William Paterson
William Paterson brought New Jersey legal training to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, where the New Jersey Plan prepared him for later service as governor and Supreme Court justice.
Born December 24, 1745 / Died September 9, 1806
On December 24, 1745, in County Antrim, Kingdom of Ireland, William Paterson was born before emigrating to New Jersey as a child. He graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1763, studied law, and built a practice that soon carried him into state politics. The Revolutionary movement made him New Jersey's attorney general and a committed nationalist.
Paterson sat in the Constitutional Convention in 1787, where the New Jersey Plan answered the Virginia Plan and defended equal state representation. He later served in the first U.S. Senate, helped shape the Judiciary Act of 1789, and became governor of New Jersey. In 1793 George Washington appointed him to the Supreme Court, where he served until his death.
The New Jersey Plan did not prevail in full, but it forced the compromise that preserved the Senate as the chamber of state equality. Paterson's later service on the Supreme Court also connected Convention debates directly to the interpretation of federal law.
Key Contributions
- On September 17, 1787, William Paterson signed the United States Constitution in Philadelphia after representing New Jersey in the federal convention.
- William Paterson's public record is closely tied to Constitutional Convention convenes, a named event that defined the period in which William Paterson served.
Related Events
Constitutional Convention convenes
From May to September 1787, delegates in Philadelphia abandoned revision of the Articles of Confederation and drafted a new Constitution under George Washington's presidency.
United States Constitution signed
On September 17, 1787, thirty-nine delegates signed the Constitution in Philadelphia and sent the proposed frame of government to the states for ratification.
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