{"id":84,"date":"2010-09-15T18:25:50","date_gmt":"2010-09-15T18:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-404pinsker\/?p=84"},"modified":"2010-10-19T01:28:55","modified_gmt":"2010-10-19T01:28:55","slug":"william-paterson-guiding-voice-of-the-small-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-404pinsker\/2010\/09\/15\/william-paterson-guiding-voice-of-the-small-states\/","title":{"rendered":"William Paterson: Guiding Voice of the Small States"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Courtesy of Wikipedia<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the biggest advocates for the “small states” during the Constitutional Convention, William Paterson is most remembered for his stern opposition of Edmund Randolph’s proposed Virginia Plan which called for proportional representation in the “national” legislature. Born in Ireland, Paterson’s family immigrated to America and settled in Princeton, New Jersey. While his father was a moderately successful storekeeper, Paterson displayed his natural intelligence at an early age entering the College of Princeton\u00a0when he was\u00a0fourteen.\u00a0 Paterson pursued his master’s degree and studied law following his graduation. From the beginning of the American Revolution, Paterson was a staunch Patriot. He lived by a strict moral code that was displayed in\u00a0most aspects of his political and private life. Paterson saw his reputation and prestige ascend to new heights\u00a0at the outbreak of war. His law practice\u00a0became incredibly sought out after his appointment as Attorney General of New Jersey in 1776.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Appointed as one of New Jersey’s delegates at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Paterson remained relatively quiet during the first couple weeks except for his cryptic and sometimes animated note taking<\/a>, especially during Edmund Randolph’s proposed Virginia Plan on May 29th. Paterson strongly believed that proportional representation in this new\u00a0legislature would undermine the sovereign power of the states and the Articles of Confederation as a whole. On June 9th, Paterson spoke passionately in opposition, reminding the delegates not to overstep the boundaries that\u00a0had\u00a0brought\u00a0them\u00a0to the convention, to revise and\u00a0enlarge the Articles of Confederation, not to completely scrap the document in its entirety. While Paterson supported a stronger central government, he felt that\u00a0upholding the Articles of Confederation was the safest and maybe\u00a0only way to ensure the equality of representation among the states. His proposed New Jersey plan protected the interests of the smaller states and directly countered the sweeping changes of\u00a0the national government\u00a0articulated in the Virginia Plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the biggest advocates for the “small states” during the Constitutional Convention, William Paterson is most remembered for his stern opposition of Edmund Randolph’s proposed Virginia Plan which called for proportional representation in the “national” legislature. Born in Ireland, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12446],"tags":[12438],"class_list":["post-84","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-framer-profile","tag-framers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-404pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-404pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-404pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-404pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-404pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-404pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-404pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-404pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-404pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}