William Paca — He Proposed the Bill of Rights

Five confirmed primary documents from the Maryland signer who helped ratify the Constitution while fighting to change it, and whose proposed amendments became the Bill of Rights.

William Paca was born in Harford County, Maryland on October 31, 1740, the son of a wealthy planter family. He attended the College of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania), earned his bachelor's degree in 1759, and studied law at the Inner Temple in London before returning to Annapolis to practice. In 1765, Paca and Samuel Chase, both young Annapolis lawyers, organized a Sons of Liberty chapter in Annapolis to protest the Stamp Act. They were in their mid-twenties.

By 1774 Paca was serving in the Maryland colonial assembly and was elected to the First Continental Congress. He voted for independence on July 2, 1776, and signed the Declaration on August 2. Maryland had required its delegates to seek state approval before voting for separation, when that approval came, Paca committed fully.

Paca served in the Continental Congress through 1777, helped draft the Maryland state constitution in 1776, and was appointed Chief Justice of the Maryland General Court in 1778. He served as Governor of Maryland for three terms (1782–1785). During his governorship he took a particular interest in veterans' affairs and was made an honorary member of the Society of the Cincinnati, an honor normally reserved for military officers.

In the 1780s, Paca was elected to both the Maryland Senate and the House of Delegates and chose to sit in the House. He represented Harford County at the Maryland ratifying convention in 1788 as an anti-Federalist.

At the Maryland ratifying convention in April 1788, Paca led the anti-Federalist effort. He ultimately voted for the Constitution, the Federalists controlled the convention, but he proposed 28 amendments designed to protect personal freedoms and limit federal power, including freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and protection against excessive judicial authority. Many of his proposed amendments were later incorporated into the Bill of Rights adopted in 1791.

Thomas Jefferson noted of Paca's Maryland colleagues: "Mr. Paca will probably be, as usual, in the politics of Chase", an acknowledgment of Paca's established independence and willingness to dissent.

Despite Paca's opposition to the Constitution as drafted, Washington appointed him to the newly created federal District Court of Maryland by recess appointment on December 22, 1789. He was formally nominated February 8, 1790, and confirmed by the Senate February 10. The nomination is documented in Washington's message to the Senate, September 24, 1789, at Founders Online.

Washington's nomination letter to the Senate lists Paca among the district judges for the new federal courts. The appointment recognized what Washington understood: that without men like Paca pressing for a Bill of Rights during ratification, the Constitution itself might not have survived. Paca served as federal district judge until his death on October 13, 1799, at fifty-eight. He is buried at Wye Plantation, Queen Anne's County, Maryland. His Annapolis home is a National Historic Landmark operated by Historic Annapolis.