Background
William Pennington was born on May 4, 1796 in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, United States. He was the son of Phoebe (Wheeler) and William Sandford Pennington.
William Pennington was born on May 4, 1796 in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, United States. He was the son of Phoebe (Wheeler) and William Sandford Pennington.
William Pennington received an elementary education in the local schools, and was graduated from the College of New Jersey (Princeton) in 1813.
After studying law with Theodore Frelinghuysen, William Pennington was licensed as attorney in 1817, as counselor in 1820, and as sergeant-at-law in 1834. While his father was district judge in New Jersey, he acted as clerk of the district and circuit courts from 1817 to 1826. Meanwhile his geniality, candor, and oratorical powers were bringing him an ever-enlarging and remunerative practice as well as making numerous political friends for him. In 1828 he was a member of the state Assembly from Essex County as an Adams Democrat.
Later, the Penningtons became Whigs, and when in 1837 the Whigs controlled the state legislature he was elected governor and chancellor of New Jersey. He was reelected annually five times. An imposing man of six feet two, he was known as a genial companion, somewhat of a "character", but possessing, nevertheless, a good deal of common sense. Contemporaries testify that both juries and assemblies fell an easy prey to his eloquence. His decisions as chancellor are brief but clear and pointed.
William Pennington was not a learned jurist and is said to have bragged in early life that he would get along with as little study as possible. Yet his good judgment preserved him from grave mistakes, only one of his decisions as chancellor was reversed. Out of the fact that New Jersey had been a doubtful state from the very beginning of the century there developed the chief political excitement of his tenure as governor, namely the "Broad Seal" War.
William Pennington had been elected governor in 1837 over the Democratic incumbent, Philemon Dickerson. The following year Dickerson and four other Democrats claimed to have been elected in five of six congressional districts. One seat was not challenged; it was admittedly Whig. The county clerks certified all six Whigs as elected. In spite of the accusations of corruption Pennington held that he had no authority to go behind the returns and placed the great seal of New Jersey upon the certificates of the six Whigs. In the federal House of Representatives the parties stood so nearly equally divided that the admission of one or the other group of claimants would determine its organization.
After ten days of acrimonious debate, it organized with a compromise speaker and three months later admitted the Democratic claimants. Pennington was bitterly attacked for his partisanship in not investigating the questionable returns, and, on the other hand, he was defended loyally by those who resented the refusal of Congress to accept without question the official certificates bearing the state seal.
When in 1843 a Democrat replaced him as governor, William Pennington withdrew from politics to practise before the higher courts of the state. His ambitions to be chancellor, which had become an appointive office under the new constitution, or to be a minister in Europe were not realized, and he refused posts as governor of Minnesota Territory and as claims judge under the Mexican treaty. His last venture in politics led to another exciting episode in congressional history. He was elected to Congress in 1858, when the House was again deadlocked over its organization, and it was only after eight weeks of debate, balloting, and negotiation that the moderates of both parties were able to agree upon him as a compromise speaker.
As a newcomer, William Pennington was totally unfamiliar with the procedure, and many were the stories told of his ignorance. He died in Newark, New Jersey on February 16, 1862.
Quotations:
"Lord, Bless our enemies; have mercy upon them, may they turn their course and let us alone, and let us live in peace at our homes in our own native land. "
"Our Father and Our God, unto thee, O Lord we lift our souls. "
On May 23, 1820 William Pennington married to Caroline (Burnet) Pennington, the daughter of Dr. William Burnet (1730-1791). They had four children.
