While many delegates focused on competing North-South interests regarding westward expansion, James Wilson remained singleminded in balancing federalism, representation, and popular sovereignty in the new territories.

The diagram shown here is another example of Wilson’s in-session visual shorthand—focal point diagrams rendered while waiting to speak in the high-stakes deliberations. The arched dashed line joining the figurative Northwest Territory to the landmass of the thirteen states captures the Convention’s critical deliberations over new state admissions into the union.

James Wilson contributed to every major doctrine of the Constitution, including the next issue of separation of powers.