Paterson, William (b. County Antrium, Ireland, 24 Dec. 1745; d. Albany, N.Y., 9 Sept. 1806; interred Albany Rural Cemetery, Menands, N.Y.), associate justice, 1793–1806. William Paterson played a significant role in the framing of the United States Constitution in the summer of 1787, helped write the
Judiciary Act of 1789, and was an important and active member of the Supreme Court during the 1790s and the early years of the Marshall Court.
Though born in Ireland, Paterson was brought to New Jersey at an early age. He did his undergraduate work at Princeton University, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1768. A vigorous advocate of independence, he quickly became a prominent member of New Jersey's revolutionary generation. He helped draft the state's first constitution and became its first attorney general. He also developed a lucrative law practice during the 1780s by defending wealthy landowners and creditors.
Paterson strongly supported the movement, in the 1780s, to create a more energetic national government. As a member of the Constitutional Convention, he opposed the Virginia Plan's proposal that representation in both houses of Congress be apportioned according to population. Fearing that such a provision would give too much power to states with a large number of inhabitants and place smaller states like New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut at a disadvantage, he proposed as an alternative the New Jersey Plan of Government, which, in its most important feature, provided for a continuance of the single‐house legislature of the Articles of Confederation in which each state, regardless of the number of its representatives, had only one vote. The proposal eventuated in the Great Compromise that arranged for the creation of a bicameral Congress where representation in the lower house would be by population and equal representation (two senators for each state) was provided in the upper house. The plan also created a Supreme Court with broad powers and made the laws and treaties of the federal government the supreme law of the land, with
state courts bound to obey them. This arrangement probably was the source of the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution (Art. VI, cl. II).
Elected to the first United States Senate, Paterson was one of the authors of the Judiciary Act of 1789. This law implemented
Article III of the United States Constitution by providing that the United States Supreme Court consist of a
chief justice and five associate justices and a system of district and circuit courts at the lower level (see
Lower Federal Courts). It also created the office of attorney general. And in section 25, which was to be the foundation of some of the Supreme Court's most important decisions, it gave that Court
appellate jurisdiction over final decisions of state courts when the Constitution, federal laws, and treaties were involved (see
Judicial Power and Jurisdiction).25
Appointed to the Supreme Court by George
Washington in 1793, Paterson played a key role in almost all the important decisions of the 1790s. In them he always argued for the supremacy of the federal government over the states. His decision in
Penhallow v. Doane's Administration (1795) articulated a strongly nationalist interpretation of the origins and nature of the Union. In
Ware v. Hylton (1796), he rendered invalid a Virginia statute that had permitted the sequestration of debts owed to British citizens before the Revolution, on the grounds that the treaty of peace with Great Britain had specifically provided that there should be no legal obstacles placed in the way of the recovery of debts owed by Americans to English creditors and that it was the “supreme law of the land.” Paterson also favored a strong and independent judiciary. His decision on circuit in
Van Horne's Lessee v. Dorrance (1795) espoused the doctrine of
judicial review. Paterson's opinions are also important because as a member of the federal convention that framed the United States Constitution, he was able to speak with authority on what the “
original intention” of the framers was on a number of issues. Particularly important in this regard are his decisions in
Hylton v. United States (1796) and
Calder v. Bull (1798).
While riding circuit during the 1798–1800 period, Paterson enthusiastically enforced the
Sedition Act. He presided over the trials that led to the conviction of a number of Democratic‐Republican critics of President John Adams's administration, including Congressman Matthew Lyon. Following the Jeffersonian victory in the election of 1800 and the appointment of John
Marshall as chief justice in 1801, Paterson became more cautious and moderate. His new attitude manifested itself most clearly in
Stuart v. Laird (1803) when Paterson, speaking for a unanimous Supreme Court, declared the Jeffersonian sponsored repeal of the
Judiciary Act of 1801 constitutional.
In 1804, while riding circuit, Paterson suffered an injury from which he never recovered. He died in 1806.
Bibliography
John E. O'Connor , William Paterson, Lawyer and Statesman, 1745–1806 (1979).
Richard E. Ellis
