William Paterson Research Paper

William Paterson In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania the Constitutional Convention concluded with 38 of the 41 delegates signing the United States Constitution. Among those 38 men was William Paterson of New Jersey. William Paterson came to America from Ireland when he was just years old. His father did well in manufacturing and selling tin goods which allowed William a good education in private schools. He entered the College of New Jersey which is now Princeton at the age of 14. Paterson studied law under Richard Stockton one of the signers of the Declaration of independence. He was admitted to the bar in 1768. He then began practicing law in New Bromely, New Jersey. He joined the vanguard of the New Jersey patriots when the War of Independence

Some of the cases he decided on being: Talbot v. Janson, Talbot v. Janson in 1795, Hylton v. United States in 1796, Calder v. Bull in 1798, New York v. Connecticut in 1799, and Marbury v. Madison in 1803. In the case of Talbot v. Janson the Court ruled that Americans could have dual citizenship and that the jurisdiction of the court extended to the seas. Hylton v. United States was the first case in which the court challenged the constitutionality of a Congressional act. In Calder v. Bull the court decided that the ex post facto clause of the Constitution only applied to criminal cases not civil. New York v. Connecticut was the first case in which the Supreme Court used its power of Article III of the Constitution to hear arguments between states. Marbury v. Madison is a landmark case in which the Court declared a Congressional act unconstitutional, which is now called judicial review. This case and the decision of it helped define the checks and balance system of the government. In 1803 Paterson was involved in a carriage accident while on circuit court duty. He never fully recovered from the accident and died at his daughter’s home in Albany, New York at the age of 61. He was buried in the Van Rensselaer family vaul,t but later his body was moved to Albany Rural