The John Dickinson Project

John Dickinson (1732-1808), known today as the "Penman of the Revolution," contributed more writings to the American Founding than any other figure. He is best known for his Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania (1767-68), the first resounding and successful call for colonial unity to resist British oppression. Yet this was just one of around 800 published and unpublished works that he wrote for the American cause, including America's first patriotic song, "The Liberty Song" (1768) and many of the official issuances of the Congresses, such as the Stamp Act Resolutions (1765), the First Petition to the King (1774), Letter to the Inhabitants of the Province of Quebec (1774), the Olive Branch Petition (1775), the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms (1775), and the first draft of the Articles of Confederation (1776). Although he was not always the sole author of the state papers, the published versions were based on his drafts. As one of the most talented legal minds in the colonies, Dickinson played a primary role in the creation of these seminal documents and he wielded more authority and influence both in Congress and over public opinion than perhaps any other figure before independence. Indeed, he was America's first political hero and internationally recognized champion of the people's rights. After independence he continued to write on peace and military matters in the Confederation government, public policy for the two states of which he was president (Delaware and Pennsylvania), plans for the creation and ratification of the Constitution, and during the early Republic, religion and foreign relations. Despite the central role Dickinson and his works had in the founding of the nation, there have only been two partial collections. The first edition, two volumes containing 14 documents, was collected by Dickinson himself and published in 1801. The second, a single volume containing 21 documents, was compiled by Paul Leicester Ford for the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 1895. Neither is scholarly in the modern sense, and only the first volume of Dickinson's edition is reprinted in facsimile form. In the 20th century there were several failed attempts to collect and publish his papers and writings. A few of his best known documents have been published or reproduced in scattered sources such as the Evans Digital collection, which contains about 14 publications. But these are inaccessible to those unaffiliated with an academic institution that possesses a subscription. Few of Dickinson's writings that were not published during his lifetime have been published since. Yet in addition to pamphlets, petitions, newspaper articles, broadsides, odes, and more, Dickinson also wrote many manuscript essays that elucidate his thinking on the most important issues of his time, including the legality of trade with the enemy during the Seven Years' War (c. 1760), the humane treatment of Native Americans (1763), the importance of conducting political protest peacefully (c. 1775), the abolition of slavery (1786). He wrote essays and notes for speeches in Congress, such as "Arguments against the Independence of these Colonies" (1776). Other works include an address at Dickinson College (c. 1783), his compromise for a national-federal government in the Constitutional Convention (1787), and his objections to moving the nation's capital to the Potomac (c. 1790). Like his published works, most of these manuscripts have yet to be examined and used by scholars. The goal of the Project is to assemble the entire corpus of Dickinson's political works into an estimated three print volumes, an abridged college-level course reader, and a Web-based digital version, freely accessible to both scholars and non-academics. The print edition will be published by an academic press and will contain a full scholarly apparatus for contextualization and interpretation of the materials. The Web version will have expanded textual contents and the same apparatus as the printed volumes, with added features available through the interlinking and advanced searching possible in an online publication environment. This first complete and scholarly edition of Dickinson's writings will be an indispensable resource for scholars of the founding in a variety of disciplines-history, politics, legal studies, religion, economics, military and peace studies, diplomacy, literature, rhetoric, communication, and digital humanities. More than this, because Dickinson's main concern was to advise ordinary Americans about virtuous citizenship, the public will find practical advice for how to engage productively and peacefully in the national discourse on rights and liberties.