Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/270

 DICKINSON

DICKINSON

the Colonial congress that met in Pliila<lelplHa in 1775 to opjKise the stamp act, and led in the ileiib- erationsof that Iwdy, drafting the famous " Dec- laration of the Causes of Taking up Arms,"' adopted by the congress. He opiK)sed the stamj) act, but counselled the continuation of the use of stamps until the act was repealed, denouncing tlie refusal to use them :is revolutionary, as he also characterized the action of the "Boston tea party," and recommended that the tea destroyed should be pjiid for. He held the Boston port act unconstitutional. In June, 1774, lie became chair- man of the committee on correspondence and drafted the instructions of the delegates from Pennsylvania to the Continental congress. In the congre.ss of 1774 he led the constitutional Whigs and drafted the tirst jjetition to the king and the address to the i^eople of Canada. In the second Pennsylvania convention he was chairman of the committee of safety and defence, was chosen colonel of the first organized battalion, and pre- pared to march with it to the defence of New York, tlireatened by British invasion. Although he drafted and presented to congress the report of the committee that it had appointed to prepare a "Declaration announcing to the world our rea.sons at taking up arms against England," in the next congress he opposed its passage as inop- portune and was not present when the instrument was signed. When Sir William Howe landed on Staten Island, Dickinson led five battalions of Philadelphia troops to New York to oppose the invasion. He was not returned as a delegate to congre.ss by reason of his refusal to vote for the Declaration of Independence, and when General Roberdeau was elected military commander and the Pennsylvania convention confirmed the elec- tion, he resigned his commission in the state mili- tia. He was elected a delegate to the Continental congress by the colony of Delaware in November, 1776, but declined to serve. In the summer of 1777 he joined the militia of Kent county, Del., as a private .soldier, was wounded in the skirmish at the Head of Elk and served in the battle of Brandywine. Immediately after the battle he was commissioned brigadier-general of the Dela- ware militia. He represented Delaware in the Continental congress, 1776-77, and again in 1779, but resigned in 1780 and was elected president of the supreme council of Delaware. In 1782 he returned to Philadelphia, was elected president of the council of Pennsylvania, and was twice re-elected. As president of the Annapolis conven- tion he drafted the rejxjrt to congress recom- mending a con.stitutional convention, and as a delegate to that convention insisted on equal rep- resentation of the states in the U.S. senate, irre- spective of their area or population, and signed both the articles of confederation and the federal

constitution. He advocated the early abolition of slavery in Delaware and oi)posed its admission to tiie territories. He was one of the founders of Dickinson college in 178;], and the institution was named for him. He was married, July 19, 1770, to Mary, daughter of Isaac Norris, speaker of the Pennsylvania assembly. He contributed to the support of the College of New Jersey and to the education of poor children in Wilmington, Del. With his wife he founded " The Society for the alleviation of the miseries of public pri.sons " and a free boarding school at Westtown, Pa. The College of New Jersey conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1769. He published : The Late Eegxdations JRespecting the British Colonies on the Continent of America Considered (1765); Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Lihab- itants of the British Colonies, published in the Pennsylvania Chronicle (1766), and letters under the name of Fabins, (1779). C. J. Stille wrote The Life and Times of John Dickinson (1891) at the request of the Pennsylvania historical society. He died in Wilmington, Del., Feb. 14, 1808.

DICKINSON, Jonathan, educator, was born in Hatfield, Mass., April 22, 1688 ; grandson of Deacon Nathaniel Dickinson (Wethersfield, Conn., 1687). He was graduated from Yale in 1706, studied the- ology, and was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry. He became pastor at Elizabetiitown, N.J., in 1709, having also charge of the adjoining towns of Railway, Westfield, Union, Springfield and Chatham. He was also a practising physician and accomplished much good in the community by giving free medical advice to the poor. In 1741 he succeeded in obtaining a charter for the College of New Jersey, which up to that time had been called Nassau Hall, and at its opening in 1746 in Elizabethtown he was elected its president. He published- Reasonableness of Christianity: Four Sermons (1732) ; The True Scripture Doctrine Con- cerning some Important Points of Christian Faith (1741); and Familiar Letters to a Gentleman (1745; 2d ed., 1757). He died in Elizabethtown, N.J., Oct. 7, 1747.

DICKINSON, Marquis Fayette, lawyer, was born in Amher.st, Mass.. Jan. 16, 1840; son of Marquis Fayette and Hannah (Williams) Dickin- son; grandson of Walter Dickinson, and great- grand.son of Nathaniel Dickinson of Amherst, a lawj'^er, who was graduated at Harvard in 1771 and took a prominent part in civil affairs during the Revolution. His earliest ancestor in Amer- ica was Deacon Nathaniel Dickinson of Westfield, Conn., 1637, and of Hadley, 1658. His preparatory education was acquired at Amherst and Monson academies and at Williston seminary, and he was graduated from Amherst college in 1862. He was teacher of classics at Williston seminary, 1862-65, then took a course of law at Harvard, and was