Before the United States gained their independence from Great Britain there were many people who disagreed with the British policies. John Dickinson was one of those people who did not agree with them. Dickinson wrote a series of letters expressing his frustration with the policies. "In these letters Dickinson carefully reshaped the colonial position, arguing that the Townshend Acts were illegal because they were explicitly intended for revenue, which only the colonial assemblies could levy." (Kaestle 323).
Dickenson was born into a wealthy family in Maryland in 1732. Wanting to follow in his father's footsteps in politics, he studied law at Temple of London in England. Dickinson practiced law in Philadelphia 1757-1760. Representing Pennsylvania in Stamp Act Congress in 1765, Dickinson drafted the Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress. During this time Dickinson wrote one letter a week for twelve weeks and signed them under the pseudonym 'A Farmer'. "In 1767 as the 'farmer' he became America's first native political hero: the outstanding harbinger of American protest against arbitrary British measures and a true defender of liberty." (www.let.rug.nl) Dickinson helped prepare the first draft of the Articles of Confederation but voted against the Declaration of Independence because he still hoped for conciliation with the British. In 1781 Dickinson was voted President of Delaware then served as the president of Pennsylvania in 1782, Governor of Pennsylvania from 1782-1785, a member of Constitutional Convention in 1787, then a member of the Delaware Constitutional Convention in 1792. John Dickinson died at his home on February 14, 1808. (ushistory.org) Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania is dedicated to him.
The very first letter of Dickinson's series was published in the Boston Chronicle on December 21, 1967. In early 1768, the letters were published in nineteen of the twenty-three English-language newspapers that were published in the colonies.
