John Dickinson’s Followers (5)

John Dickinson

Born

in Talbot County, Maryland, The United States

November 13, 1732

Died

February 14, 1808

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John Dickinson lived one of the most extraordinary political lives of all of the founding fathers. It is perhaps only because of his steadfast opposition to American independence that he is not celebrated with the likes of Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin.

He was born to a moderately wealthy family in Maryland. His father was first judge to the Court of Pleas in Delaware. He studied law at the Temple in London, the most prestigious education that a young man could hope for. Dickinson joined politics as a member of the Pennsylvania assembly in 1764, proceeded with the Stamp Act Congress in 1765 where he drafted the Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress. It was also during this he wrote an important series of essays, Letters of a Pennsylvan John Dickinson lived one of the most extraordinary political lives of all of the founding fathers. It is perhaps only because of his steadfast opposition to American independence that he is not celebrated with the likes of Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin.

He was born to a moderately wealthy family in Maryland. His father was first judge to the Court of Pleas in Delaware. He studied law at the Temple in London, the most prestigious education that a young man could hope for. Dickinson joined politics as a member of the Pennsylvania assembly in 1764, proceeded with the Stamp Act Congress in 1765 where he drafted the Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress. It was also during this he wrote an important series of essays, Letters of a Pennsylvania Farmer, regarding the nonimportation and nonexportation agreements against Gr. Britain. These essays were published in London in 1768 by Benjamin Franklin, and later translated to French and published in Paris. In 1774 he attended the first Continental Congress and wrote an Address to the Inhabitants of the Province of Quebec. There also, in 1775, and in combination with Jefferson, he wrote a Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms. Dickinson was opposed to a separation from Gr. Britain and worked very hard to temper the language and action of the Congress, in an effort to maintain the possibility of reconciliation. It was for this reason that he abstained from voting on and signing the Declaration of Independence. In what may have been a rather cruel joke, Thomas M'Kean (a signer of the Declaration), then president of Delaware, appointed Dickinson a Brigadier-General in the Continental Army. His Military career is said to have been brief.

Dickinson was elected again to the Continental Congress in 1779, then to the Delaware Assembly in 1780. He was elected Governor of Pennsylvania in 1782 and served there until October, 1785. He joined the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 and afterward joined the chorus of writers promoting the new constitution, in a series of nine essays, using the pen name of Fabius. In 1792 he assisted in forming a new constitution for Delaware. He wrote another series of articles in 1797. He shortly thereafter retired from public life to his home at Wilmington, where he died on the 14th of February 1808. Dickinson College, at Carlisle Pennsylvania, is monument to his memory. ...more

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Average rating: 4.31 · 347 ratings · 19 reviews · 117 distinct works • Similar authors

	Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies (1903) 4.02 avg rating — 57 ratings — published 1768 — 115 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Empire and Nation: Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania; Letters from the Federal Farmer by John Dickinson (Editor), Richard Henry Lee 3.54 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 1999 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	My Stroke: A Story of Perseverance it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Declaration on the Causes and Necessities of Taking up Arms by John Dickinson, Thomas Jefferson 3.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 1775	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Writings of John Dickinson (Papers of George Washington: Revolutionary War) 3.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2009 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Political Writings of John Dickinson, Esquire, Late President of the State of Delaware and of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Volume 2 of 2 it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2012 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Building of an Army (Classic Reprint): A Detailed Account of Legislation, Administration and Opinion in the United States, 1915-1920 it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2015 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Last Counsels of an Unknown Counsellor, Ed. by E. Bell it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	I was a victim of SEXTORTION: This is my WhatsApp HORROR story. by John Dickinson, Jennifer Mears (Editor) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	THE ROAD LEAST TRAVELLED: Our search for meaning by John Dickinson, Jennifer Mears (editor) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by John Dickinson (?)

“Honor, justice and humanity call upon us to hold and to transmit to our posterity, that liberty, which we received from our ancestors. It is not our duty to leave wealth to our children; but it is our duty to leave liberty to them. No infamy, iniquity, or cruelty can exceed our own if we, born and educated in a country of freedom, entitled to its blessings and knowing their value, pusillanimously deserting the post assigned us by Divine Providence, surrender succeeding generations to a condition of wretchedness from which no human efforts, in all probability, will be sufficient to extricate them; the experience of all states mournfully demonstrating to us that when arbitrary power has been established over them, even the wisest and bravest nations that ever flourished have, in a few years, degenerated into abject and wretched vassals.”
― John Dickinson, A New Essay (by the Pennsylvanian Farmer) on the Constitutional Power of Great-Britain Over the Colonies in America: With the Resolves of the Commit

tags: 1774, american-revolution

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“Let our government be like that of the solar system. Let the general government be like the sun and the states the planets, repelled yet attracted, and the whole moving regularly and harmoniously in their several orbits.”
― John Dickinson

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“The cause of liberty is a cause of too much dignity to be sullied by turbulence and tumult. It ought to be maintained in a manner suitable to her nature. Those who engage in it, should breathe a sedate, yet fervent spirit, animating them to actions of prudence, justice, modesty, bravery, humanity and magnanimity.”
― John Dickinson, Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies

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John Dickinson’s Followers (5)

John Dickinson

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John Dickinson’s books