William+Paterson-2

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Kaila Tzianabos William Paterson  This is William Paterson, leader and role model to many people writing the Constitution. Known for his powerful presence, William was a great contributor to the Constitutional Convention. William Paterson**December 24, 1745 – September 9, 1806** Introduction: Everyone knew that the Articles of Confederation were weak, and they knew someone had to do something about it. So delegates from all of the states decided to meet in the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia to fix their problem. Over the next few months, they worked on strengthening their central government. They gave Congress more powers, instilled new slave rules, and created the House of Representatives and the Senate. Thirty nine delegates of the fifty five delegates voted to adopt the Constitution, and they did. They signed it at the signing ceremony on September 17, and that was the beginning of our country as we know it.  This is the state of New Jersey, where William is from. He moved here when he was two. Background Information: William Paterson was a Patriot who represented New Jersey and was an important member of the Framers of the Constitution. He was born in Northern Ireland in 1745, and moved to The United States when he was 2. He went to The College of New Jersey, now called Princeton, in 1763. William served as the secretary of the New Jersey Provincial Congress. His next big adventu re was to be come a member of the Constitutional Convention. There he was a helpful contributor of many great ideas to make this country better. William offered up the New Jersey Plan, to accommodate the small states. He was also one of the senators for New Jersey and a governor of New Jersey. To top it all off, William was the associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. William was a very busy and successful person, and helped make this country what it is today. William died in 1806. 

Role: William Paterson's role at the Constitutional Convention was very important. First and most importantly, he was a signer of the Constitution, and is considered to be one of the founding fathers. Second, William introduced the New Jersey plan, a plan that would help to benefit the small states. William also made sure that the leaders of this Convention did not violate their authoritative rights. He was known to have "powers that break in upon you, and create wonder, and astonishment." This was observed by William Pierce, another contributor to the Constitution.

This is the Constitutional Convention meeting. This is where they decided what went into the Constitution and where they chose who what have what power.

William's attendance record does not tell us about their role in the Constitutional Convention. If we combined the times William was present and was probably present, that would be about 58%. 58% is a little more than half, which means he attended the meetings 58% of the time. Although this is a small number, William did have a significant role in the Constitutional Convention. William was the co-writer of the New Jersey plan and also made sure that the federal government's power did not take away too much from the power of the States. Even though William did not have a good attendance record, he still made enormous contributions to the Constitutional Convention meetings. Federalism is the relationship between the federal government and the state government. William Paterson was an advocate to make sure both governments had equal power. To make sure no one would have more power than another one, federal governments were given some powers, and state governments were given other powers. William always made sure both governments didn't have a higher power over the other one. William definitely was a big advocate for federalism.
 * || Present || Absent || Probably Present || Probably Absent ||
 * Act l || 17 || 1 || 4 || 0 ||
 * Act ll || 24 || 0 || 6 || 0 ||
 * Act lll || 0 || 23 || 0 || 0 ||
 * Act lll || 1 || 13 || 0 || 0 ||
 * Total || 42 || 37 || 10 || 0 ||
 * Percent || 47% || 42% || 11% || 0% ||

Separation of powers is when the government is divided up into three branches, the judicial branch, the executive branch, and the legislative brach. The judicial branch interprets the laws, the executive branch puts the laws into action and the legislative branch comes up with the laws. We are not really sure where William stood on these laws but you can almost guarantee he was in favor of this.

Checks and Balances was a favorite of William's. He always made sure everyone had enough and equal power, so what better way to do so then to have each branch control each other. Each branch has the power to overrule the acts of another branch, so they make sure no one has complete power over the other branches.

Big versus Little States was obviously the favorite subject with William Paterson. Being from New Jersey, a small state, he wanted to make sure their voice would be heard when making important national decisions. So the House of Representatives and the Senate were both made to help both sizes. The House of Representatives is dependent on how many people are in your state. More people more representatives. The bigger states favored the House. But every state got two senators, so there was equal representation. The small states favored the Senate. It was a win win situation. =__[|dbq.docx]__=

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Constitution: William Paterson would definitely be in favor of the Senate section of the Constitution. William was a big part of writing the New Jersey Plan, which tried to ensure that the small states would have just as much representation as the big states. Because two senators from every state, big and small, were in the Senate, everyone got equal representation. This was one of the main concerns about New Jersey for William, so the fact that they made sure everything was fair was very appealing to him.

Bill of Rights: William Paterson would have favored the 10th Amendment, which is "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." William favored this quote because another one of his goals during the writing of the Constitution was to make sure that the states had their own separate powers, and that they were not completely governed by the federal government.



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