58 Facts About John Dickinson

John Dickinson reworked Thomas Jefferson's language to write the final draft of the 1775 Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms.

John Dickinson either abstained or was absent from the vote on the Declaration of Independence and refused to sign the document after its passage.

John Dickinson later was elected president of the 1786 Annapolis Convention, which called for the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and as a delegate from Delaware, he signed the United States Constitution.

One of the wealthiest men in the British American colonies, John Dickinson served as president of Delaware and president of Pennsylvania.

John Dickinson was born at Crosiadore Plantation, his family's tobacco plantation near the village of present-day Trappe, Maryland in the Province of Maryland in British America.

John Dickinson was the great-grandson of Walter Dickinson who came from England as an indentured servant to the Colony of Virginia in 1654 and, having joined the Society of Friends, came with several co-religionists to Talbot County on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay in 1659.

John Dickinson bought the Kent County property from his cousin and expanded it to about 3,000 acres, stretching along the St Jones River from Dover to the Delaware Bay.

John Dickinson was the daughter of Martha Jones, the granddaughter of Dr Thomas Wynne, and the prominent Quaker John Cadwalader, who was the grandfather of General John Cadwalader of Philadelphia.

For three generations the John Dickinson family had been members of the Third Haven Friends Meeting in Talbot County, and the Cadwaladers were members of the Meeting in Philadelphia.

John Dickinson was educated at home by his parents and by recent immigrants employed for that purpose.

John Dickinson was precocious and energetic and in spite of his love of Poplar Hall, his family was drawn to Philadelphia.

John Dickinson spent those years studying the works of Edward Coke and Francis Bacon at the Inns of Court, following in the footsteps of his lifelong friend, Pennsylvania Attorney General Benjamin Chew, and in 1757 was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar beginning his career as barrister and solicitor.

In protest to the Townshend Acts, John Dickinson published Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, which were first published in the Pennsylvania Chronicle.

John Dickinson's letters were reprinted by numerous other newspapers, and they emerged among the most influential American political documents prior to the American Revolution.

John Dickinson argued that the British Parliament had the right to regulate commerce but lacked the right to levy duties for revenue.

John Dickinson further warned that if the colonies acquiesced to the Townshend Acts, Parliament would lay further taxes on the colonies in the future.

John Dickinson was the daughter of wealthy Philadelphia Quaker and Speaker of the Pennsylvania General Assembly Isaac Norris and Sarah Logan, the daughter of James Logan.

John Dickinson was cousin to the Quaker poet Hannah Griffitts.

John Dickinson lived at Poplar Hall for extended periods from 1776 to 1777 and from 1781 to 1782.

In 1785, following his service as president of Pennsylvania, John Dickinson lived in Wilmington, Delaware, and built a mansion at the northwest corner of 8th and Market Streets in Center City Philadelphia.

John Dickinson was one of the delegates from the Province of Pennsylvania to the First Continental Congress in 1774 and the Second Continental Congress in 1775 and 1776.

John Dickinson wrote the Olive Branch Petition as the Second Continental Congress' last attempt for peace with King George III, who did not read the petition.

John Dickinson prepared the first draft of the Articles of Confederation in 1776, after others had ratified the Declaration of Independence despite his concerns that the Declaration would escalate the Revolutionary War, which began in 1775 at the Battle of Lexington and Concord.

At the time, he chaired the committee charged with drafting the Articles of Confederation, John Dickinson was serving in the Continental Congress as a delegate from the Province of Pennsylvania.

John Dickinson believed that the Congress should complete the Articles of Confederation and secure a foreign alliance before issuing a declaration.

John Dickinson objected to violence as a means for resolving the Thirteen Colonies' dispute with Britain.

John Dickinson is one of only two members of the First Continental Congress who actively took up arms during the Revolutionary War.

John Dickinson stayed at Poplar Hall for more than two years.

Shortly afterwards, John Dickinson learned of the burning of Fair Hill during the battle of Germantown.

John Dickinson was the only Founding Father to free his slaves prior to 1786 when others began doing so, except for Benjamin Franklin, who had freed his slaves by 1770.

John Dickinson returned to the property to investigate the damage, and remained there for several months.

Dickinson's constitutional successor, John Cook, was considered too weak in his support of the Revolution.

The Pennsylvania General Assembly at the time was dominated by the Loyalists and moderates who, like John Dickinson, did little to support the burgeoning Revolution or independence, except protest.

John Dickinson managed to settle quickly the old boundary dispute with Virginia in southwestern Pennsylvania but was never able to satisfactorily disentangle disputed titles in the Wyoming Valley resulting from prior claims of Connecticut to those lands.

Somewhat sympathizing with their case, John Dickinson refused Congress's request to bring full military action against them, causing Congress to vote to remove themselves to Princeton, New Jersey.

John Dickinson himself did not sign the constitution as he left early due to chronic illness but instead a colleague, George Read signed his name.

John 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.

John Dickinson remained neutral in an attempt to include a prohibition of slavery in the document, believing the General Assembly was the proper place to decide that issue.

John Dickinson had freed his slaves conditionally in 1776 and fully by 1787.

John Dickinson returned to the State Senate for the 1793 session but served just one year before resigning because of his declining health.

John Dickinson was the Anti-Administration nominee in the 1795 United States Senate special election in Delaware, losing by one vote to congressman Henry Latimer.

In 1801, John Dickinson published two volumes of his collected works on politics.

John Dickinson died at Wilmington, Delaware, and was buried in Friends Burial Ground in Wilmington.

An original stage play Except, Mr John Dickinson was presented at the 15th Street Meeting House in an off-Broadway setting.

John Dickinson was a self-taught scholar of history, and spent most of his time in historical research.

John Dickinson did not consider it wise to plunge into immediate war; rather, he thought it best to use diplomacy to attain political ends and used the insights he gained from his historical studies to justify his caution.

John Dickinson used his study of history and furthered his education to become a lawyer, which exposed him to more historical schooling.

John Dickinson incorporated his learning and religious beliefs to counteract what he considered the mischief flowing from the perversion of history and applied them to its proper use according to his understanding.

John Dickinson's religiosity contributed heavily to his discernment of politics.

John Dickinson's political thought, given his education and religion, was influential towards the founding of the United States.

The political theory of Quakers was informed by their theology and ecclesiology, consequently John Dickinson applied his religious beliefs and his belief in adhering to the letter of the law in his approach to the Constitution, referring to his historical knowledge as he did so.

Jane Calvert has argued that John Dickinson was an early feminist, partly attributable to Quaker culture.

John Dickinson believed that women were spiritually equal to men and deserved equal religious rights.

Unlike many men of the era, John Dickinson sought and took political counsel from women, particularly from his wife and his mother.

John Dickinson was good friends with Quaker feminist Susanna Wright and corresponded with Catharine Macaulay and Mercy Otis Warren.

John Dickinson encouraged both Warren and Macaulay to continue writing.

John Dickinson bought books that detailed the lives of strong Quaker women.

In 1776, while drafting the Articles of Confederation, John Dickinson proposed the first gender inclusive language in an American constitution.