Paterson's success on both the Board of Town Commissioners and later Municipality, resulted in his accepting nomination and being elected to the House of Assembly. His early activity involved lobbying for increased European immigration, and the widespread anti-convict agitation of 1849.
First Parliamentary term and Eastern Cape separatism (1854–1858) In 1854 he was elected to the first Cape Parliament as one of the two members for
Port Elizabeth (together with
Henry Fancourt White). From the beginning of his political career he made the secession of the eastern part of the Cape Colony a priority. He felt very strongly that the
Xhosa people of the eastern Cape frontier were a severe threat to the colonists' safety and that this threat was not helped by the Cape government's relaxed attitude to the frontier. His proposed solution was a view which he held for the remainder of his life – that the eastern Cape deserved a greater degree of separation, or to become the seat of the Cape's parliament and government. In this, he differed from the radical members of the "separatist league", who were based further east in Grahamstown, were led by
Robert Godlonton, and who proposed absolute and immediate separation. He also angered Godlonton's Grahamstown clique by his blocking of their Kowie harbour proposal, which he saw as potentially taking shipping activity away from Port Elizabeth. The separatist movement began a gradual decline due to a growing fear in the Midlands around Port Elizabeth and Graaff-Reinett that if they attained separation then they would fall under the domination of Grahamstown. He resigned from politics in 1858 due to his wife's fatal illness.
Business interlude (1859–1873) In 1859 he made a business trip to Britain having moved his five children there after the death of his wife. He also had business connections and gave consideration to a bid for a seat in the British parliament, which he decided against. It was during this time that he paid a visit to the U.S.A. and also travelled to the Continent. In 1862 he founded
Standard Bank of South Africa now the largest bank in Africa. Soon after the South African Irrigation and Investment Company and the Eastern Province Railway Company followed. One of his favourite maxims was: "It is no good having grand ideas without the gold to back them". However, the death of a business partner while out of the country coupled to a declining economy resulted in several business failures and declared bankruptcy in 1867. Between 1861 and 1862 John Paterson met Marizza Bowie who became his second wife. Marizza's mother, a Thurburn of Myrtle, Aberdeen was a direct descendant of David I King of Scotland. Between 1863 - 1880 Marizza presented her husband with eight children. In 1872, the Cape attained self-rule (or "
responsible government" as it was known) and an economic boom ensued as the new locally elected government began vast infrastructure projects across the country. Paterson, financially uplifted by the economic boom, re-entered politics.
Return to Parliament (1872–1877) Separatist League (1872–1874) Paterson was elected to the Cape Parliament again in 1873. The enormous growth in the economy was fueling a competition between the ports Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, for the expanding inland trade. Paterson therefore returned to his fight for a moderate form of separation – so as to avoid dominance by either Cape Town to the west, or Grahamstown to the east. In other developments, he put forward bills for a local government system, and for a division of public money according to customs and land revenue, but both bills were defeated. Paterson and his political ally
John Gordon Sprigg comprised the core of the opposition to the first Cape government, together with the renegade independent
John X. Merriman (who soon joined the government). Paterson's strongest critic was the liberal
Saul Solomon, who ridiculed Paterson's ideas. Paterson's role in the "
Eastern Cape Separatist League" also brought him into a direct showdown with the strong-willed Prime Minister of the Cape,
John Molteno – a firm proponent of regional and racial unity in the Cape – who reacted in May 1874 by passing the
Seven Circles Act. This re-drew the borders of the Cape's subdivisions, abolishing the last legal remnants of the East/West distinction. Together with Molteno's policy of drawing ministers from the Eastern Cape into his government, and the general rising prosperity of the whole country, this effectively crushed the separatist movement. Paterson fought the Bill bitterly, but nonetheless kept his seat in parliament as a member of the opposition once it was passed. He went on to become the primary critic of the Molteno Ministry over the following years, even when the official head of the opposition
John X. Merriman joined Molteno's unity government. Not always popular, Paterson's views, and especially the way in which he delivered them, often provoked considerable hostility in parliament. This all too frequently left him isolated and unable to do more than temporarily obstruct government projects.
Enforcement of Confederation (1874–1877) Starting in 1874, the British
Secretary of State for the Colonies,
Lord Carnarvon, having recently federated Canada, began a project to impose the very same system of
confederation on the very different states of southern Africa. This was to consolidate European control of southern Africa and bring about a united policy towards the Black African inhabitants. Lord Carnarvon also expressed an interest in making Paterson the next Cape Prime Minister, in order to bring this about. , Cape Prime Minister and Paterson's lifelong political opponent. There was little local enthusiasm for the project, and its timing was particularly unfortunate – coming when the various southern African states were still simmering after the last bout of British imperial expansion. However Carnarvon was determined, and appointed
Henry Bartle Frere – an autocratic imperialist with little experience of southern African politics – as governor, with instructions to implement Carnarvon's confederation.
Molteno turned the confederation idea down flat, saying it was impractical and badly timed, but Paterson saw an opportunity to ensure that his eastern province gained autonomy (albeit within the proposed confederation), and that he himself could win the position of leading it. In a series of letters between him and Carnarvon (
The Confederation Despatch, 1876), Paterson discreetly offered the
Colonial Office his support against the Molteno government in exchange for vague promises of a future leadership position. Paterson also made a public call for an invasion and annexation of the
Transvaal Republic, for the future confederation. When Molteno, by now furious with Paterson for what he saw as a betrayal of the Cape's independence and democracy, made it clear that he was willing to resign but not to endorse confederation, Frere used the authority of the Colonial Office to suspend the elected Cape government and assumed direct control in 1878 (appointing
Gordon Sprigg as his puppet Prime Minister, instead of Paterson who was at the time considered too divisive a politician for the job). Paterson, disappointed, then travelled to London as a representative of the potential new Eastern Province, while Frere launched his
invasion of Zululand in 1879 before being recalled to London to face charges of misconduct. The confederation scheme was dropped, having by now spawned a trail of wars across southern Africa – including new frontier wars against the
Xhosa and the
Pedi people, the
Anglo-Zulu war, the
Basuto Gun War and later the
First Boer War. == Death ==