Paterson, William (1745–1806)

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PATERSON, WILLIAM (1745–1806)

William Paterson played a major role in the framing of the United States Constitution. His stubborn advocacy of state equality influenced the kind of government that was formed. He also was an active member of the United States Supreme Court who served as an important link between the Framers of the Constitution and the Supreme Court of john marshall.

Born in Ireland, Paterson moved to New Jersey at an early age, graduated from the College of New Jersey (Princeton), studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1768. Supporting the movement for independence, he soon became a prominent member of New Jersey's revolutionary generation and served in its provincial legislature. Paterson drafted the state's first constitution and became its first attorney general. During the 1780s he built up his legal practice by defending the interests of wealthy landowners and creditors. In the political battles of that decade he advocated the supremacy of the peace treaty of 1783 over state laws, opposed the emission of paper money, and supported the movement to create a strong central government.

In 1787 New Jersey selected Paterson as one of its delegates to the constitutional convention. Although he favored increasing the power of the national government, Paterson vigorously opposed the proposal of the virginia plan, as drafted by james madison and presented by edmund randolph, that representation in both houses of the national legislature be apportioned according to population. Paterson feared this provision would give too much power to the larger states and place smaller states like New Jersey, Connecticut, and Delaware at a disadvantage. As an alternative he proposed the new jersey plan of government. Its principal feature was the continuance of the unicameral legislature of the articles of confederation in which each state had only one vote. The plan also would have: provided the federal government with the power to levy imposts and regulate trade and collect funds from states that did not comply with federal requisitions; created a Supreme Court with broad powers; and made the laws and treaties of the United States the supreme law of the land, with the state judiciaries bound to obey them despite any contrary state laws. Should a state or individuals within a state refuse to obey the laws of Congress or its treaties, the federal government would have had the right to use force to compel obedience. In other words, the central issue separating the proponents of the New Jersey Plan from those who favored the Virginia Plan was representation, not nationalism. Although the convention rejected Paterson's proposal, the delegates from the small states remained strongly opposed to proportional representation in Congress. In fact, the convention almost foundered on this issue, but it finally resolved the matter by adopting the so-called great compromise that provided for representation by population in the lower house of a bicameral Congress and equal representation of each state in the upper house. With this matter settled, Paterson threw his complete support behind the new Constitution.

In 1789 the New Jersey legislature elected Paterson to the first United States Senate where, along with oliver ellsworth, he helped to write the judiciary act of 1789. This law created a system of lower federal courts, broadly defined their jurisdiction, created the office of attorney general, and gave the Supreme Court appellate jurisdiction over the final decisions of state courts in all matters relating to the Constitution and federal laws and treaties. As a senator, Paterson also enthusiastically supported alexander hamilton's proposals to fund the national debt at face value with full interest, and for the federal government to assume all state debts. In November 1790 Paterson resigned his seat in the Senate to become governor of New Jersey. In this capacity he undertook the task of codifying the state's laws, which were published in 1800. He also worked closely with Hamilton in 1791 to form the generally unsuccessful "Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures"; the society created a small industrial city on the banks of the Passaic River, which became known as Paterson.

Early in 1793 President george washington appointed Paterson to the United States Supreme Court. For the next decade he had an active career on the bench participating in almost all the important decisions rendered by the high court. These decisions reveal Paterson to have been, above all else, a firm advocate of the supremacy of the federal over the state governments. In Penhallow v. Doane's Administrators (1795) he expounded an extremely nationalist interpretation of the origins and nature of the Union, arguing that even during the 1780s the Continental Congress represented the "supreme will" of the American people. In the important and controversial case of ware v. hylton (1796) Paterson held that the treaty of peace with Great Britain (1783), which guaranteed that no legal obstacles would be placed in the way of the recovery of debts owed by Americans to British creditors, was part of the "supreme law of the land," rendering invalid a Virginia statute (1777) that allowed the sequestration of debts owed to British subjects before the Revolution.

Paterson also believed in a strong and independent judiciary. In 1795 while on circuit in Pennsylvania he delivered an opinion in van horne ' s lessee v. dorrance that espoused the doctrine of vested rights and the right of the courts to void a statute repugnant to the Constitution. Although the case involved a state law that contradicted a state constitution, Paterson's argument had broader theoretical implications, and his remarks on the subject of judicial review are the fullest and most important statements by a Justice of the United States Supreme Court before John Marshall's opinion in marbury v. madison (1803). In hylton v. united states (1796) Paterson agreed with the other Justices in upholding the constitutionality of a federal tax on carriages enacted in 1794. Because the key issue was whether the carriage tax was a direct tax or an excise tax, Paterson's opinion contained a long discussion of the intention of the Framers of the Constitution as to what kinds of taxes required apportionment among the states according to population. Paterson also expounded on the intention of the Framers in Calder v. Bull (1798) when he concurred with the rest of the Court in interpreting the provision of Article I, section 10, prohibiting state legislatures from enacting ex post facto laws as extending only to criminal, not civil laws.

Like so many Federalists, Paterson refused to recognize the legitimacy of the Republican opposition during the 1790s. When Congress passed the alien and sedition acts, in 1798, he vigorously enforced them. While riding circuit in Vermont he urged a federal grand jury to indict Democratic-Republican Congressman Matthew Lyon for bringing the President and the federal government into disrepute with his various criticisms. "No government," Paterson observed, "can long subsist when offenders of this kind are suffered to spread their poison with impunity." In the trial that followed Paterson continued to pursue Lyon, emphasizing that the tendency of the Congressman's words be made the test of his intent. Paterson also made clear his belief that the Supreme Court alone had the final authority to determine the constitutionality of laws of Congress, a position the Republican defense had denied. After the jury convicted Lyon, Paterson imposed a harsh sentence of four months in jail and a $1,000 fine. In 1800 Paterson also presided over the trial of Anthony Haswell, a Bennington, Vermont, newspaperman who had rallied to Lyon's defense, and following Haswell's conviction sentenced him to two months in prison and fined him $200. Paterson's actions during the crisis of 1798, along with those of samuel chase, are among the clearest examples of the partisan nature of the Federalist judiciary during the late 1790s. Many Jeffersonians were incensed by the proceedings, and had the attempt to remove Chase from the Supreme Court proven successful in 1805, they probably would have gone after Paterson next.

When Oliver Ellsworth resigned as Chief Justice in 1800, most Federalists in the Senate felt the post should go to Paterson. But by then President john adams had openly broken with the Hamiltonian wing of the party, and he appointed John Marshall instead. Paterson accepted this development graciously; in fact, he described the new Chief Justice as "a man of genius" whose "talents have at once the lustre and solidity of gold." When the Jeffersonians took political power in 1801, Paterson backed away from his earlier extremism and supported Marshall's strategy of avoiding direct political confrontations with the Republican majority in Congress. When the judiciary act of 1801 was repealed, some of the more belligerent Federalists, including Justice Chase, wanted the Supreme Court to declare the repeal act unconstitutional. Riding circuit in Virginia, Marshall opposed this strategy, and declared the law constitutional in stuart v. laird. The decision was immediately appealed to the Supreme Court where Marshall would not be allowed to participate in the case because he had already ruled on it in the lower court. In early 1803 Paterson delivered the Supreme Court's decision on the question. Not only did he side with Marshall, he delivered a warning to the more combative Federalists that "the question is at rest and ought not now to be disturbed." Among other things, the decision clearly indicated that the Federalist-dominated Supreme Court was willing to acquiesce in the "Revolution of 1800." It also went a long way toward reducing concerns, at least among moderates in thomas jefferson's administration, about the high court's tendency to engage in partisan politics.

In the fall of 1803, Paterson was injured in a carriage accident. He missed the February 1804 term of the Supreme Court; and although he rode circuit the following year, he never fully recovered. He died in 1806.

Richard E. Ellis
(1986)