DICKINSON, JOHN (173 2-1808), American statesman and pamphleteer, was born in Talbot county, (Md.) Nov. 8, 1732. He removed with his father to Kent county (Del.), in 174o, studied under private tutors, read law, and, in 1753, en tered the Middle Temple, London. Returning to America in he practised law in Philadelphia and started, in 176o, his long public career. Since Pennsylvania and Delaware were under the same proprietor and the same governor, he acted in the same capacity at various times for both colonies—member of the assembly, president of the executive council, and representative in the Continental Congress. He was sent from Pennsylvania to the Stamp Act Congress (1765), served for a time as private, and later as brigadier-general, in the Delaware militia, and repre sented Delaware at the Annapolis Convention of 1786 and the Federal Constitutional Convention of 1787. He was most impor tant, however, as the "Penman of the Revolution." Scarcely any other writer of the day presented arguments so numerous, so timely and so popular. He drafted the "Declaration of Rights" of the Stamp Act Congress, the "Petition to the King" and the "Address to the Inhabitants of Quebec" of the Congress of the second "Petition to the King" and "Articles of Confedera tion" of the Second Congress. Most influential of all, however, were The Letters of a Farmer in Pennsylvania written in 1767-68 in condemnation of the Townsend Acts of 1767, in which he rejected speculative natural rights theories, and appealed to the common sense of the people through simple legal arguments. By opposing the Declaration of Independence, he lost his popularity and never entirely regained it. As the representative of a small state, he championed the principle of state equality in the Consti tutional Convention ; but he was one of the first to advocate the compromise, which was finally adopted, providing for equal repre sentation in one house and proportional representation in the other. After the adjournment of the convention he defended its work in a series of forceful letters signed "Fabius." Largely through his influence Delaware and Pennsylvania were the first two states to ratify the Constitution. Dickinson's interests were not exclusively political. He helped to found Dickinson college (named in his honour) at Carlisle (Pa.), in 1783, was the first president of its board of trustees, and was for many years its benefactor. He died Feb. 14, 1808, and was buried in the Friends' burial ground in Wilmington (Del.).
See C. J. Stille, "Life and Times of John Dickinson" (Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, vol. xiii., Philadelphia, 1891) ; P. L. Ford, editor, "The Writings of John Dickinson," (ibid., vol. xiv., 1895) ; and R. R. Richards, "The Life and Character of John Dickin son" (Delaware Historical Society, Papers, No. 3o) .