USA > Pennsylvania > Lives of the governors of Pennsylvania : with the incidental history of the state, from 1609 to 1873 > Part 19
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* Gordon, 435.
t Ibid. 442.
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Empire by the opposition of their Colonies to the Stamp Act, and he may easily judge what would have been their situation in case they had bent down and humbly taken up the burden prepared for them. When the Exclusion Bill was depending in the House of Commons, Colonel Titus made this short speech : 'Mr. Speaker, I hear a lion roaring in the lobby. Shall we secure the door, and keep him there ? or shall we let him in, to try if we can turn him out again ?'"
Earnest in his purpose of bringing all to his views, Mr. Dickinson wrote and published a series of papers, in 1767, under the title of "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies," in which he labored most earnestly to show the unconstitutionality and injustice of the Royal Government in its recent acts, the great danger to which the liberties of the people were ex- posed, and the peril of unquestioning submission to the smallest injustice, which, once fastened upon the people, would be used as a precedent for boundless exactions. The work consisted of twelve letters, and among the special topics treated were the acts for suspending legislation, for granting duties on paper, and the invasion of the prerogatives of the Colony by the Ministry; the necessity, in free States, of ceaseless vigilance, and the peaceful but effective resist- ance to oppression. They appeared at a time when the public mind was greatly agitated upon these subjects, and, though written in a plain, argumentative style, they became very popular, and exerted a powerful effect in uniting the people of the whole country in a common cause, and putting into the mouths of all, ready and effective argu- ments upon the vital questions at issue. They were repub- lished in nearly all the Colonies, and in England, where Dr. Franklin furnished an introduction. They were translated into French, and were published in Paris. The writer prob- ably had no idea that they would be remembered beyond the generation which they were meant to influence; and yet he has acquired a world-renowned reputation as being the author of the " Farmer's Letters," and they are likely to per-
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petuate his memory when all else that he did or said is consigned to oblivion. Void of the rant and rhapsody which were too common at this period, they preserved a marked moderation of sentiment and style, which carried all the more weight at home, and arrested the attention of the most bitter opponents in Great Britain. "We have," he says, " a generous, humane, and sensible nation to whom we may apply. Let us behave like dutiful children who have received unmerited blows from a beloved parent. Let us complain to our parents ; but let our complaints speak at the same time the language of affection and veneration."
At a meeting held in Faneuil Hall, Boston, soon after their publication, the author of these letters received the most flattering eulogies, and a committee was appointed, consisting of John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Joseph Warren, Dr. Church, and John Rae, to convey to him the sentiments of the meeting. In their communication they say: "To such eminent worth and virtue, the inhabitants of the town of Boston, the capital of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in full town meeting assembled, express their gratitude. Though such superior merit must assuredly, in the closest recess, enjoy the divine satisfaction of having served and possibly saved this people; though veiled from our view, you modestly shun the deserved applause of millions; permit us to intrude upon your retirement, and salute the Farmer as the friend of Americans, and the common benefactor of mankind."
"In May, 1778, an association in Philadelphia, called the Society of Fort St. David, presented an address to Mr. Dick- inson ' in a box of heart of oak.' The following inscriptions were done upon it in gold letters. On the top was repre- sented the cap of liberty on a spear, resting on a cipher of the letters J. D. Underneath the cipher, in a semicircular label, the words PRO PATRIA. Around the whole, the follow- ing : 'The gift of the Governor and Society of Fort St. David, to the author of THE FARMER'S LETTERS, in grateful testimony to the very eminent services thereby rendered to this country, 1768.' On
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the inside of the top was the following inscription : 'The liberties of the British Colonies in America asserted with Attic elo- quence and Roman spirit by John Dickinson, Esq., barrister at law.'"*
The passage of the Boston Port Bill excited indignation among the great body of the people in all the Colonies, though there was a class obstinately upholding every act of the Royal Government, and earnestly opposing any expres- sion of opinion in opposition to it, lest some inconvenience or loss should be experienced. To harmonize opinions and bring all to act with unanimity throughout the Colonies, while the Royal Governors were in authority, proved diffi- cult. This unanimity was finally effected through commit- tees of correspondence, which eventually became more powerful than governors and legislatures, their advice being of more binding force than the most formal enactments. A public meeting was convened on the 18th of June, 1774, in Philadelphia, over which Messrs. Dickinson and Willing presided, at which it was resolved to be expedient to call a Continental Congress, and that a committee should be ap- pointed to correspond with the several counties of the Prov- ince and with the other Colonies. Of this committee, which consisted of forty-three members, Mr. Dickinson was chair- man.
In the letter to the several counties they said : " We will not offer such an affront to the well-known public spirit of Pennsylvanians as to question your zeal on the present occasion. Our very existence in the rank of freemen, and the security of all that ought to be dear to us, evidently depend on our conducting this great cause to its proper issue by firmness, wisdom, and magnanimity. It is with pleasure that we assure you that all the Colonies, from South Carolina to New Hampshire, are animated with one spirit in the com- mon cause, and consider this as the proper crisis for having our differences with the mother country brought to some certain issue, and our liberties fixed upon a permanent founda
* Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution, Vol. I. p. 477.
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tion. This desirable end can only be accomplished by a free communication of sentiments and a sincere and fervent re- gard for the interests of our common country." It was by appeals like this, in which we recognize the pen of Mr. Dickinson, that the people were aroused and moulded in opinion and sentiment to united indignation and oppos tion to British policy. Delegates were appointed in all the coun- ties, who met in convention at Philadelphia, and passed spirited resolutions, setting forth their allegiance to the King, but only on condition that his ministry adhered to the prin- ciples of the English Constitution. A series of instructions were also adopted for the guidance of the Assembly. These were drawn by Mr. Dickinson. After enumerating the
powers of the sovereign and Parliament which were legiti- mate and proper, and which should be respected, he recounts the unwarrantable assumptions, and closes in these memo- rable words : " The power claimed by Great Britain, and the late attempt to exercise it over these Colonies, present to our view two events, one of which must inevitably take place. If she shall continue to insist on her pretensions, either the Colonies will sink from the rank of freemen into the class of slaves, overwhelmed with all the miseries and vices proved by the history of mankind to be inseparably annexed to that deplorable condition; or, if they have sense and virtue enough to exert themselves in striving to avoid this perdition, they must be involved in an opposition dreadful even in contemplation. Honor, justice, and humanity call upon us to hold and to transmit to our posterity that liberty which we received from our ancestors. It is not our duty to leave wealth to our children, but it is our duty to leave lib- erty to them. No infamy, iniquity, or cruelty can exceed our own, if we, born and educated in a country of freedom, entitled to its blessings and knowing their value, pusillani- mously deserting the post assigned us by Divine Providence, surrender succeeding generations to a condition of wretched- ness from which no human efforts, in all probability, will be sufficient to extricate them - the experience of all States
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mournfully demonstrating to us that, when arbitrary power has been established over them, even the wisest and bravest nations that ever flourished have, in a few years, degenerated into abject and wretched vassals."
This paper also expressed the desire that the Assembly would appoint delegates to a general Congress; and the pre- cise terms of settlement with the mother country, which this body ought to labor to procure, were also sketched. The right of Parliament to legislate for the Colonies, enforced by numerous quotations and illustrations from the writers of antiquity, was also treated in this paper, and when adopted by the convention was by its order communicated to each of the other Colonies.
In accordance with a preconcerted understanding, the dele- gates of eleven Colonies met in Philadelphia on the 4th of September, 1774, in Carpenter's Hall. The early sessions of this body were spent in impassioned discourse on the posture of affairs, in which the eloquence of Patrick Henry, one of the delegates from Virginia, rose to a pitch of grandeur, as described by his hearers, rarely heard among men. Several measures of protection were agreed to with great unanimity, and addresses to the King, to the people of Great Britain, and to the inhabitants of British America, were ordered to be drawn, and suitable committees were appointed to pre- pare them. Mr. Wirt, the biographer of Patrick Henry, has given an interesting account of the preparation of these papers. "The splendor of their [Henry, Livingston, Lee] debut occasioned Mr. Henry to be designated by his commit- tee to draw the petition to the King, with which they were charged ; and Mr. Lee was charged with the address to the people of England. The last was first reported. On reading it, great disappointment was expressed in every countenance, and a dead silence ensued for some minutes. At length it was laid on the table for perusal and consideration till the next day; when first one member and then another arose, and, paying some faint compliment to the composition, observed that there were still certain considerations not
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expressed, which should properly find a place in it. The address was therefore committed for amendment, and one prepared by Mr. Jay, and offered by Mr. Livingston, was adopted with scarcely an alteration. Mr. Henry's draft of a petition to the King was equally unsuccessful, and was re- committed for amendment. Mr. John Dickinson, the author of the Farmer's Letters, was added to the committee, and a new draft, prepared by him, was adopted. This is one of the incidents in the life of Mr. Henry to which an allusion was made in a former page, when it was observed that, not- withstanding the wonderful gifts which he had derived from nature, he lived himself to deplore his early neglect of liter- ature. But for this neglect, that imperishable trophy won by the pen of John Dickinson would have been his; and the fame of his genius, instead of resting on tradition, or the short-lived report of his present biographer, would have flourished on the immortal page of American history."*
In the original delegation from Pennsylvania to this Con- gress, Mr. Dickinson was not included. When the Assem- bly met in October, he was appointed to join it, and immediately took his seat. This accounts for his not being at first put upon the committee. John Adams was also a member, and is reported to have assisted Mr. Henry in the composition of the petition. The reason why the original draft did not prove acceptable was not that it said too little, but too much. The policy which Congress had determined to pursue was one of reconciliation with the mother country, so that, if a struggle should ensue, the language of its papers and proceedings should not show it to have been the aggres- sor. Hence it was necessary that the fiery words of Henry and Adams, who thought that there would be no reconcilia- tion, should be toned down by the pen of Dickinson, who believed that pacification was possible, and who, moreover, sincerely desired that it should be effected, indeed had set his heart on securing it. Therefore, when he came to draw the address, he pleaded the case most earnestly upon its merits ;
* Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry, p 126.
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and so much was he wrought upon by the justice of his cause that he did not conceive that failure was possible. The petition which he submitted was adopted, and he was also charged with drawing an address to the people of Canada. Thus were two of the most important papers of this Congress prepared by Mr. Dickinson. In Europe they produced a profound sensation. The Earl of Chatham, in alluding to them in the House of Lords, said : " When your Lordships look at the papers transmitted to us from America, when you consider their decency, firmness, and wisdom, you cannot but respect their cause, and wish to make it your own. For myself I must declare and avow that, in all my reading, and study, - and it has been my favorite study; I have read Thucydides, and have studied and admired the master States of the world, - that for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, I know not the people or senate who, in such a complication of difficult circumstances, can stand in preference to the delegates of America assembled in General Congress at Philadelphia."
Congress had adopted these papers in the hope that the Government of Great Britain would yield what was asked, and in that case there was to be no other meeting; but the Ministry and Parliament gave no token of conciliation, and Congress again assembled in May, 1775, as had been pro- vided if concessions were not granted. The delegation from Pennsylvania consisted of Messrs. Dickinson, Biddle, Frank- lin, Wilson, Willing, Mifflin, Humphries, Morton, and Ross. Just previous to the meeting of Congress, the Battle of Lex- ington had been fought, and but shortly after followed Ticon- deroga and Bunker Hill. To provide for effectual resistance was therefore the first business. An army, commanders, and money to maintain them in the field, were provided. Still the hope of reconciliation was cherished; and to manifest their desire for it and the sincerity of their determination to cease resistance when their grievances were redressed, it was agreed, upon the earnest appeal of Mr. Dickinson, to offer another petition to the King. Many were of the opinion
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that it would prove fruitless and would be spurned, as it was. But, willing to leave no means untried to secure what they sought by peaceful endeavors, they consented to join in the appeal. Mr. Dickinson was charged with preparing it, and it was composed in his happiest vein. Upon its adoption, Richard Penn was deputed to present it before the throne. Penn lost no time in embarking, and, upon landing, trav- elled post-haste to London, where he offered it; but he was told, after some delay, that no answer would be made; and the King, in his speech from the throne, characterized it as designed "to amuse, by vague expressions of attachment to the parent State, and the strongest protestations of loyalty to their King, while they were preparing for a general revolt, and that their rebellious war was manifestly carried on for the purpose of establishing an independent empire."
There were parties in Parliament who looked upon this treatment as impolitic, and who made the house ring with their denunciation ; but the King had determined to subdue the Americans, and the only concession which he thought of making was forgiveness for past offences when the Ameri- cans should meekly submit to his will. In response to these sentiments, Congress issued a declaration to the world of the causes of their taking up arms, in which they said: " We are reduced to the alternative of choosing an unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated ministers, or resistance by force. The latter is our choice. We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery. Honor, justice, and humanity forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them."
The history of the composition of this paper is singular, and illustrates the critical nicety with which the members of that body examined and passed upon their utterances, and
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how jealous they were of their honor and their integrity in the preparation of their state papers. The intelligence of the Battle of Bunker Hill had scarcely been received, when a committee was appointed to prepare an accurate account of the battle and of those which preceded it, together with the reasons which actuated the Colonies in their resistance. It was desirable that the history of these transactions should be truly represented, as the knowledge of them was flying upon the wings of the wind, and would soon be echoing in the remotest parts of the civilized world. The preparation of this manifesto was first entrusted to John Rutledge. IIis draft was reported, but it failed to satisfy this critical Con- gress. It was referred back to the committee, and two new members were added, Thomas Jefferson and John Dickinson. Jefferson next tried his hand, but failed to satisfy the com- mittee, and it was finally entrusted to Mr. Dickinson. In plain but strong and effective language he described the aggressions of British troops in America, the slaughter of citizen soldiery on the fields of Lexington and Bunker Hill, and so pleaded the cause for which they were contending that it could not fail to excite the sympathies of all foreign na- tions, and bind together, in indissoluble bands, the hearts of all America. In concluding his statement he adopted three or four paragraphs from Mr. Jefferson's draft, full of the sounding eloquence which characterized the latter's Declara- tion drawn a year later. Mr. Dickinson's composition was reported, and met the approval of Congress, and was, on the 5th of July, 1775, adopted. It was sent forth to the world; it was read from the pulpit, at the head of departing regi- ments, and in the field where stood the men who had fought the battles which it described. It was received with un- bounded enthusiasm. When read at the head of General Putnam's Division, the soldiers "shouted in three huzzas a loud amen ! "
The Colonies which longest clung to the idea of concilia- tion, and the most determinedly resisted Independence, were New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. One of the stout-
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est leaders in that resistance in Congress was Mr. Dickinson. Others opposed his arguments, but all acknowledged his integrity and the sincerity of his purposes. "He was so honest a man," says Mr. Jefferson, "and so able a one, that he was greatly indulged, even by those who could not feel his scruples." On the 7th of June, 1776, Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, moved, and John Adams, of Massachusetts, seconded, in Congress, the proposition that the " United Colo- nies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States; and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." Upon this resolution, which was the real Declaration of Indepen- dence, the principal discussion occurred. Mr. Dickinson opposed it. "Prudence," he said, " required that they should not abandon certain for uncertain objects. Two hundred years of happiness, and present prosperity, resulting from English laws and the union with Great Britain, demonstrated that America could be wisely governed by the King and Parliament. . . . Shall the transports of fury sway us more than the experience of ages, and induce us to destroy, in a moment of anger, the work which has been cemented and tried by time ? . . . Even when supported by the powerful hand of England, the Colonists had abandoned themselves to discords, and sometimes to violence, from the paltry motives of territorial limits and distant jurisdictions. What, then, might they not expect when their minds were heated, am- bition roused, and arms in the hands of all ?"
But the utmost endeavors of Mr. Dickinson in opposition to the Declaration could have little influence in staying the tide which was now setting in its favor with resistless power. A majority of the Pennsylvania delegation sided with him; but when he discovered that the resolution would be carried by a large majority, he, together with Mr. Morris, absented himself from the session when the final vote was taken, thus enabling Pennsylvania to record her verdict in its favor. The formal Declaration, of which this resolution was the sub- stance, drawn by Mr. Jefferson, was then adopted; but the
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name of Mr. Dickinson does not appear as one of the sign- ers of that immortal instrument. For his opposition to this measure he lost the support of a majority of the Assembly of Pennsylvania, and he was for two years dropped from the public councils of the nation.
But when the Declaration was once adopted, and the young nation girded itself for a mighty struggle with the giant parent country, Mr. Dickinson did not withhold his influence or his personal aid, but, shouldering his musket, he went to the field as a volunteer private, from which position he rose to the rank of a brigadier-general in the army. The action on his part was in harmony with a declaration of principles which he had made for the government of his life. " Two rules," said he, " I have laid down for myself through- out this contest, to which I have continually adhered and still design to adhere : First, on all occasions when I am called upon as a trustee for my countrymen, to deliberate on ques- tions important to their happiness, disdaining all personal advantages to be derived from a suppression of my real sen- timents, and defying all dangers to be risked by a declaration of them, openly to avow them; and secondly, after thus dis- charging this duty, whenever the public resolutions are taken, to regard them, though opposite to my opinion, as sacred, because they lead to public measures in which the common weal must be interested, and to join in supporting them as earnestly as if my voice had been given for them. If the present day is too warm for me to be calmly judged, I can credit my country for justice some years hence."
In April, 1779, Mr. Dickinson was unanimously elected to Congress from the State of Delaware, and in the following month he was again busy with his pen, having been ap- pointed to prepare an address to the people of the United States on the duties and perils of the hour. Recruiting was sluggish; the army was ill fed, and scarcely paid at all ; the currency was fearfully depreciated, and discouragement was everywhere met. To arouse the people to a sense of patriotic duty at this dark hour was the aim in the prepa-
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ration of this paper. Nobly did he acquit himself in the important trust, challenging, by his persuasive power, re- newed applause.
In 1780, Mr. Dickinson was elected to represent the county of New Castle in the Assembly of Delaware, and was in the same year unanimously chosen President of that State. Two years later he was elected President of the Supreme Execu- tive Council of Pennsylvania. He was chosen by the party which favored a revision of the Constitution in opposition to Mr. Porter. During his administration the struggle for In- dependence was maintained in the northern and southern extremities of the nation, the central portion being little dis- turbed. Arnold, after his treason, went to Virginia as a British officer, where he made war with a vengeful hand. In the Carolinas and Georgia, active operations were pursued with varying success, the Count d'Estang upon the coast again lending his aid to the American cause. In Connecticut a vexatious warfare was also kept up. Finally, on the 19th of October, 1781, the British army under Cornwallis surren- dered to the combined naval and land forces of France and America, and the long struggle was substantially at an end. In the prosecution of these operations the powerful aid of Pennsylvania was at no time wanting, and the State Govern- ment was administered in such a way as to uphold the hands of the central power.
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