Abstract
John Dickinson was born on November 8th, 1732 in Talbot County, Maryland. John Dickinson was a Founding Father of the United States that was involved in writing the Declaration of Rights and Grievances of that body, Petition to the King, Olive Branch Petition, Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, and Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. As well as writing the Twelve Letters from a Farmer and the lyrics for Liberty song. He is best known as the Penman of the Revolution. John Dickson died on February 14, 1808, in Wilmington, Delaware.
Liam Finn
Penman of the Revolution
John Dickinson was born in Talbot County, Maryland to a family of tobacco farmers on November 8th, 1732. He grew up on the land his great-grandfather, Walter Dickinson, earned after emigrating over to America. John Dickinson was taught from home by his parents, Samuel Dickenson, plantation owner and merchant, and his second wife Mary Cadwalader, and by private tutors. When he turned 18, he began studying to become a lawyer with John Moland in Philadelphia and later at Middle Temple in London. When he was 25, he returned and became a prominent lawyer in Philadelphia opening up his own law firm.
John Dickinson got involved in politics after being elected to the Delaware assembly where he ended up becoming the speaker. After a couple of years, he ended up joining the Pennsylvania assembly where he got involved in the Stamp Act Congress and wrote the Declaration of Rights and Grievances of that body. Which was his way of raising the colonies spirits to fight against Britain’s unjust Acts. He was against the way that parliament was treating the new colony, “Determining that such acts of Parliament infringe on the “natural rights” of the colonists, including the right to levy taxes on themselves, Dickinson concluded that resistance to such acts was not rebellion.” (Ginsberg, Elaine K. Dickinson, John (1732-1808), Statesman and Political Pamphleteer | American National Biography. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. December 2, 1999.) He believed that the citizens of America were founded on the right of freedom and should always be willing to fight to protect it. His letter worked and helped get the Stamp Act repealed.
Removing the stamp act was a short-lived victory however. Parliament created new Acts, like the Townshend Revenue Act, to raise money for their debts. As a response John Dickinson wrote twelve letters, disguising himself as “A Farmer.” Within the letters, he would argue against parliament about how unconstitutional their reasonings behind taxing them was. He wrote things like “In my opinion they acted imprudently, considering all circumstances, in not complying so far as would have given satisfaction, as several colonies did. But my dislike of their conduct in that instance has not blinded me so much that I cannot plainly perceive that they have been punished in a manner pernicious to American freedom and justly alarming to all the colonies.” (Dickinson, John. LETTERS from a Farmer in Pennsylvania To the Inhabitants of the British Colonies Letters I & II, December 1767. American in Class. 2013.) The letters were published and spread across the thirteen colonies, along with throughout Great Britain. The letters helped unite the people within the colonies against the taxes using the basis that John Dickinson wrote. “Although on the surface separate, the letters appear to have been conceived as a whole, with the overall pattern of a classical oration. Underlying Dickinson’s arguments are the assumptions that the colonists have a right to be “happy”; they cannot be happy without being free; and they cannot be free without being secure in their property. A testimony to the persuasive power of the Letters is the accusation in the Tory Critical Review that the farmer was “inciting the colonies to independence.” ” (Ginsberg, Elaine K. Dickinson, John (1732-1808), Statesman and Political Pamphleteer | American National Biography. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. December 2, 1999.)
After the success of his letters, John Dickinson was elected to be chairman of the Philadelphia committee. Which allowed him to attended the First Constitutional Congress on September 5th, 1774 and helped write a majority of the Petition to the King. Which was a document that told Great Britain to repeal the acts that the colonists found unjust. John Dickinson cared about the freedom of the colonies and always worked hard not only to fight but to maintain everyone’s independence but also to have people want to fight for their own rights. While he wasn’t entirely for war, he believed in being ready for war while attempting to maintain peace across the colonies and with the motherland.
Colonists were starting to get fired up after John Dickinson’s letters from a farmer and the progress made by the First Constitutional Congress. John Dickinson took this opportunity to express his ideas of freedom by writing the words for the Liberty song in 1768. In it, he included lines like “By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall” (Dickinson, John. The Writings of John Dickinson. Edited at the request of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, by Paul Leicester Ford. Vol. 1 Political writings 1764-1774. Published 1895.). He was able to boost the morale of the colonists to fight for their rights and not let parliament continue to rule over them unjustly.
As time went by and Parliament refused to remove their taxation against the Colonies America kept trying to fight for their freedom. John Dickinson continued to fight for America. He attended the Second Constitutional Congress on May 10th, 1775 and helped write the Olive Branch Petition, which was the colonist’s last attempt for trying to avoid war. After writing the Olive Branch Petition, he followed it with his involvement in the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms. This document explained to Great Britain why the colonists only had taken up arms to protect themselves from the mass amounts of soldiers that Great Britain was sending to America to protect the unruly acts. This moment shows how John Dickinson did not prefer to go to war, especially against such a powerful country like Great Britain, but was not willing to give up his freedom in order to avoid it.
After America started to seek independence from Great Britain, John Dickinson wrote the first draft of the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. Which was informing the colonies to prepare for war and setting up a list of general rules that served as the first constitution. Since he inspired many colonists with his writings before, many people were more willing to fight Great Britain for their freedom and used John Dickinson’s warning to prepare themselves better. When the American Revolution sparked, John Dickinson was still attempting to settle the disputes between the colonies and Great Britain peacefully.
Later on in the American Revolution, John Dickinson attended the Constitutional Convention of 1787 as a delegate from Delaware. While John Dickinson was unable to attend the convention for the entire time due to illness, he was able to make an impact by contributing to the Committee on Postponed Matters. The committee, which included members such as David Brearley and James Madison, decided on the ruling of how states should vote for a president based on delegators of that state, chosen by the people of the state. John Dickinson also played a role in creating the great compromise, which was an agreement among the states that defined the legislation and representation that each state would have in the United States. Finally, John Dickinson signed his name on the Constitution, which delineates the structure of the government, then went back to Delaware but did not attempt to run for public office. Instead, he wrote about politics for around two decades, publishing them around 1801. On February 14, 1808, John Dickinson died in Wilmington, Delaware.
John Dickinson would always try to gather the colonists together to fight for their rights and freedom rather than try to change things by himself. His writings were able to inspire the colonists to come together even when the odds were against them and fight against a much more powerful force in order. John Dickinson was the founding father that helped boost morale in the colonies with his penmanship.
Primary:
Dickinson, John. 1801. The political writings of John Dickinson, esquire, late president of the state of Delaware, and of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Wilmington [Del.]: Printed and sold by Bonsal and Niles. Also, sold at their Book-store, no. 173, Market-street, Baltimore.
John Dickinson goes into detail about himself and what he has accomplished in his life. He mainly focuses on his beliefs against following the Britishes mistakes and forming the colonies to work more efficiently than the British empire did. He also briefly discusses different facts about being the president of Delaware and his effects on the state.
Dickinson, John. “LETTERS from a Farmer in Pennsylvania To the Inhabitants of the British Colonies Letters I & II, December 1767.” American in Class. 2013. Accessed September 23, 2018. http://americainclass.org/sources/makingrevolution/crisis/text4/dickinsonletters1767.pdf.
Dickinson’s most famous literary work. It acknowledges how the new American colonies should avoid what the British Empire did by adding taxes in order to raise revenue.
Dickinson, John. The Writings of John Dickinson. Edited at the request of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, by Paul Leicester Ford. Vol. 1 Political writings 1764-1774. Published 1895.
This book discusses the different political writings John Dickinson wrote within 1764 and 1774. He explains his hope for America to continue to progress in a way that is different and better from the way that Great Britain ran their country.
Secondary:
Natelson, Robert G. “The Constitutional Contributions of John Dickinson.” Scholarship.law.umt.edu. January 1, 2003. Accessed September 23, 2018. https://scholarship.law.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1045&context=faculty_lawreviews. (Scholarly article)
This article discusses the reasons why John Dickinson refused to sign the declaration of independence due to his strong political ideas. While explaining his reasonings it discusses how he almost had the opportunity to be more influential to the country that he turned out to be.
Ginsberg, Elaine K. “Dickinson, John (1732-1808), Statesman and Political Pamphleteer | American National Biography.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. December 2, 1999. Accessed September 23, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.0100218
This article discusses the background of John Dickinson as a statesman and political pamphleteer as well as discussing his personal background as well. Ginsberg is able to show how John Dickinson felt about different portions of America as well as express what his life was like.
Flower, Milton Embick. John Dickinson, Conservative Revolutionary. Charlottesville: Published for the Friends of the John Dickinson Mansion by the University Press of Virginia, 1983.