BIO: William MACLAY, Dauphin County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by JAWB

Copyright 2006.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/dauphin/
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/dauphin/runk/runk-bios.htm
_______________________________________________________________ 

Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, 
Containing Sketches of Representative Citizens, and Many of the 
Early Scotch-Irish and German Settlers.  Chambersburg, Pa.: 
J. M. Runk & Company, 1896, pages 178-182.
_______________________________________________________________ 

  MACLAY, WILLIAM, son of Charles Maclay, was born July 20, 1737, in 
New Garden township, Chester county, Pa.; died Monday, April 16,1804, 
at Harrisburg, Pa.; buried in Paxtang church graveyard.  In 1742 his 
father removed to now Lurgan township, Franklin county, where his 
boyhood days were spent upon the paternal farm. When the French and 
Indian war broke out he was at Rev. John Blair's classical school, in 
Chester county, and, desiring to enter the service of the Province, his 
tutor gave him a recommendation "as a judicious young man and a 
scholar," which secured him the appointment of ensign in the 
Pennsylvania battalion; he was promoted lieutenant in the Third 
battalion, Lieut. Col. Hugh Mercer, May 7, 1758.  Accompanied General 
Forbes' expedition that year, and especially distinguished himself at 
the battle of Loyalhanna.  In Bouquet's expedition of 1763, he was in 
the fight of Bushy Run; while in the subsequent campaign of that 
gallant officer, he was stationed, with the great portion of the Second 
Pennsylvania, on the line of the stockade forts on the route to Fort 
Pitt as Lieutenant commanding the company.  For these services he 
participated in the Provincial grant of land to the officers connected 
therewith, located on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, and most of 
which he assisted in surveying.  He studied law and was admitted to the 
York county bar, April 28, 1760, but it is doubtful if he ever 
practiced his profession at that court, the continued Indian war, and 
his subsequent duties as surveyor, engrossing his entire time, 
although, from a letter of John Penn's, it would seem that he was 
afterwards admitted to the Cumberland county bar, and had acted for the 
prothonotary of that county.  At the close of the French and Indian war 
he visited England and had an interview with Thomas Penn, one of the 
Proprietaries, relative to the surveys in the middle and northern parts 
of the Province, and was the assistant of Surveyor Lukens on the 
frontiers.  In 1772 he laid out the town of Sunbury and erected for 
himself a stone house, which was standing a few years since.  Upon the 
organization of the county of Northumberland he was appointed 
prothonotary and clerk of the courts. He also acted as the 
representative of the Penn family, and took a prominent part in the so-
called Pennamite war.  In writing to the secretary of the province, in 
April, 1773, he says, "If hell is justly considered as the rendezvous 
of rascals, we cannot entertain a doubt of Wioming being the place;" 
but, much as he was prejudiced against the Connecticut settlers, he 
foresaw the future value of the land in that valley, and advised Penn 
not to sell his reservation there.  At the outset of the Revolution, 
although an officer of the Proprietary government, William Maclay took 
a prominent and active part in favor of independence, not only 
assisting in equipping and forwarding troops to the Continental army, 
but marched with the associators, participating in the battles of 
Trenton and Princeton.  During the Revolution he held the position of 
assistant commissary of purchases.  In 1781 he was elected to the 
assembly, and from that time forward he filled the various offices of 
the Supreme Executive Council, judge of the Courts of Common Pleas, 
deputy surveyor, and one of the commissioners for carrying into effect 
the act respecting the navigation of the Susquehanna river.  About this 
period he visited England in the interest of the Penn family.  In 
January, 1789, he was elected to the United States Senate, taking his 
seat there as the first senator from Pennsylvania.  He drew the short 
term, and his position terminated March 3, 1791, his colleague, Robert 
Morris, securing the long term.  His election to this body raised him 
upon a higher plane of political activity, but contact with the Federal 
chiefs of the Senate only strengthened his political convictions, 
which, formed by long intercourse with the people of Middle 
Pennsylvania, were intensely democratic.  He began to differ with the 
opinions of President Washington very early in the session; he did not 
approve of the state and ceremony attendant upon the intercourse of the 
President with Congress - he flatly objected to the presence of the 
President in the Senate while business was being transacted, and in the 
Senate boldly spoke against his policy in the immediate presence of 
President Washington.  The New England historians, Hildreth and 
Goodrich, repute Thomas Jefferson as the "efficient promoter at the 
beginning and founder of the Democratic party."  Contemporary records, 
however, show beyond the shadow of a doubt that this responsibility or 
honor, in whatever light it may be regarded, cannot be shifted from the 
shoulders or taken from the laurels of Pennsylvania statesmanship.  
Before Mr. Jefferson's return from Europe, William Maclay assumed an 
independent position, and in his short career of two years in the 
Senate propounded ideas and gathered about him elements to form the 
opposition which developed with the meeting of Congress at 
Philadelphia, on the 24th of October, 1791, in a division of the people 
into two great parties, the Federalists and Democrats, when, for the 
first time, appeared an open and organized opposition to the 
administration.  The funding of the public debt, chartering the United 
States Bank, and other measures championed necessarily by the 
administration, whose duty it was to put the wheels of government in 
motion, engendered opposition.  Mr. Maclay, to use his own language, 
"no one else presenting himself," fearlessly took the initiative, and 
with his blunt common sense (for he was not much of a speaker) and 
Democratic ideas, took issue with the ablest advocate of the 
administration.  Notwithstanding the prestige of General Washington, 
and the ability of the defenders of the administration on the floor of 
the Senate, such was the tact and resolution of Mr. Maclay, that when, 
after his short service, he was retired from the Senate and succeeded 
by James Ross, a pronounced Federalist, their impress was left in the 
distinctive lines of an opposition party, a party which, taking 
advantage of the warm feeling of our people toward the French upon the 
occasion of Jay's treaty with Great Britain, in 1794, and of the 
unpopularity of the alien and sedition laws, passed under the 
administration of President John Adams, in 1798, compassed the final 
overthrow of the Federal party in 1800.  While in the Senate, Mr. 
Maclay preserved notes of its discussions, both in open and secret 
sessions, with observations upon the social customs of the first 
statesmen of the Republic, which have been published and edited by 
George Washington Harris.  Upon his retirement, he resided permanently 
on his farm adjoining Harrisburg, where he erected the stone mansion 
for many years occupied by the Harrisburg Academy.  In the year 1795 he 
was elected a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and 
again elected in 1803.  He was a presidential elector in 1796, and, 
from 1801 to 1803, one of the associate judges of the county of 
Dauphin.  Mr. Harris, who edited his journal, gives us this summary of 
Mr. Maclay's character:  "He was a man of strict integrity, of positive 
opinions, having implicit confidence in his own honesty and judgment; 
he was inclined to be suspicious of the integrity of others whose 
sentiments or action in matters of importance differed from his own, 
and the journal, to which reference has been made, is evidence of the 
strength of his intellect."  "In personal appearance Mr. Maclay is said 
to have been six feet three inches in height, and stout and muscular; 
his complexion was light, and his hair, in middle age, appears to have 
been brown, and was worn tied behind or clubbed."  Mr. Maclay married, 
April 11, 1769, Mary McClure Harris, daughter of John Harris, the 
founder of Harrisburg, and Elizabeth McClure, his wife; born April 13, 
1750, at Harris' Ferry; died April 20, 1809, at Harrisburg, and buried 
in Paxtang church graveyard.