A New Corporate Body—With We the People as Shareholders 

Directly below Blackstone’s paragraph about dissolution of corporations, James Wilson wrote "pr Eq II Kaims". (Principles of Equity, Book II, Kaims [later standardized to Kames])

Book II of Principles of Equity was about the utility of equity law, advocating remedies outside of the strict letter of the law to prevent individual or societal harm.

Perhaps more than any other delegate, James Wilson saw the Convention proceedings as a grand case in Kamesian equity. As a consummate lawyer, Wilson understood:

1. The Articles of Confederation was a breached compact causing public harm, and was without remedy.
2. The Confederation Congress was a failed corporate body that had forfeited its authority due to non-performance, and needed to be dissolved.
3. A new corporate body (government) and new Constitution were the equitable remedies to protect the nation’s shareholders, We the People.

Resistance to abandoning the weak Articles of Confederation largely ended following a devastating dissection of the Articles in a speech by James Madison on June 19th. This room-silencing speech would clear the way for the creation of not only a new government, but a whole new societal order.

Next: Deconstructing Blackstone to Build "A New Order for the Ages"