Campaign For Liberty: William Paca
 County CoordinatorLocation: Bel Air, MD Last login: 11/14/09  RSS feedWilliam Paca was born on October 31, 1740 in Abingdon, Harford County, in the then British colony of Maryland, the son of a wealthy planter from the area. He received a Master of Arts Degree from the College of Philadelphia in 1762. He returned to Maryland to study law and by 1761 was licensed to practice. He established his practice in Annapolis Maryland and in 1764 was admitted to the provincial bar. Paca formed close bounds with several other young attorneys in Annapolis, amongst them Samuel Chase (another future signer from Maryland). Together these two men led local opposition to the British Stamp Act of 1765, and then co-founded the Anne Arundel County Chapter of the Sons of Liberty. Paca was thus one of the earliest revolutionaries in an extremely conservative colony. Paca was elected to the Maryland colonial legislature in 1768. Chase and Paca allied themselves with others in the legislature (Whigs) who opposed autocratic rule, and protested the powers of the Proprietary Governor who was strongly enforcing British law. Paca joined other patriots in Maryland in vocal opposition to the poll tax originated by the royal governor. This tax was used to pay the salaries of the Anglican clergy, representing the established church of the colony. Paca both wrote and openly organized against the tax. In 1773 he became an active member of the Committees of Correspondence from Maryland and thus helped in the important planning for the First Continental Congress. In 1774, Paca would join Samuel Chase, and Thomas Johnson (future member of the Continental Congress) in acting as legal counsel for fellow legislator Joseph H. Harrison. Harrison had been jailed in a highly visible case for refusing to pay the poll tax. In June 1774 with the loyalties of the state militia highly suspect, the anti-British faction in the legislature headed by Paca and Chase, went toe to toe with the proprietary governor. The patriot-secessionists formed a Provisional Convention that assumed control of the Maryland state government. At this convention Paca, Chase, Johnson, and Charles Carroll all received their appointments to the First Continental Congress. The Provisional Convention adopted a conservative constitution in 1776 which Paca helped to pen. Among its features it reestablished toleration for all Christians, the Anglicans long ago having succeeded in repealing the Toleration Act in the Catholic Colony. Although William Paca sat in the Continental Congress until 1779, his most noteworthy achievements were within the Maryland provisional convention. In spring and early summer, the fateful year of 1776, the Maryland convention, because of its conservative nature, refused to authorize its delegates to the Continental Congress to vote for the course of independence. Paca, Chase, & Carroll worked tirelessly to build alliances and gain the support needed within the Maryland Convention. Finally the convention was swayed, and on the floor of the Continental Congress, Maryland voted to cast its lot with independence on July 1st and 2nd, 1776. On August 2nd, 1776, Paca along with Chase, Carroll, & Thomas Stone became the four signers of the Declaration of Independence from Maryland. The year 1777 saw William Paca serving in militia duty. As a member of the Maryland Council of Safety he spent large amounts of his personal fortune outfitting Maryland troops & procuring needed goods. In 1779 Paca resigned his position in the Continental Congress to become chief justice of the Maryland Superior Court. Paca distinguished himself in that position then as chief judge of the circuit court of appeals in admiralty cases. He resigned his judgeship when elected Governor of Maryland in 1782. He was twice reelected governor in 1783 and 1784. One of his main advocacies as Governor was seeing to the welfare of Revolutionary War veterans. In 1787 William Paca refused election to the Constitutional Convention but represented Harford County in the Ratification Convention held in April, 1788. As an avid anti-Federalist he proposed amendments to the Constitution that would ensure personal freedoms and liberties, and impose limitations to the power of the federal government. These amendments were much like the safeguards he had placed in the Maryland Constitution 12 years earlier. Federalist control undermined Paca's efforts but many of his proposals later were incorporated into the Bill of Rights. Despite William's Paca anti-Federalist positions, in December 1789 George Washington appointed Paca as a judge for the federal district court in Maryland. Washington realized that without men like Paca, and the personal sacrifices they had made, the revolution would never have been successful. Paca served in this post until his death on October 13th, 1799, just shy of his 59th birthday. William Paca's passing was viewed as a public calamity in Maryland as its citizens honored his courage, leadership, vision, and unwavering commitment to the cause of personal freedom and liberty. |
William Paca's weblog
|
