William Paca was an American lawyer and politician. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence as a representative of Maryland and Governor of Maryland. He was also the United States federal judge.
Background
William Paca was born on October 31, 1740 in Abingdon, Harford County, Maryland, United States. He was the second son of John and Elizabeth (Smith) Paca. The Paca family may have been of Italian origin. They appear in America as well-to-do planters in the latter part of the seventeenth century.
Education
At the age of fifteen William Paca was sent to the College of Philadelphia where he received Master of Arts degree in 1759. Shortly afterward he went to Annapolis where he studied law in the office of Stephen Bordley and was admitted to practice before the mayor's court in 1761. He completed his legal training at the Inner Temple in London and was admitted to the bar of the provincial court in 1764.
Career
William Paca was first elected to the provincial legislature in 1768 and soon became identified with the party opposed to the Proprietor. With Samuel Chase and others he urged that Governor Eden's proclamation regulating the fees of civil officers should be recalled. This was later done. He also led the opposition against the poll tax which had been laid for the support of the clergy. During this controversy Chase, Paca, and Thomas Johnson wrote (1774) an article in reply to Daniel Dulany and James Holliday who had defended the tax. It was reprinted in London papers and brought the group into considerable prominence. While in the Assembly Paca was on the committee that directed the construction of the State House at Annapolis. In the preliminaries of the Revolution he became a leader of the patriot cause.
He served on the Maryland Committee of Correspondence and was elected to the First Continental Congress in June 1774. In October he returned to Annapolis where he was one of the representatives of that city in the Provincial Convention which met from November 21 to 24. As member of the Second Continental Congress almost continuously from 1775 to 1779 he served on many important committees, among them the special Committee of Thirteen for Foreign Affairs. After Maryland removed the restrictions on the actions of her delegates in June 1776, Paca and his colleagues, Chase, Thomas Stone, and Charles Carroll, were free to vote for and sign the Declaration of Independence. Soon after the war started Paca became a member of the Maryland Council of Safety and spent several thousand dollars of his own money out-fitting troops. He was in the convention that framed a constitution for the state in August 1776 and was elected one of the fifteen members of the first state Senate. In 1778 he was appointed chief judge of the Maryland General Court and two years later was appointed by Congress as the chief justice of the court of appeals in admiralty and prize case.
In November 1782 he was elected governor of Maryland by the legislature and was reelected unanimously in 1783 and 1784, his last term ending November 26, 1785. As governor he was greatly interested in the welfare of returning soldiers and in reviving interests which the war exigency had caused to decline. He took an active part in raising subscriptions for Washington College and laid the cornerstone for the first building in 1783. Paca was a delegate in the Maryland convention which adopted the federal Constitution in 1788. Although he proposed twenty-eight amendments he voted for adoption when the convention decided it had either to accept or reject the Constitution as submitted to it. In 1789 Washington appointed Paca federal district judge. He held this position until his death at Wye Hall, his country home, in Talbot County. William Paca was a member of the Second Continental Congress, of the Maryland Council of Safety, of the Committee of Correspondance. William Paca died on October 13, 1799.
Achievements
Views
Quotations:
"As long Sir as Mankind shall retain a proper Sense of the Blessings of Peace Liberty and Safety, your Character in every Country and in every Age will be honor’d admir’d and rever’d: but to a Mind elevated as your’s, the Consciousness of having done Great and illustrious Deeds from the purest Principles of Patriotism; of having by your Wisdom and Magnanimity arrested the Arm of Tyranny saved a dear Country and Millions of Fellow Citizens and Millions yet unborn from Slavery and all the Horrors and Calamities of Slavery, and placed their Rights and Liberties on a Permanent Foundation must yield a Satisfaction infinitely superior to all the Pomp and Eclat of applauding Ages and admiring Worlds. "
Membership
William Paca was elected the honorary member of the Society of the Cincinnati. From 1784 to 1787 he served as vice-president of the Maryland Society, though the order was only for those who had served as army officers.
Personality
John Adams described Paca as a "deliberator".
Connections
On May 26, 1763, William Paca was married to Mary Chew, the daughter of Samuel and Henrietta Maria (Lloyd) Chew of Annapolis. Only one of their five children reached maturity. His wife died in 1774 and in 1777 he was married to Anne Harrison of Philadelphia who died three years later.