Robert Treat Paine, Massachusetts

Born on March 11, 1731 Robert Treat Paine was to become a man that that not only watched the great events of his time unfold, but also had a hand in almost every aspect of them. Paine graduated from Harvard School in 1749. After this he took a few varying jobs: once a chaplain to the Northward Troops, he also became a teacher to support himself and supplement the dwindling fortune of his family.

Prior to the Revolutionary War Paine became involved in Law. It was actually his teaching that he used to pay his way through schooling to become a lawyer. In 1770 he became the prosecuting attorney for the trial against five British soldiers for the infamous Boston Massacre. It was that year that he was also elected to the Massachusetts Provincial Assembly. In 1774 he was selected to attend, as a representative of Massachusetts, the First Continental Congress where he served as chairman of the Debating Committee. He was also a signer of the Olive Branch Petition to King George as a list ditch effort to make amends before revolution. In 1775 he was appointed to a committee to acquire gunpowder for the Continental Army. In a letter to the congress Paine states “I cannot express to you the surprise and uneasiness I received on hearing the Congress express respecting the want of gunpowder; it was always a matter that lay heavy on my mind;. . .”(1) In 1776 he was selected again to represent Massachusetts in the Second Continental Congress. It was there that he received the nickname “Objection Maker”(2)Benjamin Rush says this is because, “He seldom proposed anything, but opposed nearly every measure that was proposed by other people...”(3)

During the war he was still a very busy man. In 1777 he was elected to be the Attorney General for the State of Massachusetts and served in this position until 1790. That year he also served on the committee to draft the first constitution of the State for the New Federation. 1779 he was selected as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. In 1780 he moved to his Hometown of Boston and helped found the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1783 he was offered an appointment to the Massachusetts Supreme Court by Governor Hancock; he turned this down until a later date.

After the war in the year 1796 Paine was finally convinced to take the offer of the position upon the Supreme Court. He proudly served as a judge until the year 1804 when he retired due to failing health. In 1814 Robert Treat Paine passed away due to poor health and age at of 83. America sadly lost a man that had offered so much to the founding of the country, its ideals, and someone who set an example of determination and selflessness.

Endnotes:
1. Goodrich, Rev. Charles A. Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence. New York: William Reed & Co., 1856
2. US History.Org, “Signers of the Declaration of Independence” http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/paine.htm
3. Ibid.

Bibliography:
Goodrich, Rev. Charles A. Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence. New York: William Reed & Co., 1856

US History.Org, “Signers of the Declaration of Independence” http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/paine.htm

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, “Paine, Robert Treat (1731-1814)” http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=P000029

Wanda White