DICKINSON, .lone (1732 ISOC)„\ n Ameri can statesman and publiei•t, known as the 'Pen Man of the 1:e•oliti lie was born in Talbot Collinty, ltd., but in 1710 removed with his father to 1)claware. Ile began the .truly of the law its Philadelphia in 17511; Aliddh, plc, London. England, in 1753, and in 1757 began practice in Philadelphia. In 1760 he became a member of the 1)elamare .\..enibly, and in 1742 \vas. electi.d to the Assembly, where he served tvith great distinction until 176.i. and again from 17711 to 1776. lie Was also a member of the Stamp .\ct l'ongres:, and front 177.1 to 1776 of the Continental served for a time in the .\inericon _\riity. first as a private and afterwards a: a brigadier-general in the Del aware militia: etas 1:1)vermor of Delaware from 1751 to 1782. and of Penn-ylvattia tr 1752 to 17:i; and afterwards took at prominent part in the debates of the Constitillional Convention of 1787. and in the diseu:•ions in Pennsylvania and Delaware over the ratification of the Constitu tion. lie is best known, however, a, a writer of .State papers and pamphlets, in \vide]) capacity up to 1776 he ranked foremost among li• con. temporaries. -\niong the important State papers which he drafted or wrote were the "Resolutions in relation to the Stamp -Vet." adopted by the l'ennsylvania .1.sseinbly in 1765: the "Declara tion of Nights" and the "Petition to the King," adopted by the Stamp .Act Congress: the "Essay on the Constitutional Power of Great Britain over the Colonies in Anteriea," adopted by the l'ennsylvanin Convention: the ".\ of Con
gress to the Inhabitants of the Prtivine, of Que bec": the "Petition of Congiess to the King": the "I)eelarat ion by the United Colonic, of North . . . Forth the t'auses and Necessity of Their Taking up .\ rots"; the "Arti cles of ( ti•st draft I; and the ".\ddress of Congress to the Several States on the Present. Situation of .\ trairs" (1771)). In addi tion, he wrote numerous pamphlets and lie•S paper articles, the most faunal. of wino the celebrated I 'urn, er's 1.clices, published at Philadelphia in 1767. These 'letters' had a wide circulation and produc •1 such an street on both sides of the Atlantie that their appearance has been regarded as 'the most brilliant event in the literary history of the llevolution.' influence waned after 1776 On account of hi: op pu,it to the licelarat ion of Independence. which he refused to ague. but a series of papers written by him in 1787-8S, under the pseudonym were wi•read and contributed much toward inducing Pennsylvania and Delaware to ratify the Constitution. In the literature of the Revolution. says Ford. the editor of Di•l:inson's writings, he was prei;minent as 'Washington in the war. in diplomacy. and in by Paid L. Ford. were 'midi:lied. in part, at Philadelphia in 1895. Consult: Stilbl, The Life it sul Times of John flieki iison ( Philadelphia, 1591). and an xeellent estimate of Dieliinson's literary work in Tyler, /.iir rary of the Arm ricer,: lerro lu ion ( New York. 15971.