State House Yard Speech on the Constitution

James Wilson's State House Yard Speech on the Constitution was possibly one of the most influential and significant documents in the debate over the ratification of the Constitution. The speech took place on October 6th, 1787, during the Philadelphia Assembly, less than a month after the Constitution was signed. It was intended to nominate delegates to the next Pennsylvania Legislature, but instead, turned into a debate on the ratification of the Constitution. Wilson, who was a …

…feet, and dark featured, he received immediate attention, which helped him grab the public's eye. Because of his influence over the people, and his justification of the Constitutional amendments, he was one of the eight representatives of Pennsylvania, along with Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Mifflin, Robert Morris, Geoffrey Clymer, Thomas FitzSimons, Jared Ingersoll, and Governor Morris, whose signatures appear at the bottom of one of the most important documents in the United States history, the Constitution.