvania - Associators, as they were called - and early in 1775 he raised a battalion of troops in his home county, Cumberland, receiving his commission as colonel of the same on May I, I 7 7 5 , and with which, in 1776, he took part in the New Jersey campaign. But the ur encta lls for his services in Congress compelled him, as one of the chief executive officers of the government, to devote himself to civil duties th ere. At that time, as is well known, Congress through committees discharged the executive duties which now devolve upon the President of the United States and his cabinet officers and the Board of War, of which Wilson was an original member, really served in the capacity., as the President now does, of commander-in-chief of the army and - doubt led-him to propose asingle7xecutive I1 The record of James VTilsons services during the early years of the Continental Congress is buried in the original documents of the period. Historians have but little more than scratched the surface of the mines of revolutionary information, which are now so thoroughly, yet so slowly, being made accessible through the classification, indexing, and printing of the wealth of manuscripts by national and state authorities, historical societies, and private enterprise, under the leadership of W. C. Ford, Chief of the Division of hfanuscripts, Library of Congress. The true history of those stirring times is yet to be written and no one has as yet explored the archives with a view to differentiating milsons services and isolating them in a connected narrative. But wherever brought to view, they gleam with scintillating brilliancy, and the-documents of the period are regel-witLtgsgmony that-thepXnx iE Gen of his time knew and valued h-worth. It will De through the histonan ok the tuture that Americans will fully learn how much they owe to this wonderful man, who in the crisal ygrs of 1775, 76 and 77, though then less than thirty-five years of age, by untiring energy, infinite attention to detail and wise statesmanship, although battling against seemingly overwhelming odds, fostered among the people and in Congress those faint sparks of nationalism, which finally burst into flame and eventually made of the - - for the nation in the g - reat Constitutional Convention of 1787, and to insist upon it with all the vigor he possessed as giving the most energy, dispatch, and responsibility. 1 Continued from the January number. P. 5 supra. index of how he labored and of what he did. It discloses that his influence constantly increased, and that gradually he became a member of every committee of vital importance and served on more than did any pther delegate. That this is not generally known is no ...