John
Dickinson was born in Talbot County, Maryland to
Samuel Dickinson and his second wife Mary (Cadwalader) Dickinson.
During his childhood, the family moved to a plantation near Dover,
Delaware. In 1750, he began
studying law in Philadelphia. In
1753 he went to London to continue his studies. When he returned in
1757, he began his own law practice in Philadelphia.
He married Mary Morris of Philadelphia. For many years Dickinson had
his main residence in Philadelphia, but he often visited his plantation in
Kent County. He held offices in both Delaware and
Pennsylvania. In 1760 he was elected to the Assembly in Delaware and two years
later served as a representative to the Pennsylvania legislature.
After the passage of the Stamp Act in 1765, he published a pamphlet, The
Late Regulations Respecting the British Colonies ...Considered,
in which he argued the best way to get England to repeal the taxes was through economic boycott.
Dickinson was elected from Pennsylvania to the Stamp Act Congress
in 1765. In 1768 published another pamphlet, Letters
from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to
the Inhabitants of the British Colonies.
In the pamphlet Dickinson argued against the policies of England
and believed that force in resisting them might be required, but that
reconciliation with England was still possible. While he was a member of the Continental Congress, Dickinson’s hope of
reconciliation motivated him to write two
separate petitions to King George III of England.
Dickinson, as a representative from Pennsylvania, voted against the
resolution for independence, although he would later support the cause of
independence. He was elected
to Congress from Delaware in 1779 and successively as president (governor)
of Delaware and Pennsylvania between 1781 and 1785.
Dickinson was a delegate from Delaware to the Constitutional
Convention in 1787 and strongly supported the Constitution, writing
numerous public letters in its defense.
He held
no public offices during the last seventeen years of his life.
Dickinson moved to Wilmington towards the end of his life.
John
Dickinson