Dickinson, John, 1732-1808

John Dickinson (November 13, 1732 [O.S. November 2, 1732] – February 14, 1808) was a Founding Father of the United States. A solicitor and politician from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Wilmington, Delaware, he was known as the "Penman of the Revolution" for his twelve Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, published individually in 1767 and 1768.

Born at his family's tobacco plantation in Talbot County, Maryland, Dickinson was educated at home by his parents and by recent immigrants employed for that purpose. At 18, he began studying law under John Moland in Philadelphia, later spending three years studying at the Middle Temple in London. In 1757, Dickinson was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar beginning his career as barrister and solicitor. In protest to the Townshend Acts, Dickinson published Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania. First published in the Pennsylvania Chronicle, Dickinson's letters were re-printed by numerous other newspapers and became one of the most influential American political documents prior to the American Revolution.

Dickinson was one of the delegates from Pennsylvania to the First Continental Congress in 1774 and the Second Continental Congress in 1775 and 1776. In support of the cause, he continued to contribute declarations in the name of the Congress. Dickinson wrote the Olive Branch Petition as the Second Continental Congress' last attempt for peace with Britain (King George III did not even read the petition). When the Continental Congress began the debate on the Declaration of Independence on July 1, 1776, Dickinson reiterated his opposition to declaring independence at that time. Dickinson believed that Congress should complete the Articles of Confederation and secure a foreign alliance before issuing a declaration. Dickinson also objected to violence as a means for resolving the dispute. He abstained or absented himself from the votes on July 2 that declared independence and absented himself again from voting on the wording of the formal declaration on July 4. In the Pennsylvania militia, known as the Associators, Dickinson was given the rank of brigadier general and led 10,000 soldiers to Elizabeth, New Jersey, to protect that area against British attack from Staten Island.

Dickinson resigned his commission in December 1776 and went to stay at Poplar Hall in Kent County. While there he learned that his home on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia had been confiscated and converted into a hospital. He stayed at Poplar Hall for more than two years. The Delaware General Assembly tried to appoint him as their delegate to the Continental Congress in 1777, but he refused. In August 1777, he served as a private with the Kent County militia at Middletown under General Caesar Rodney to help delay General William Howe's march to Philadelphia. On January 18, 1779, Dickinson was appointed to be a delegate for Delaware to the Continental Congress. During this term he signed the Articles of Confederation, having in 1776 authored their first draft while serving in the Continental Congress as a delegate from Pennsylvania. In October 1781, Dickinson was elected to represent Kent County in the State Senate, and shortly afterwards the Delaware General Assembly elected him the president of Delaware.

On October 10, 1782, Dickinson was elected to the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania. On November 7, 1782, a joint ballot by the Council and the Pennsylvania General Assembly elected him as president of the council and thereby president of Pennsylvania. He was re-elected twice and served the constitutional maximum of three years; Dickinson would resign shortly before the natural conclusion of his third term. After his service in Pennsylvania, Dickinson returned to Delaware and lived in Wilmington. He was quickly appointed to represent Delaware at the Annapolis Convention where he served as its president. In 1787, Delaware sent him as one of its delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. In 1791, Delaware convened a convention to revise its existing Constitution, which had been hastily drafted in 1776. Dickinson was elected president of this convention, and although he resigned the chair after most of the work was complete, he remained highly influential in the content of the final document.

Once more Dickinson was returned to the State Senate for the 1793 session but served for just one year before resigning because of his declining health. In his final years, he worked to further the abolition movement and donated a considerable amount of his wealth to the "relief of the unhappy". In 1801, Dickinson published two volumes of his collected works on politics. Dickinson died at Wilmington, Delaware, and was buried in the Friends Burial Ground there.