Robert Treat Paine is best remembered today as a signer of the Declaration of Independence, but his public career lasted over thirty years. During this time he participated in some of the most important events of a tumultuous era--from the Boston Massacre Trials to the First Continental Congress, from financing the Revolution through the confiscation of Loyalist estates to the prosecution of rebels following Shays's Rebellion. This full-length biography of Paine studies his development from some early unsuccessful careers as merchant and whaler, through to his studying for the bar. Paine's early years as a lawyer came at a period when the practice of law was becoming professionalized and growing in its public stature. The transition from lawyers standing outside of public life to becoming the major shapers of it was an important factor in pre-Revolutionary America and the New Republic.
Although essentially apolitical himself, Paine held strong opinions about upholding the laws and principles of the day rather than initiating change. As a result, while at the Continental Congress he became best known for his committee work in dealing with arming and supplying the army rather than his political opinions. As the first attorney general of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Paine changed that office from being a crown sinecure to a full-time professional position as prosecutor for the state. Although a staunch Federalist by temperament and practice, Paine generally managed to avoid the growing politicization of the times throughout his career.
His final public position was as an associate justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. In this position Paine made his most public statements concerning the politics and events of the day through charges to the grand jury. Most important among these are his policy statements supporting the Alien and Sedition Acts. Paine was a founding member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was active in the social and cultural life of Boston until his death in 1814.
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