Jesse Wegman

You know, they're in the middle of a war against Great Britain at the time for their independence.

And this really shakes a lot of the people down to their core.

Wilson is one of the elites of Philadelphia at this time.

He is a leading lawyer.

He's become very wealthy.

He has a young and growing family with his wife, Rachel.

And he's enjoying the high life.

For all his commitment to popular rule and to the power of common people to govern themselves, he really is happy being an elite.

And he's an awkward guy too.

This is part of what I think made him fall out of the founding narrative, our national narrative of the American founding.

is that he's a difficult guy to get to know and to like.

And so he doesn't have a lot of, let's say, social capital at the time.

And in 1779, it's a pretty tough time.

And so people like Wilson stand out.

On this particular day in October of 1779, a mob of militiamen gather at a bar.

They drink all morning.

They get themselves drunk.

liquored up.

And then they go out looking for the elite of Philadelphia to capture and to teach a lesson to.

Wilson gets word that there is a mob of now, I think, several hundred men coming toward his house.