Rutgers v. Waddington: Alexander Hamilton, the End of the War for Independence, and the Origins of Judicial Review

168 Pages·2016·4.66 MB·English

by  Peter Charles Hoffer

Rutgers v. Waddington
&
LANDMARK LAW CASES AMERICAN SOCIETY
Peter Charles Hoffer
N. E. H. Hull
Williamjames Hull Hoffer
Series Editors

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For a complete list of titles in the series go to www.kansaspress.ku.edu
PETER CHARLES HOFFER
Rutgers v.
Waddington
Alexander Hamilton, the End
of the War for Independence, and
the Origins of Judicial Review
UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KANSAS
© 2016 by Peter Charles Hoffer
All rights reserved
Published by the University Press of Kansas (Lawrence, Kansas 66045), which was
organized by the Kansas Board of Regents and is operated and funded by Emporia
State University, Fort Hays State University, Kansas State University, Pittsburg State
University, the University of Kansas, and Wichita State University
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hoffer, Peter Charles, 1944– author.
Rutgers v. Waddington : Alexander Hamilton, the End of the War
for Independence, and the Origins of Judicial Review / Peter Charles Hoffer.
pages cm. — (Landmark law cases & American society)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-7006-2204-7 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn 978-0-7006-2205-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
isbn 978-0-7006-2206-1 (ebook)
1. Rutgers, Elizabeth—Trials, litigation, etc. 2. Waddington, Joshua—Trials,
litigation, etc. 3. Military occupation damages—New York (State)—New York—
History—18th century. 4. United States—History—Revolution, 1775–1783—
Claims. 5. United States—Foreign relations—Law and legislation—History—18th
century. 6. Treaty-making power—United States—History—18th century.
7. Hamilton, Alexander, 1757–1804. I. Title.
kf228.r877h64 2016
346.74703’6—dc23
2015035635
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data is available.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication is recycled and contains 30 percent postconsumer
waste. It is acid free and meets the minimum requirements of the American National
Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials z39.48-1992.
contents
Editors’ Preface vii
Preface ix
Introduction: Of Hamilton and a Brewhouse 1
1. The First American Civil War 7
2. Laws and Lawyers for a Revolutionary Republic 24
3. Rutgers v. Waddington in the Mayor’s Court 43
4. “A Cause of National Significance” 73
5. The Many Legacies of Rutgers 95
Epilogue: Rutgers v. Waddington and the Second American
Civil War 125
Chronology 131
Bibliographical Essay 133
Index 147

’
EDITORS PREFACE
In recent decades, a great deal of attention has been devoted to end-
ing conflicts in societies through various methods of reconciliation.
World War II ended with a victor’s peace that included occupation
and criminal tribunals in both the former Nazi Germany and the
Empire of Japan. The fall of communism in Eastern Europe and the
effective end of the Cold War led to efforts, not always successful,
to stitch back together the quilt of civil society after decades of sus-
picion, informants, and secret prisons had sown deep divisions of
distrust. At the end of apartheid in South Africa, they created rec-
onciliation commissions. So, too, did our founding fathers attempt
to find rapprochement between the previously warring factions of
Americans, Revolutionaries and Loyalists, in the decade that fol-
lowed the bloody birth of our nation.
Peter Charles Hoffer, through the little-known but remarkable
legal case of Rutgers v. Waddington, recounts for us a tale of political
and constitutional intrigue involving some of the most important ac-
tors in the transitional era from a confederation of states under the
Articles of Confederation to a national republic under the U.S. Con-
stitution. Appearing for the defendants was war veteran, future Fed-
eralist, and first secretary of the treasury, Alexander Hamilton. And,
as always, lurking in the background was the estimable Aaron Burr.
It is also the story of a location as much as it is about the litigants
and their lawyers. New York City is not just the setting for this land-
mark law case. It is a character in the drama that unfolds. While not
representative of the Chesapeake, the Deep South, or New England,
New York City had its own substantial role to play in the history of
the republic, just as it had in the colonial period and the revolution.
Then, as now, it was a center for commerce, a mix of ethnicities and
nationalities, divided not just by faction and loyalties, but class and
interest. Hamilton and the other lawyers of the city served their cli-
ents, but they also represented the divisions in their city. In so doing
they paved the way for its future.
Hoffer’s Rutgers v. Waddington thus illustrates a foundational mo-
ment in the young nation’s history. As such, it is an encapsulation of a
vii
society riven by war and buffeted by revolutionary change, attempt-
ing to piece together the true meaning of “rule by law, and not by
men” as John Adams so fittingly described it.
viii { Editors’ Preface }
PREFACE
When does a revolutionary war end? When the guns are silent?
When the peacemakers have finished their labors? When fundamen-
tal change has run its course? When a rule of law replaces a rule of vi-
olence? When a new order of law and governance is established? All
of these questions can and should be asked of the American War for
Independence, at least insofar as it entailed a constitutional upheaval.
For the most noteworthy facet of the American Revolution was its
replacement of colonial charters in an imperial system with republi-
can constitutions for sovereign states. The war was fought to protect
those new legal institutions. Under these fundamental laws state leg-
islatures fashioned statutes for the victors and the vanquished. But
so long as an iniquitous distinction was made between Patriot and
Loyalist, native and visitor, there could be no real end to the war.
Only when the Loyalists were reincorporated into the body politic
and foreigners’ rights protected did the War for Independence, as a
legal event, truly come to a close.
One way to achieve these ends lay in the law courts, where Patriot
lawyers defended the rights of British citizens and former Loyalists.
Between 1783 and 1789 a cadre of young, able, and spirited Amer-
ican lawyers undertook this task. But they did not view that task in
isolation from wider political and economic issues. They saw in the
successful defense of these suits both a restoration of America’s place
in the world of Atlantic commerce and the basis for a truly national
polity and economy. They practiced law locally but thought globally,
and their thinking fostered a robust federalism.
The most important case in this category is the New York lawsuit
Rutgers v. Waddington (1784). Rarely given proper attention, Rutgers
is invariably treated as a small part of something else—a forerunner
of judicial review; a proof that the new nation adopted international
law; as Hamilton’s breakout legal case; and as the capstone case in the
Mayor’s Court, to name four. Rutgers was all of these things, but it
was more. It represented the end of the legal wars of the American
Revolution and the beginning of the transformation of a weak con-
federation into a strong federal system.
ix