The months Letter From the Editor is about two Italians who played major roles in the decision making process of our country’s future. William Paca (October 31, 1740–October 13, 1799), was a signatory to the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Maryland and Philip Mazzei (December 25, 1730 – March 19, 1816), who wrote the great doctrine “All men are created equal” incorporated into the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson.

William Paca was born on October 31, 1740 in Abingdon, Harford County, in the British colony of Maryland. He was the child of John Paca, a wealthy planter in the area, and his wife Elizabeth Smith. Paca attended the The College of Philadelphia (now known as the University of Pennsylvania), graduating in 1759 with a bachelor of arts degree.

After graduation, Paca returned to Maryland, studying law in the colonial capital of Annapolis. By 1761, he was licensed to practice law.

In his personal life, Paca married Mary Chew, the daughter of a prominent Maryland planter, and they were married on May 26, 1763. They would go on to have three children, though only their son John Philemon survived into adulthood.

Political career

In his political career, Paca led local opposition to the British Stamp Act of 1765 and established the Anne Arundel County chapter of the Sons of Liberty. He was elected to the Maryland legislature in 1771 and appointed to the Continental Congress in 1774. Paca was reelected, serving until 1779, when he became chief justice of the state of Maryland. In 1782 he was elected governor of Maryland. In 1789 he became federal district judge for the state of Maryland, and served as such until his death.

Paca died in 1799 in Queen Anne's County, Maryland and was buried in the family cemetery.

Philip Mazzei was an Italian physician and a promoter of liberty. He was a close friend of Thomas Jefferson and acted as an agent to purchase arms for Virginia during the American Revolutionary War.

Mazzei was born Filippo Mazzei in Poggio a Caiano, in Tuscany, Italy. He studied medicine in Florence and practiced in Italy and the Middle East for several years before moving to London in 1755. There he took up a mercantile career as an importer. While in London he met the Americans Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Adams of Virginia. They are the ones who convinced him to move to America.

In 1773 he led a group of Italians who came to Virginia to introduce the cultivation of vineyards, olives, and other Mediterranean fruits. Mazzei became a neighbor and good friend of Thomas Jefferson. Mazzei and Jefferson started what became the first commercial vineyard in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

In 1779 Mazzei returned to Italy as a secret agent for the state of Virginia. He purchased and shipped arms to them until 1783.

After briefly visiting the United States again in 1785, Mazzei travelled throughout Europe promoting Republican ideals. He wrote a political history of the American Revolution, "Recherches historiques et politiques sur les Etats-Unis de l'Amerique septentrionale," and published it in Paris in 1788. After its publication Mazzei became an unofficial roving ambassador in Europe for American ideas and institutions.

Mazzei died in Pisa, Italy in 1816.

A tribute by President John F. Kennedy in his book “A Nation of Immigrants” gave power to Mazzei’s writings, “The great doctrine ‘All men are created equal’ incorporated into the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson, was paraphrased from the writings of Philip Mazzei, an Italian-born patriot and pamphleteer.

It is people like this that helped shape our beautiful nation and it is Italians like these two men that allow us to be so proud of our history, culture and traditions.