William B. Maclay was an American lawyer, editor, and legislator.
Background
William Brown Maclay was born on March 20, 1812, in New York City. He was one of twelve children of the Rev. Archibald and Mary Brown Maclay.
His father was born in the village of Killearn, Stirlingshire, Scotland; his mother was the daughter of a Glasgow merchant.
Education
Maclay matriculated at the University of the City of New York at twenty and graduated with highest honors in the class of 1836, remaining after his graduation to accept a temporary professorship in Latin language and literature.
In 1839, having taken up the study of law, he was admitted to the bar and at once formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, Isaac P. Martin.
Career
Maclay, more than anyone else, was responsible for the legislation reorganizing the superior court and the court of common pleas of the city and county of New York. He also secured the publication of the Journals of the Provincial Congress of New York, covering the years 1775-77, and containing many original unpublished letters of distinguished Revolutionary personages. His most important legislative work, however, related to popular education.
As a member of the committee on colleges, academies, and common schools, he obtained the passage of an act which in substance gave the City of New York full benefit of the state law providing for publicly supported, publicly controlled schools. At the time, the Protestants charged that the measure was designed to favor the growing Catholic population of the city, and Maclay was roundly and unjustly denounced, but he was a believer in religious toleration and wished to have the schools of the city and state open on equal terms to all.
In 1842, Maclay was elected to Congress. He served five terms in all, being reelected in 1844, 1848, 1856, and 1858, after which he declined to be a candidate for reelection.
From 1838 to the time of his death, he served as a trustee of the University of the City of New York.
Maclay advocated the passage of the bill to aid S. F. B. Morse in demonstrating the practical utility of the telegraph, introduced an unsuccessful bill for the relief of the heirs of John Paul Jones and was one of those foremost in the movement for the reduction of postal rates. He asserted that the title of the United States to the disputed Oregon territory was "clear and unquestionable, " was an earnest advocate for an annexation of Texas, and favored the war with Mexico.
A pronounced Democrat of the Jacksonian type, he maintained that public lands should be gratuitously conveyed to actual settlers in the form of homesteads rather than be held by the government for sale to private speculators; he did not favor their donation to private corporations for the ostensible purpose of internal improvements.
He vigorously opposed the doctrines of the Native Americans or Know-Nothings as contrary to the spirit of republican institutions and incompatible with national unity.
Personality
William Brown Maclay was distinguished for his punctuality and diligent attention to business. Maclay was a lover of books and libraries, was widely read, could speak or write intelligently and often eloquently on many subjects. His characteristic traits were those of a cultured gentleman. He was proud of his good name, yet modest; he possessed a high sense of honor, loved justice, and was urbane and refined in taste and manner.
Connections
On August 22, 1838, Maclay married Antoinette Walton, daughter of Mark Walton, a New Orleans merchant. Three children were born of this marriage. In the spring of 1849, at the close of his third term in Congress, he removed with his family to Mount Palatine, Illinois.
Here, soon after their arrival, his wife died of cholera; he then returned to New York where his youngest daughter died of the same malady. He did not remarry.