America at 250: The Most Important Founder You've Never Heard Of
The Lincoln Project
The Lincoln Project
4.6 • 9.1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 July 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
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Summary
Six men signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. You can probably name Franklin. You've almost certainly never heard of James Wilson — the man who did more than almost anyone to put "We the People" at the heart of American government, sat on the first Supreme Court… and then died broke, on the run from creditors, and was quietly erased from the story of the founding.
As part of our special 250th podcast rollout celebrating this amazing country of ours, Rick Wilson sits down with Jesse Wegman — New York Times editorial board member and author of the new book on James Wilson — to resurrect the most important founder nobody remembers. They get into how Wilson shaped the Constitution, why his radical idea of popular sovereignty still defines (and haunts) American democracy, how a founding genius ended up in a debtor's ruin, and what his erasure tells us about the myths we build around 1776. It's the perfect 250th-birthday story: not the founders on the money, but the one history decided to forget — and why remembering him matters now more than ever.
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Jesse Wegman is a member of the New York Times editorial board and the author of the new book, The Lost Founder: James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People's Constitution. Find more of Jesse's work at the Brennan Center for Justice, the Kohlberg Center on the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Future of the Constitution Advisory Committee.
Rick Wilson is on X at @TheRickWilson, on Bluesky at @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and you can check out Rick's Substack at therickwilson.substack.com.
You can check out more of LP's work at www.lincolnproject.us and on X at @ProjectLincoln.
#JesseWegman #JamesWilson #LostFounder #America250 #RickWilson #LincolnProject #FoundingFathers #Constitution #PresidentialHistory #July4th #History #Politics #Podcast
Transcript
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| 1:16.7 | Here's a guy who has always intertwined his personal interests with his vision for the country. |
| 1:23.0 | And he always saw it as naturally, those things as naturally connected. |
| 1:31.3 | By the end of his life, he destroys himself with it. You know, in that regard, he sounds like a thoroughly modern character. |
| 1:35.3 | Your task will not be an easy one. |
| 1:38.3 | Your enemy is well trained, well equipped, and battle-hardt. |
| 1:42.3 | There is not a liberal America and a conservative America. |
| 1:46.5 | There is the United States of America. |
| 1:51.2 | Good night and good luck. |
| 1:53.5 | Hey folks, I'm your host, Rick Wilson. |
| 1:54.9 | Welcome back. |
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