John Dickinson

Born November 8, 1732
Talbot County, Maryland
Died February 14, 1808
Wilmington, North Carolina

Politician, lawyer, writer, soldier

John Dickinson helped guide American public opinion in the years before the American Revolution. He opposed British taxation of the colonies but also opposed the use of force against mother England. He was widely admired for his mastery of legal history and his writing skills, but he lost much of his influence when the Revolution got underway against his urging. Once it had begun, though, he worked to make his new nation stronger. He served in the legislatures of both Delaware and Pennsylvania, also serving as president of each state.

John Dickinson was born in Maryland in 1732 to Samuel Dickinson, a well-respected Quaker judge and farm owner, and his second wife, Mary Cadwalader. Historians disagree on whether or not Dickinson himself was a member of the Society of Friends, the formal name for the religious group whose members are popularly referred to as Quakers. Certainly, his Quaker parents' opposition to violence influenced Dickinson's beliefs as an adult that the American colonists should do everything possible to avoid armed conflict with England.

The Dickinson family owned property in both Delaware and Maryland, and when John Dickinson was a youngster, the family moved near Dover, Delaware. Dickinson took lessons at home until he turned eighteen. He then began a three-year study of the law under the guidance of attorney John Moland.

In 1753, at age twenty-one, Dickinson went to further his legal education in London, England, where it was common for wealthy young men of his time to study. There he read law books, visited law courts, and debated points of law with his fellow students. He also gained skills in organizing and presenting his views, and developed a fine grasp of the English legal system and English politics. He was disturbed to observe the corruption and incompetence of the members of the British House of Commons, the lower House of Parliament, England's law-making body.

Splits time between Delaware and Pennsylvania

Dickinson became a lawyer in Great Britain in 1757 and soon sailed home to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There Dickinson began his own legal practice. After the death of his father in 1760, he split his time between Philadelphia and his second home in Kent County, Delaware. He was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1762. There he demonstrated his lifelong ability to see both sides of an argument and adopt a middle position.

In his book John Dickinson, Conservative Revolutionary, Milton E. Flower described the well-known lawyer as being of average height and slight build, with clear eyes and a prominent nose. Flower wrote, "There was an elegance in [the way he carried himself], a poise and confidence that was particularly notable. His professional approach was [that of a well-spoken person] and so markedly [well educated] that his reputation grew easily."

Condemns Stamp Act

In 1765 the British imposed the Stamp Act on the American colonies to raise money. The colonists were forced to pay taxes on a wide range of documents and other items, including legal papers, newspapers, business documents, and even on playing cards and dice. At first, the colonists bitterly accepted the new form of taxation, but Dickinson foresaw that the Stamp Act's passage would bring on severe problems for the colonies, for one tax could easily lead to another.

Dickinson was a delegate from Pennsylvania to the Stamp Act Congress in New York in 1765. It was called "to consult together on the present circumstances of the colonies." Patriot Patrick Henry see entry gave a fiery speech against the Stamp Act; the speech helped changed the attitude of Americans from acceptance to open defiance. The Congress adopted Dickinson's Declarations of Rights and Grievances that denounced taxes imposed by England and collected in America.

In this and other writings, Dickinson voiced his fear that England would bleed America dry to pay its own heavy debts, brought on by recent warfare. He opposed the Stamp Act taxes and petitioned England to repeal them. He wrote, "It is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people, and the undoubted right of Englishmen, that no taxes be imposed on them, but with their own consent, given personally, or by their representatives." However, Dickinson also opposed violent resistance to the Act on the part of the colonists.

Responding to American outrage and threats, the British repealed the Stamp Act. But trouble soon began again when Great Britain passed the Townshend Revenue Acts, imposing new taxes on paint, tea, lead, paper, and glass.

Opposes Townshend Acts

In 1767 Dickinson published Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to show his opposition to the Townshend Acts. This was his most famous work. In this series of letters that appeared in most of the newspapers in America, he disputed England's right to tax the colonists and suggested that Americans stop importing goods from England. Still, he stopped short of supporting armed resistance or separation from the mother country.

In the letters, Dickinson wrote, "The meaning of [these letters] is, to convince the people of these colonies that they are at this moment exposed to the most [threatening] dangers; and to persuade them immediately, vigorously, and unanimously, to exert themselves in the most firm, but most peaceable manner, for obtaining relief." The letters were well received in the various colonies and discussed at town meetings throughout New England.

Election victory and marriage

In 1770 Dickinson was again elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly. That same year he married Mary Norris of Philadelphia, whom he called "Polly." During their long marriage the couple was to have five children, though only two of them survived beyond infancy. In 1771 Dickinson helped write a petition to King George III see entry of England, encouraging him to convince the British Parliament to repeal taxes on tea and other items imported by the colonies.

In 1774 Dickinson became a delegate from Pennsylvania to the First Continental Congress, held in Philadelphia. Representatives from the colonies met there to discuss their options regarding their British rulers. According to John C. Miller in his biography Sam Adams: Pioneer in Propaganda, John Dickinson believed that "the cause of liberty should be left in the hands of lofty-minded patriots strongly adverse to riots and … outright rebellion." This was a position opposite to that taken by Samuel Adams see entry, who used his speeches and writings to arouse the anger of the colonists and bring on riots against their English rulers.

At the congress, Dickinson used his writing skills to point out that there were legal limits to the power of the British Parliament over the American colonists, limits that Parliament had exceeded. He also used those skills to protest against Great Britain's unfair trade practices. Dickinson believed that the British government had no right to raise money in the colonies by imposing taxes that Americans hated. However, he also believed Parliament had the power to control colonial trade and pass laws for the colonies.

Opposes war at Second Continental Congress

The Second Continental Congress met in May 1775, shortly after the battles of Lexington and Concord that marked the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Dickinson, along with John Duane of New York, presented a plan in Congress for making up with Britain.

There were strong differences of opinion among those at the Congress about how to handle their disagreements with Great Britain. Dickinson led the group that always supported peace-making efforts, even after fighting had already broken out. His group suggested that the colonists send a petition to the king and try to work out a series of settlements regarding trade and taxes, but prepare for war, just in case.

Adams's criticism of Dickinson's war views

John Adams see entry, later president of the United States, made fun of Dickinson and accused him and others in Congress who shared his views of trying "to oppose my designs and the Independence of the Country." In his Autobiography he referred to Dickinson, as "very moderate, delicate, and timid."

In the document that John Adams called the Olive Branch Petition, Dickinson told England that the colonies wanted to negotiate at once and desired "accommodation [settlement] of the unhappy disputes" between England and the colonies and were prepared to "enter into measures" to achieve it. Adams believed that Dickinson sent a mixed message, and described the position as one of "having a sword in one hand and an olive branch [a symbol of peace] in the other." Reportedly, King George III never even read the Olive Branch Petition.

Dickinson and his supporters believed that America was not yet ready for war. In their view, America had everything to gain by putting off the war. They thought that in a few years the colonies would be so powerful that the British would be unable to deny them independence.

Opposition to independence damages popularity

Those who preferred a more aggressive and violent course of action disliked Dickinson's approach to the problems with England. Still, the people of Pennsylvania reelected him to their assembly. But in time, as support for complete independence grew among Americans, his position began to make him unpopular.

In July 1776 Dickinson voted against the Declaration of Independence that established the United States as a separate nation. He said that his opposition was based on a lack of foreign support for the American colonists' desire for independence, the military unreadiness of the colonists, and their lack of unity. By voting against the Declaration, he was left behind by those who supported independence with patriotic fervor.

Still, Dickinson worked on one congressional committee to prepare for the new nation the Articles of Confederation (a forerunner to the U.S. Constitution). He worked on another committee to obtain treaties with foreign nations to secure their military assistance. And when war finally came, Dickinson was one of only two congressmen who immediately stepped up to fight. In 1776 he served as colonel of the First Philadelphia Battalion, leading his troops to fight the British in New Jersey.

That same year Dickinson and other like-minded members of the Pennsylvania Assembly opposed the new constitution under which the Assembly was meeting. After his proposals to revise the constitution were rejected by the majority in the body, Dickinson resigned from the Pennsylvania Assembly, resigned his military commission, and relocated his family to their home in Delaware. In time, he fought for the patriot cause in the Delaware Army (not the Continental army under General George Washington see entry) as a private, a low-ranking soldier.

Holds elected positions, faces criticism

In 1779 Delaware appointed Dickinson to be its delegate to the Continental Congress (it became the U.S. Congress in 1789). In 1781 he became president of Delaware, receiving all the votes except his own. It seems his heart remained in Pennsylvania and he truly did not wish to become president of Delaware, but went along with the wishes of others.

Apparently the anger against him in Pennsylvania cooled down, and in 1782 he was elected to the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania and named president of that state as well. Within two months of the election, he had resigned his position in Delaware and returned to Pennsylvania, where he felt more politically experienced. According to Milton E. Flower, "The Delaware assembly took his desertion with little grace, believing it not only contrary to the spirit of the constitution but 'inconsistent with the dignity, freedom and interest' of their state."

In 1783 one especially vicious critic of Dickinson, signing himself Valerius, made bitter personal attacks on Dickinson in a newspaper. He repeated charges that had been leveled at Dickinson even before his election. According to Flower, Valerius charged that Dickinson "had opposed the Declaration of Independence, disapproved of the new state constitution, deserted his battalion when it became a part of the Continental army, and weakened public confidence in Continental currency [money] by advising his brother to refuse acceptance of it." While the other three charges were true, claims that he had deserted his fellow soldiers in battle were false.

Dickinson replied to these attacks in a series of letters that appeared in Philadelphia newspapers. That same year Dickinson helped to found and raise money for western Pennsylvania's new Dickinson College. He presented the school with two farms totaling 500 acres, to provide income for its support, as well as 1,500 books for its library.

Holds various political positions, lives quietly

For several years following his election in Pennsylva nia, Dickinson largely involved himself in the financial and political affairs of that state, where he also served as head of the state court. His legal experience and wisdom proved very useful in that post.

In 1787 Dickinson went back to serving in Delaware when he was elected a delegate from that state to several con ventions of representatives of all the U.S. states. Because of age and declining health, he did not engage in debates. But he did contribute his writing talents, penning a famous series of let ters in support of the U.S. Constitution that he signed Faubius.

During the last couple of decades of his life Dickinson rarely appeared in public meetings. However, he did help to draft a new constitution for Delaware in 1792. He became very interested in international affairs during the 1790s. He was a great lover of France, and in 1797 he published fourteen letters encouraging renewal of the friendship between France and the United States, which had cooled following the Revolutionary War. In 1801 he produced two volumes of his writings that were published after his death on February 14, 1808, at Wilmington, Delaware. He was buried in the Friends' (Quaker) burying ground in that town.

Tributes to Dickinson came from a variety of people, including important politicians. Members of the U.S. House and Senate wore black armbands to honor his memory. In 1808 Thomas Jefferson see entry wrote about Dickinson in a letter to Joseph Bringhurst: "Among the first of the advocates [people who speak out in favor of] the rights of his country when [challenged] by Great Britain, he continued to the last … [an] advocate of the true principles of our new government."

For More Information

Allison, Robert L. "John Dickinson" in American Eras: The Revolutionary Era, 1754–1783. Detroit: Gale, 1998, pp. 218-20.

Boatner, Mark M, III. "Dickinson, John" in Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1994, pp. 330-31.

Boatner, Mark M., III. "Dickinson, Philomen" in Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1994, pp. 331-32.

Bourgoin, Suzanne M., and Paula K. Byers, eds. "John Dickinson" in Encyclopedia of World Biography, Vol. 4, 2nd ed. Detroit: Gale, 1998, pp. 543-44.

Faragher, John Mack, gen. ed. "John Dickinson" in Encyclopedia of Colonial and Revolutionary America. New York: Facts on File, 1990, pp. 111-12.

Flower, Milton E. John Dickinson: Conservative Revolutionary. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1983.

Ginsberg, Elaine K. "Dickinson, John" in American National Biography, Vol.6, edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 566-69.

McDonald, Forrest. "Dickinson, John" in Encyclopedia of American Biography, edited by John A. Garraty and Jerome L. Sternstein. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1995, pp. 288-89.

Miller, John C. Sam Adams: Pioneer in Propaganda. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1936, p. 310.

Peabody, James Bishop, ed. John Adams: A Biography in His Own Words. New York: Newsweek Books 1973, p. 156.

Whitney, David C. "John Dickinson" in The Colonial Spirit of '76: The People of the Revolution. Chicago, IL: J.G. Ferguson Publishers, 1974, pp. 172-74.

Philomen Dickinson

The older brother of John Dickinson, Philomen Dickinson was born in 1739. He also made a major contribution to the American Revolution and the new American nation. Like his brother John, Philomen could be said to belong to two states, because he lived or served in elective offices in both Delaware and New Jersey. When the Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, he was living on his comfortable Delaware estate. In 1776 he was elected to the New Jersey provincial congress. At that time he was also a general in that state's militia.

That same year, while George Washington and his troops were encamped at Morristown, New Jersey, Philomen Dickinson led a group of soldiers that hampered the British from getting badly needed supplies. He also led a successful surprise attack in Millstone, New Jersey, capturing horses, wagons, and prisoners. In 1777 he was named Major General and Commander-in-Chief of the New Jersey militia, a post he held until the end of the war. He participated in a number of significant battles.

He was three times defeated when he ran for governor of Delaware. In 1785, along with Robert Morris and Philip Schuyler (pronounced SKY-ler), he was appointed to select a site for the capital of the United States. He was defeated by William Paterson to serve Delaware in the U.S. Senate, but completed Paterson's term of office (1790–93) when Paterson succeeded William Livingston as governor. Dickinson died in 1809.