Deb-Dic: DeBaptiste through Dickson

See below for annotated biographies of American abolitionists and anti-slavery activists. Sources include: Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography and Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography.


DE BAPTISTE, George, 1814-1875, free African American abolitionist, businessman.  Aided fugitive slaves on the Underground Railroad in Madison, Indiana, as well as Ohio and Kentucky areas.  Became active in abolition movement in Detroit area.

(Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Volume 3, p. 538; American National Biography, 2002, Volume 6, p. 306)


DE WITT, Alexander, Massachusetts, abolitionist


DEAN, James E., abolitionist, New Haven, Connecticut, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-37


DEITZLER, George Washington, 1826-1884, abolitionist.

(Dictionary of American Biography, 1936, Volume 3, pt. 1, pp. 201-202)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 3, Pt. 1, pp. 166-167:

DEITZLER, GEORGE WASHINGTON (November 30, 1826-April 10, 1884), anti-slavery leader in Kansas, the son of Jacob and Maria Deitzler, was born at Pine Grove, Pennsylvania. There he grew to manhood with only a common-school education-"very common" he once said. While still a young man he emigrated to the new West. After a short residence in Illinois and in California he went in March 1855 to Lawrence, Kansas, where he engaged in farming and real-estate dealing. He soon took an active part in politics, so that when the plan to organize a free-state government, in opposition to the pro-slavery territorial government, was set on foot he was sent to Boston to see Amos Lawrence and other friends of the cause. He at once received an order for one hundred Sharps rifles which were very soon on their way to Kansas in boxes marked "books." Other shipments of "books" followed. Military companies armed with these new weapons were formed among the free-state men. In th e so-called Wakarusa War in November 1855, Deitzler was aide-de-camp to the commander of the free-state forces and during part of the time w as in full command. A few months later, when the territorial judiciary began to function, Chief Justice Lecornpte instructed a grand jury sitting at Lecompton that levying war on the authorities of the territory was treason against the federal government. Deitzler and several other free-state leaders were promptly indicted on a charge of treason. They were immediately arrested and kept in a prison tent at Lecompton for about four months. In September 1856 they were freed on bail. Later their cases were nolle-prossed.

Deitzler's activities in behalf of the free-state cause were incessant. He served on committees, attended meetings and conventions, of which there w ere many, counseled with other leaders, and wrote for the press. He was elected a member of the free-state territorial legislature of 1857-58 and was chosen speaker of the House of Representatives. He was also a member of the Kansas Senate under the Topeka constitution. In 1860 he became mayor of Lawrence and in 1866 treasurer of the University of Kansas. When the Civil War began he was active in organizing the first regiment of Kansas Volunteer Infantry and was appointed its colonel. In August 1861 his regiment took a prominent part in the battle of Wilson's Creek where he was severely wounded. Promoted to the rank of brigadier-general in November 1862, he served under Grant until October 1863 and then resigned on account of impaired health caused by his former wound. During all of these years he had remained a bachelor. His home was at the Eldridge House in Lawrence. In September 1864 he was married to Anna McNeil of Lexington, Missouri. A month later General Price led an invading Confederate army into Missouri and eastern Kansas. The entire militia of the latter state were called out-about 20,000 in number and Deitzler was placed in chief command with the rank of major-general. He directed the movements against the Confederates in the successful campaign that followed. Various enterprises engaged his attention after the return of peace. He promoted the Emporia Town Company and was a director in the new Leavenworth, Lawrence & Fort Gibson Railroad Company. In 1872 he removed with his family to California. While in southern Arizona in the spring of 1884 he was thrown from a buggy and killed.

[The main facts of Deitzler's career are presented in his brief autobiography, now in the archives of the Kansas State Historical Society. Secondary sources are: Q. W. Wilder, Annals of Kansas (1875); G. T. Andreas, History of the State of Kansas (1883); L. W. Spring, Kansas (1885); F. W. Blackmar, Life of Chas. Robinson (1902); Trans. Kansas Historical Society, IV (1886-88); V (1891-96); VI (1897-1900); VIII (1903-04); X (1907-08); XIII (1913-14). The date of his death is sometimes given as April 11, although the Leavenworth Evening Standard, April 11, 1884, states that he died April 10.]

T. L. H.


DELANY, Martin Robinson, 1812-1885, free African American, publisher, editor, journalist, writer, physician, soldier. Publisher of abolitionist newspaper, North Star in Rochester, New York, with Fredrick Douglass. Published, The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States, 1852. Published, The Ram’s Horn in New York.  Supported colonization of African Americans in 1854. Led National Emigration Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1854.  Recruited thousands of African Americans for service in the Civil War.  First African American major in the U.S. Army. 

(Mabee, Carleton. Black Freedom: The Nonviolent Abolitionists from 1830 Through the Civil War. London: Macmillan, 1970, pp. 133, 145, 400n18; Pease, William H., & Pease, Jane H. The Antislavery Argument. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1965, pp. 319-330; Rodriguez, Junius P., Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2007, pp. 32, 50, 55, 164, 192, 251-252, 264, 275, 704-705; Sernett, Milton C. North Star Country: Upstate New York and the Crusade for African American Freedom. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2002, pp. 151, 240, 314n61; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 3, Pt. 1, pp. 219-220; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 6, p. 382)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 3, Pt. 1, pp. 219-220:

DELANY, MARTIN ROBINSON (May 6, 1812-January 24, 1885), first negro major in the United States army, was born in Charles Town, Virginia (now in West Virginia), the son of free negroes, Samuel and Pati Delany. His paternal grandfather, a member of the Golah tribe, once fled to Toronto with his wife and two sons, but was brought back and later lost his life in an encounter with a slaveholder. His maternal grandfather, a prince of the Mandingo tribe, had been captured in the Niger Valley, sold, and brought to America along with his betrothed. As a boy of six Delany received his first instruction from peddlers of books. Because of persecution his people were forced to remove to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, in 1822. In 1831 he went to Pittsburgh, where he found better opportunity for study under Reverend Louis Woodson, who was employed by a society of negroes interested in education. By 1834 he was already showing his interest in organizations for the welfare of the poor people of the city; and within the next two years he began the study of medicine under Dr. Andrew N. McDowell, though his work in this field was soon interrupted. On March 15, 1843, he was married to Kate A. Richards of Pittsburgh, and he became the father of eleven children. In 1843 also he began in Pittsburgh the publication of the Mystery, a small paper that somehow attracted a good deal of attention to itself, as when it gave a notable description of the fire in the city in 1844. Sued for libel by a negro who was said to be assisting slave-catchers, he was once fined $200 and costs; but several citizens came to his assistance and the fine was later remitted. During the years 1847-49 he was associated with Frederick Douglass in bringing out the North Star, published by that orator at Rochester, New York. In July 1848 he was mobbed in northern Ohio. The next year he resumed his studies, being received in the medical department of Harvard College after he had been refused entrance at institutions in Pennsylvania and New York. After leaving Harvard he lectured in the West and served with great efficiency in the cholera epidemic in Pittsburgh in 1854. His little book, The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States, Politically Considered, issued in Philadelphia in 1852, was earnest and thoughtful, and anticipated Booker T. Washington in its emphasis on practical education. In 1854 he issued a call for a National Emigration Convention, which met in Cleveland in August. The convention established a permanent board of commissioners, of which Delany was made president. A second convention was held in Cleveland in August 1856, and in this year he removed to Chatham, Ontario, where he engaged in the practise of medicine. Two years later a third convention, held at Chatham, chose Delany as chief commissioner to explore the Valley of the Niger, making inquiries "for the purpose of science and for general information and without any reference to, and with the Board being entirely opposed to, any Emigration there as such" (see Official Report of the Niger Valley Exploring Party, 1861, by Delany himself). Accordingly, in May 1859 he sailed from New York in the bark Mendi, owned by three African merchants. The next year he visited Liverpool and London. On his return to the United States he assisted Charles L. Remond and Charles H. Langston in recruiting negro soldiers, and he was an acting examining surgeon in Chicago. On February 8, 1865, he received his commission as major and on April 5 was ordered to Charleston. After the war he served for three years in the Freedmen's Bureau, was for several years custom-house inspector in Charleston, also for four years a trial justice in the city. He was a severe critic of the corruption of the Reconstruction period in South Carolina and, with Richard H. Cain [q.v.] and Joseph H. Rainey, was a leader of the Honest Government League. He was nominated for lieutenant-governor on the Independent Republican ticket, in 1874, but was defeated. In 1879 he published Principia of Ethnology: The Origin of Races and Color, etc. In 1884 he was employed to act as agent for a Boston firm in Central America; but by this time his health was failing. He died the following year at Xenia, Ohio.

[In addition to references given above see A. Rollin, Life and Public Services of Martin R. Delany (1868); sketch in Wm. J. Simmons, Men of Mark (1887); W. P. and F. J. Garrison, Wm. Lloyd Garrison (4 volumes, 1885-89); A. A. Taylor, The Negro in South Carolina during the Reconstruction (1924); Daily Morning Post (Pittsburgh), October 18, 1854; News and Courier (Charleston, South Carolina), February 13, September 2, 15, October 2, 3, 1874; Jas. T. Holly, "In Memoriam," A. M. E. Church Review, October, 1886.]

B. B.


DELAVAN, Edward Cornelius, 1793-1871, Ballston Center, New York, reformer, temperance activist, abolitionist.  Life member of the American Colonization Society (ACS).  Sought to defend the ACS against attacks by William Lloyd Garrison.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-39.

(Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, p. 134; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 201)

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, p. 134:

DELAVAN, Edward Cornelius, reformer, born in Schenectady county, New York, in 1793; died in Schenectady, 15 January, 1871. He was a wine-merchant, and acquired a fortune. At one time he owned much real estate in Albany, including the Delavan house, which he erected. In 1828, in company with Dr. Eliphalet Nott, he formed the State temperance society in Schenectady, and entered with zeal into the cause of temperance reform, devoting .his ample means to its promotion, speaking, lecturing, and writing on the subject, and employing others in all these ways to further the cause. He met with great opposition in this work. In 1835 he wrote to the Albany “Evening Journal,” charging an Albany brewer with using filthy and stagnant water for malting. The brewer prosecuted him for libel, and the trial, which took place in 1840 and attracted wide attention, occupied six days, and resulted in a verdict for Delavan. After this, several similar suits that had been begun against him for damages aggregating $300,000, were abandoned. Mr. Delavan had the proceedings of this trial printed in pamphlet-form for distribution as a tract. He procured, about 1840, several drawings of the human stomach when diseased by the use of alcoholic drinks, from postmortem examinations made by Prof. Sewall, of Washington, D. C. These he bad engraved and printed in colors, and made very effective use of them. He also published for years, at his own expense, a periodical advocating, often with illustrations, the temperance cause; this was subsequently merged in the “Journal of the American Temperance Union,” to whose funds he was a most liberal contributor. He had trained himself to public speaking, and became an efficient advocate of the cause he had so much at heart. Mr. Delavan presented to Union college a collection of shells and minerals valued at $30,000. He lost a large portion of his property a few years before his death. He published numerous articles and tracts, and “Temperance in Wine Countries” (1860). Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.


DELONG, James C., Utica, New York abolitionist leader, Executive Committee member and founding officer of the New York State Anti-Slavery Society, Utica, New York, October 1836.

(Sorin, Gerald. The New York Abolitionists: A Case Study of Political Radicalism. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Corporation, 1971; Minutes, First Annual Meeting of the New York State Anti-Slavery Society, Utica, New York, October 19, 1836)


DEMING, Henry Champion, 1815-1872, lawyer, soldier.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut, 1863, 1865.  Colonel, commanding 12th Connecticut Regiment.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery He published translations of Eugene Sue's “Mysteries of Paris” and “Wandering Jew” (1840), a eulogy of Abraham Lincoln, delivered by invitation of the Connecticut legislature in 1865, “Life of Ulysses S. Grant” (Hartford, 1868), and various addresses.

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 138-139; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 3, Pt. 1, pp. 230-231; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe).

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 3, Pt. 1, pp. 230-231:

DEMING, HENRY CHAMPION (May 23, 1815-October 9, 1872), lawyer, politician, was a member of a family identified throughout with Connecticut. John Deming recorded his homestead at Wethersfield, Connecticut, in 1641. His descendants settled at Lyme and later at Colchester, and one of them, David Deming, was a prominent merchant of the latter place and a member of the legislature. He married Abigail, daughter of Henry Champion, and their youngest child, Henry Champion Deming, was born at Colchester. His parents were well-to-do, and his early education was of the best, being completed at Yale, where he graduated in 1836. He then entered the law school at Harvard (LL.B., 1839), and on being admitted to the Massachusetts bar moved to New York City, where he opened a law office. His inclinations however were toward literature rather than law, and for a time he was on the editorial staff of the New World, a literary monthly. In 1847 he returned to Connecticut and practised law at Hartford for a short time. Possessed of unusual gifts as a public speaker and debater, he entered into local politics. A Democrat of the old school, he was elected as representative of Hartford in the state legislature in 1849, and from that time forward practically relinquished law and devoted himself to public affairs. In 1851 he became a member of the state Senate and in 1854 was elected mayor of Hartford, which office he held for five successive years. In 1859 he became again the city representative in the state legislature, and in 1860 was once more elected mayor. When the Southern states threatened secession he was strongly opposed to the adoption of coercive methods, and after the outbreak of the Civil War, announced that, though he adhered to the Federal government, he would not support a war of aggression or invasion of the seceded states. The subsequent advance of the Confederate forces upon the Federal capital, however, induced him to become a strong Unionist, and the Republican majority elected him speaker pro tempore of the state legislature. Late in 1861 the 12th ("Charter-Oak") Connecticut Regiment was raised, in order to participate in the New Orleans expedition, and he was appointed lieutenant-colonel. He took part in all the subsequent operations under General Butler and the regiment under his command was the first body of Federal troops to enter New Orleans. In October 1862 he was detached and appointed provisional mayor of New Orleans, performing his difficult duties with great tact and efficiency. He resigned however in February 1863, returned to Hartford, and was at once elected to the Thirty-eighth Congress by the Republicans. He served two terms in Congress, being placed on the committees on military affairs and on expenditures in the war Department, of which latter he was chairman. In the national House, his oratorical powers, strong character, and practical experience of war conditions combined to assure him an outstanding position. In 1866 he was a delegate to the Loyalists convention at Philadelphia, and in 1869 was appointed United States collector of Internal Revenue for his home district. This latter position he continued to hold till his death, which occurred at Hartford, October 9, 1872. He was married twice: in 1850 to Sarah, daughter of Laurent Clerc of Hartford, and in 1871 to Annie Putnam, daughter of Myron W. Wilson and widow of Sherman L. Jittson.

Holding public office almost uninterruptedly for twenty-three years, prominent alike in federal, state, and municipal politics, his reputation rested principally upon his unusual oratorical powers, though he possessed great administrative ability. Of cultured tastes and widely read, he published translations of Eugene Sue's Mysteries of Paris and The Wandering Jew (1840), and, in collaboration with G. C. Hebbe, The Smugglers of the Swedish Coast, or The Rose of Thistle Island (1844), from the original Swedish of Mrs. E. S. F. Carlen. He also wrote The Life of Ulysses S. Grant, General, United States Army (1868).

[J. K. Deming, Genealogy of the descendants of John Deming of Wethersfield, Connecticut (1904), traces his ancestry and contains a sketch of his life. See also Annual Cyclopedia, 1872, p. 630; Obituary Record Graduates Yale College, 1873; History and Biography Record of the Class of 1836 in Yale College (1882); Hartford Daily Courant, October 10, 1872.]

H. W. H. K.

Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888,Volume II, pp. 138-139:

DEMING, Henry Champion, lawyer, born in Middle Haddam, Connecticut, in 1815; died in Hartford, 9 October, 1872. He was graduated at Yale in 1836, and at Harvard law-school in 1839. He then opened a law office in New York city, but devoted himself chiefly to literature, being engaged with Park Benjamin in editing the “New World,” a literary monthly. He removed to Hartford in 1847, served in the lower house of the legislature in 1849-'50 and 1859-'61, and in 1851 was a member of the state senate. He was mayor of Hartford in 1854-'8 and in 1860-'2, having been elected as a democrat. Early in the war he opposed coercion, even after the fall of Sumter, and when asked to preside at a war-meeting on 19 April, 1861, declined in a letter in which he said that he would support the Federal government, but would not “sustain it in a war of aggression or invasion of the seceded states.” When Washington was threatened, however, he favored the prosecution of the war, and on 9 October, 1861, was elected by acclamation speaker pro tempore of the state house of representatives, the republican majority thus testifying their approval of his course. In September, 1861, he accepted a commission as colonel of the “charter oak” regiment (the 12th Connecticut), recruited especially for General Butler's New Orleans expedition. After the passage of the forts his regiment was the first to reach New Orleans, and was assigned by General Butler the post of honor at the custom-house. Colonel Deming was on detached duty, acting as mayor of the city from October, 1862, till February, 1863. He then resigned, returned home, and in April, 1863, was elected to congress as a republican, and served two terms, being a member of the committee on military affairs, and chairman of that on expenditures in the war department. In 1866 he was a delegate to the Loyalists' convention in Philadelphia, and from 1869 till his death was U. S. collector of internal revenue for his district. Mr. Deming was one of the most eloquent public speakers in New England, a gentleman of fine culture and of refined literary taste. He published translations of Eugene Sue's “Mysteries of Paris” and “Wandering Jew” (1840), a eulogy of Abraham Lincoln, delivered by invitation of the Connecticut legislature in 1865, “Life of Ulysses S. Grant” (Hartford, 1868), and various addresses. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 138-139.


DEMING, Samuel, abolitionist, Farmington, Connecticut, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee, 1840-43.


DENHAM, Obed, born Virginia, abolitionist, went to Ohio in 1797, founded town of Bethel, founded Baptist Church on anti-slavery principles.

(Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, p. 93)


DENISON, Charles Wheeler, 1809-1881, New York City, abolitionist leader, author, clergyman, newspaper editor.  Editor of The Emancipator, the first anti-slavery newspaper in New York.  Co-founder and organizer of the Baptist Anti-Slavery Society in 1840 and the American Baptist Free Mission Society in 1843.  Manager, 1833-1836, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), December 1833.  Lecturing Agent for the AASS in Connecticut and Eastern New York.  Co-founder of the Delaware State Anti-Slavery Society.

(Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, p. 182; Sorin, Gerald. The New York Abolitionists: A Case Study of Political Radicalism. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Corporation, 1971; Abolitionist, Volume I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, p. 140). He published “The American Village and other Poems” (Boston, 1845); “Paul St. Clair,” a temperance story; “Out at Sea,” poems (London, 1867); “Antonio, the Italian Boy” (Boston, 1873); “The Child Hunters,” relating to the abuses of the padrone system (Philadelphia, 1877); and a series of  Biographies published during the war, including “The Tanner Boy” (Grant); “The Bobbin Boy” (Banks); and “Winfield; the Lawyer's Son” (Hancock).

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, p. 140:

DENISON, Charles Wheeler, author, born in New London, Connecticut, 11 November, 1809; d.14 November, 1881. Before he was of age he edited a newspaper in his native town. He afterward became a clergyman, edited the “Emancipator,” the first antislavery journal published in New York, and took part in other similar publications. In 1853 he was U. S. consul in British Guiana. He spent some time among the operatives of Lancashire, speaking in behalf of the National cause during the American civil war, and in 1867 edited an American paper in London, being at the same time pastor of Grove Road chapel, Victoria park. During the last two years of the war he served as post chaplain in Winchester, Virginia, and as hospital chaplain in Washington. He published “The American Village and other Poems” (Boston, 1845); “Paul St. Clair,” a temperance story; “Out at Sea,” poems (London, 1867); “Antonio, the Italian Boy” (Boston, 1873); “The Child Hunters,” relating to the abuses of the padrone system (Philadelphia, 1877); and a series of biographies published during the war, including “The Tanner Boy” (Grant); “The Bobbin Boy” (Banks); and “Winfield; the Lawyer's Son” (Hancock). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp.140.


DENNET, Oliver, abolitionist, Portland, Michigan, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1844-1845, Vice-President, 1845-1851.


DENNISON, William, 1815-1882, Civil War governor of Ohio, lawyer, founding member of Republican Party, state Senator, opposed admission of Texas and the extension of slavery into the new territories.  Anti-slavery man, supporter of Abraham Lincoln.

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, p. 142; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 3, Pt. 1, p. 241; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 6, p. 446).

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 3, Pt. 1, p. 241:

DENNISON, WILLIAM (November 23, 1815-June 15, 1882), governor of Ohio, was the son of William Dennison, who with his New England wife, Mary Carter, about 1805 removed from New Jersey to Cincinnati, and there became a successful business man. The son attended Miami University, where he proved to be a capable student of political science, history, and literature. Graduating in 1835, he read law in the office of Nathaniel G. Pendleton, father of George H. Pendleton [q.v.]. He was admitted to the bar in 1840 and practised until 1848, when he was elected to the state Senate as a Whig. After a hot contest, which prevented organization of the Senate for two weeks, he was defeated as his party's candidate for the position of presiding officer.

In 1844, in his maiden speech before the public, Dennison had opposed the admission of Texas and the extension of the area of slavery. The position then taken foreshadowed his course through the next twenty years. As a member of the state Senate, he had a part in the fight for the repeal of the notorious "Black Laws," and while adhering to the Whig party through 1852 he was one of the first of the Ohio party leaders to join the Republican movement. In February 1856 he attended the preliminary convention at Pittsburgh and served as a member of the Committee on Resolutions; and in June he was acting chairman of the Ohio delegation in the Philadelphia Convention, which nominated Fremont. Three years later, as Republican candidate for governor, he defeated Judge Rufus P. Ranney, who ranked as the leader of the state bar, and thus found himself in the executive chair when the Civil War began. He came to the governor's chair with little experience in public affairs. Although he was well regarded by the business men of the capital city, to whom in large part he owed his nomination, he was but little known to the public, and his nomination was thought to be due to a dearth of able rivals. He campaigned with unexpected brilliance in 1859, but his success did not win for him the full confidence of the people, who decided that he was aristocratic and vain. Thus handicapped, he met the war crisis without adequate support in public opinion. Disposed in advance to be discontented, the people of Ohio were unable for a time to appreciate the energy and wisdom with which he performed his duties. Regarding the Ohio River as an unsafe line of defense for his state, Dennison dispatched McClellan with state troops to aid the loyal citizens of western Virginia in driving out the Confederates. He advocated a similar campaign in Kentucky, but the Federal government preferred to respect the state's neutrality. As a means of preventing the transportation of war supplies and war news without his approval, he practically assumed control of the railways, telegraph lines, and express companies at the outset of hostilities; and against the advice of his attorney-general, he used money refunded by the Federal government on account of state military expenditures without turning it into the treasury for reappropriation. Many complaints thus arose, not without some justification, in spite of the fact that he had with extraordinary promptness succeeded in placing in the field more than the state's quota of the troops called for by the Federal government. As a war governor, Dennison proved unpopular, and the party leaders did not venture to renominate him in 1861. Moreover, they felt the necessity of uniting with the War Democrats, and effected this purpose by supporting David Tod. Dennison accepted the situation without any show of personal feeling, and continued to give loyal support to his party. Governor Tod, in particular, constantly sought his advice and aid.

In 1864, Dennison acted as chairman of the Republican National Convention, and in the same year was appointed postmaster-general by Lincoln, which office he held until 1866, when he resigned it on account of dissatisfaction with President Johnson's course. In 1872 he was mentioned for the vice-presidential nomination, and in 1880 was defeated by Garfield for the Republican nomination as United States senator. In the same year he was chairman of the Sherman Committee in Ohio, and leader of his forces in the national convention. It is thought that had Grant been nominated, Dennison might have won the vice-presidency.

Notwithstanding his prominence in political affairs, Dennison was primarily a business man. Soon after his admission to the bar he had married the daughter of William Neil of Columbus, a promoter of stage transportation, and had settled in that city. In the early fifties he became president of the Exchange Bank, member of the city council, and organizer of the Franklin County Agricultural Society. In the dawning era of the railway, he was a pioneer promoter of the new type of transportation, leading in the organization, especially, of the Hocking Valley and Columbus & Xenia railroads. An enterprise of another type which he was influential in establishing was the Columbus Rolling Mills. By such ventures, notwithstanding heavy losses in the panic of 1873, he acquired a considerable fortune. To the end of his life, mostly on account of his reserved manner, few knew him well. On the street he spoke only to old and intimate friends. Yet no man knew better how to treat his fellows in parlor or office, and never, intentionally, did he mistreat friend or foe (Cincinnati Enquirer, June 16, 1882). He died in Columbus after a period of invalidism lasting about eighteen months.

[Most sketches of Dennison are based on Whitelaw Reid, Ohio in the War (1868), I, 1017-22, and index. See also E. O. Randall and D. V. Ryan, History of Ohio (1912), IV, Passim; Ohio Archeology and History Society Pubs., I, 1-23; IV, 444; IX, 149; Harper's Weekly, January 28, 1865; Ohio State Journal and Cincinnati Enquirer, June 16, 1882. The best source for the years of Dennison's governorship is his message of January 6, 1862, which includes documents.]

H. C. H.

Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888,Volume II, p. 142:

DENNISON, William, war governor of Ohio, born in Cincinnati, Ohio, 23 November, 1815; died in Columbus, 15 June, 1882. His father was a prosperous business man, and had him prepared for college in the best schools of Cincinnati. He was graduated at Miami in 1835, studied law in Cincinnati, under the direction of Nathaniel Pendleton and Stephen Fales, and practised in Columbus until 1848, in which year he was chosen to the state legislature. About this period Mr. Dennison became interested in banking and in railroad affairs, and was president of the Exchange bank and president of the Columbus and Xenia railroad company. In 1856 he was a delegate to the first National convention of the Republican party. He was chosen governor of Ohio in 1860 by the Republicans, and delivered his first message to the general assembly in 1861. At his suggestion the legislature voted $3,000,000 to protect the state “from invasion and insurrection,” and conferred power upon the executive to raise troops. Governor Dennison was an anti-slavery man and an ardent admirer of President Lincoln. In response to his call for 11,000 troops, he offered 30,000, sending agents to Washington to urge their acceptance. He took possession of the telegraph lines and railroads in the name of the state, and seized money in transitu from Washington to Ohio, which he gave to the quartermaster-general to clothe and equip soldiers. Governor Dennison was a delegate to the Republican national convention in 1864, and was elected chairman. He was appointed by President Lincoln postmaster-general in 1864, and continued in that office, under President Johnson, until his resignation in 1866. Governor Dennison was a member of the National Republican convention at Chicago in 1880, and was leader of the friends of Senator John Sherman during the struggle for the nomination. He was also a candidate for senator in that year. He contributed largely to Dennison college, Granville, Ohio. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 142.


DENNY, Samuel, Circleville, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1835-39.


DEWEY, Josiah, New York, American Abolition Society.

(Radical Abolitionist, Volume 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)


DEWEY, Loring Daniel, 1791-1867, New York, clergyman, reformer, abolitionist, Agent of the American Colonization Society.  Toured New England and New York, raised funds and founded auxiliaries. 

(Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 79-87 passim)


DEWITT, Luke, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-39.


DE WITT, Thomas, 1791-1874, clergyman, member of the Colonization society. 

(Staudenraus, 1961; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, p. 160)


DE WOLF, Calvin, abolitionist.  Co-founded Chicago Chapter of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1838 with Philo Carpenter.


DEXTER, Samuel, 1761-1816, lawyer, jurist.  Member of U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts.  U.S. House of Representatives, 1793-1795.  U.S. Senator, December 1799-June 1800.  Opposed slavery as member of U.S. House of Representatives.  Secretary of War and Treasury. 

(Appletons, 1888, Volume II, pp. 161-162; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 3, Pt. 1, p. 280-281; Locke, Mary Stoughton. Anti-Slavery in America from the Introduction of African Slaves to the Prohibition of the Slave Trade (1619-1808). Boston: Ginn & Co., 1901, pp. 71, 93; Annals of Congress). He was the author of the reply of the senate to the address of President Adams on the death of Washington, and published a “Letter on Freemasonry”; “Progress of Science,” a poem (1780); and “Speeches and Political Papers,” besides political pamphlets. 162.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 3, Pt. 1, p. 280-281:

DEXTER, SAMUEL (May 14, 1761-May 4, 1816), lawyer, was born at Boston, Massachusetts, the youngest child of Samuel [q. v.] and Hannah (Sigourney) Dexter. Brought up with great care, he received a thorough classical education at the hands of the Reverend Aaron Putnam of Pomfret, and entered Harvard College in 1777 where he graduated in 1781 with highest honors. He then studied law at Worcester, Massachusetts, with Levi Lincoln and was admitted to the Worcester County bar in 1784. He commenced practise in Lunenberg in 1786, but moved to Chelmsford and later to Billerica, finally establishing himself at Charlestown in 1788. He was in the same year elected a member of the state House of Representatives from Charlestown, and during his two years in that body acquired a wide reputation for sound judgment, and exercised great influence over its deliberations. In 1792 he was elected Federalist representative of Middlesex. Massachusetts, in the Third Congress and served as such di March 3, 1795. Four years later he was elected United States senator from Massachusetts, occupying that position from December 2, 1799 till June 1800, when he resigned in order to enter the cabinet of President Adams as secretary of war, to which office he had been appointed on May 13. He remained head of the War Department until December 31 of that year, when he became secretary of the treasury. His temperament and intellectual endowment ill suited him for that minute diligence and attention to intricate details which the departments of War and Finance impose on incumbents of office, but his application was intense and his success undoubted (Story, post). For a short period he, in addition, executed the office of secretary of state in order to administer the oath of office to John Marshall on the latter's appointment as chief justice of the United States. Shortly before the termination of the Adams administration the President offered him a foreign embassy but he declined and remained in office till after the accession of Jefferson, when Gallatin succeeded him on January 26, 1802. He then moved to Roxbury, Massachusetts, and resumed the practise of law. Partially withdrawing from political activities, he devoted himself to his profession, and in a short time attained a commanding position at the bar, being constantly retained in the higher state courts and particularly in the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1807 he appeared as leading counsel for the defense of Thomas O. Selfridge, charged with the murder of Charles Austin, a Harvard student. The prominent position of all the participants caused intense interest to be taken in the proceedings, which resulted in a verdict of acquittal (2 American State Trials, 544). In his address to the jury Dexter is said to have "combined the closest reasoning with the most finished eloquence" (Davis, post). He had always manifested considerable independence of thought, invariably approaching both political and legal problems in his own way, and his attitude in the matter of the War of 1812 was thoroughly characteristic. He believed that the war was a just one and, declining to follow the Federalists, actively supported the policy of the government in that respect, but was vehemently opposed to the Embargo and non-intercourse policy, and unsuccessfully contested its constitutionality. In 1815 he was offered an extraordinary mission to the Court of Spain by President Madison, which he declined. In 1814 and 1815 he was an unsuccessful candidate for governor of Massachusetts, disclaiming all sympathy with Madison's policy apart from his attitude toward Great Britain. He died at Athens, New York. On March 7, 1786, he married Catherine, daughter of William Gordon of Charlestown, and Franklin Dexter [q.v.] was their son.

Dexter was inclined to be reserved, precise, and formal in manner, and his appearance on public occasions was not impressive. He had a strong dislike for mass meetings at which he never appeared to advantage. Possessed of rare intellectual gifts, however, he enjoyed a prestige both in Congress and the courts of last resort which placed him in the first rank of contemporary public men. At the same time it is doubtful whether he was profoundly learned. One who knew him well says that the impression was that he read few professional books (Sargent, post), and Story bears testimony to the fact that he referred to "black lettered law" as "the scholastic refinements of monkish ages." A poem, The Progress of Science (1780), and a biographical notice of his father in the Monthly Anthology and Boston Review, July 10, 1810, are the most noteworthy of his published writings.

[Dexter's ancestry is traced in O. P. Dexter, Dexter Genealogy 1642-1904 (1904). which al so contains (p. 86) a short biography. Judge Story' s "Sketch of the life and character of the Hon. Samuel Dexter" in 1 Mason, 523, and Reminiscences of Samuel Dexter (1857), by Lucius Manlius Sargent under the pseudonym "Sigma," are authoritative surveys of his life and career. See also C. W. Bowen, History of Woodstock, Connecticut (1926), pp. 190 ff., and "Samuel Dexter, Councilor, and his son, Hon. Samuel Dexter, Secretary of War, and Secretary of the Treasury," Proc. American Antiq. Society, n.d., XXXV, 23 (April8.1825); W. T. Davis, History of the Bench and Bar of Suffolk County, Massachusetts (1894); Memoir of Theophilus Parsons (1859), by his son, T. Parsons, p. 180; and Charles Warren, History of the American Bar (1911), p. 309.]

H.W.H.K.

Appletons, 1888, Volume II, pp. 161-162:

DEXTER, Samuel, jurist, born in Boston, 14 May, 1761; died in Athens, New York, 3 May, 1816, was graduated at Harvard in 1781, and having studied law at Worcester, Massachusetts, with Levi Lincoln, was admitted to the bar in 1784. After practising for some years in Worcester and Middlesex counties, he removed to Boston, which he made his home for the remainder of his life. He was a member of the Massachusetts house of representatives in 1788-'90, served in the lower house at Washington in 1793-'5, and was elected to the U. S. senate, in which body he sat from 2 December, 1799, until June, 1800, when he resigned, on being appointed secretary of war by President Adams. This office he held until 31 December, 1800, when he was named secretary of the treasury, which place he filled until the inauguration of President Jefferson. He then returned to the practice of the law, appearing every winter at Washington in important cases before the U. S. supreme court. He was a close reasoner and an able logician, and in pleading chose to rely more on the strength of his arguments than on ad captandum appeals to the jury; yet he could be pathetic and impressive in addressing himself to the feelings and the moral sense. He began life a decided federalist, but gradually separated from the party, supporting President Jefferson's war policy, and in 1812 going with the republicans in advocating a contest with England. But he never considered himself a member of the latter organization, and, on being nominated as the republican candidate for governor of Massachusetts, in 1816, a few weeks before his death, he published an address to the electors, declaring that he differed radically with that party. His name was not withdrawn, however, and he was defeated by a majority for his opponent of 2,000 out of 47,000 votes. In 1815 he was offered a special embassy to Spain by President Madison, but declined it. In 1813 he received the degree of LL. D. from Harvard. He was the first president of the first society formed in Massachusetts for the promotion of temperance, in which question he took great interest. He died of scarlet fever, in the prime of life, while visiting Athens, New York, to attend the wedding of his son. He was the author of the reply of the senate to the address of President Adams on the death of Washington, and published a “Letter on Freemasonry”; “Progress of Science,” a poem (1780); and “Speeches and Political Papers,” besides political pamphlets. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 161-162.


DIAMOND, Isaac M., New York City.  Manager and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.

(Abolitionist, Volume I, No. XII, December, 1833)


DICKEY, James H., born 1780, Virginia, clergyman, anti-slavery activist, freed slaves he had inherited, worked in Salem, Ohio, after 1810.

(Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, p. 91)


DICKEY, William, born South Carolina, clergyman, anti-slavery activist, Bloomington, Ohio, served for 40 years.

(Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, pp. 91, 135)


DICKINSON, Anna Elizabeth, 1842-1932, anti-slavery activist, African American rights activist, women’s rights activist, orator, lecturer, educator, Quaker.

(American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 235-237; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 6, p. 557; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 171-172)

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 171-172;

DICKINSON, Anna Elizabeth, orator, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 28 October, 1842. Her father died when she was two years old, leaving her in poverty, and she was educated in the free schools of the society of Friends, of which her parents were members. Her early days were a continuous struggle against adverse circumstances, but she read eagerly, devoting all her earnings to the purchase of books. She wrote an article on slavery for the “Liberator” when only fourteen years old, and made her first appearance as a public speaker in 1857, at meetings for discussion held by a body calling themselves “Progressive Friends,” chiefly interested in the anti-slavery movement. A sneering and insolent tirade against women, by a person prominent at these meetings, called from the spirited girl a withering reply, her maiden speech. From this time she spoke frequently, chiefly on temperance and slavery. She taught school in Berks county, Pennsylvania, in 1859-'60, and was employed in the U. S. mint in Philadelphia from April to December, 1861, but was dismissed for saying, in a speech in West Chester, that the battle of Ball's Bluff “was lost, not through ignorance and incompetence, but through the treason of the commanding general” (McClellan). She then made lecturing her profession, speaking chiefly on political subjects. William Lloyd Garrison heard one of her anti-slavery speeches in an annual meeting of the Progressive Friends, held at Kennett, Chester county, Pennsylvania, with great delight, and on his return to Boston spoke of the “girl orator” in such terms that she was invited to speak in the fraternity course at Music Hall, Boston, in 1862, and chose for her subject the “National Crisis.” From Boston she went to New Hampshire, at the request of the Republican state committee, to speak in the gubernatorial canvass, and thence was called to Connecticut. On election night a reception was tendered her at Hartford, and immediately thereafter she was invited to speak in Cooper institute by the Union League of New York, and shortly afterward in the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, by the Union League of that city. From this time to the end of the civil war she spoke on war issues. In the autumn of 1863 she was asked by the Republican state committee of Pennsylvania to speak throughout the coal regions in the canvass to re-elect Curtin, the male orators at the committee's command being afraid to trust themselves in a district that had recently been the scene of draft riots. Ohio offered her a large sum for her services, but she decided in favor of Pennsylvania. On 16 January, 1864, at the request of prominent senators and representatives, she spoke in the capitol at Washington, giving the proceeds, over $1,000, to the Freedmen's relief society. She also spoke in camps and hospitals, and did much in aid of the national cause. After this her addresses were made chiefly from the lyceum platform. On the termination of the war she spoke on “Reconstruction” and on “Woman's Work and Wages.” In 1869-'70, after a visit to Utah, she lectured on “Whited Sepulchres.” Later lectures, delivered in the northern and western states, were “Demagogues and Workingmen,” “Joan of Arc” and “Between us be Truth,” the last-named being delivered in 1873 in Pennsylvania and Missouri, where obnoxious bills on the social evil were before the legislatures. In 1876 Miss Dickinson, contrary to the advice of many of her friends, left the lecture platform for the stage, making her first appearance in a play of her own, entitled “A Crown of Thorns.” It was not favorably received by the critics, and Miss Dickinson afterward acted in Shakespeare's tragedies, still meeting with little success. “Aurelian” was written in 1878 for John McCullough, but was withdrawn by the author when the failing powers of the great tragedian made it apparent that he would be unable to appear in it. It has never been put upon the stage, but Miss Dickinson has given readings from it. She lectured on “Platform and Stage” in 1879, and in 1880 wrote “An American Girl” for Fanny Davenport, which was successful. Miss Dickinson's published works are “What Answer?” a novel (Boston, 1868); “A Paying Inied the doctrine afterward known as “popular sovereignty.” (See BUTTS, ISAAC.) Among the measures that have since been adopted, Mr. Dickinson earnestly advocated the free passage of weekly newspapers through the mails in the county where published. His conservative course in the senate not only secured him the vote of Virginia for the presidential nomination in the Democratic convention of 1852, but a strongly commendatory letter from Daniel Webster, 27 September, 1850, in which the writer asserted that Mr. Dickinson's “noble, able, manly, and patriotic conduct in support of the great measures” of that session had “entirely won his heart” and received his “highest regard.” In 1852 President Pierce nominated Mr. Dickinson for collector of the port of New York, and the nomination was confirmed by the senate; but the office was declined. At the beginning of the civil war in 1861, Mr. Dickinson threw all his influence on the side of the government regardless of party considerations, and for the first three years devoted himself to addressing public assemblages in New York, Pennsylvania, and the New England states. In 1861 he was nominated for attorney-general of his state, and was elected by 100,000 majority. He was nominated by President Lincoln to settle the northwestern boundary question, but declined, as he also did a nomination by Governor Fenton to fill a vacancy in the court of appeals of the state of New York. He subsequently accepted the office of district-attorney for the southern district of New York, and performed its duties almost till the day of his death. In the Republican national convention of 1864, when President Lincoln was renominated, Mr. Dickinson received 150 votes for the vice-presidential nomination. As a debater he was clear, profound, and logical, and not infrequently overwhelmed his opponents with scathing satire. His speeches were ornamented with classical allusions and delivered without apparent effort. Among his happiest efforts are said to have been his speech in the National democratic convention at Baltimore in 1852, in which, having received the vote of Virginia, he declined in favor of General Cass, and his eulogy of General Jackson in 1845. Mr. Dickinson's brother has published his “Life and Works” (2 vols., New York, 1867).  Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 171-172.


DICKINSON, James T., abolitionist, Norwich, Connecticut.  Manager, 1833-1834, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.

(Abolitionist, Volume I, No. XII, December, 1833)


DICKINSON, John, 1732-1808, founding father, statesman, political pamphleteer, U.S. Congressman from Delaware, opponent of slavery and slave trade.

(Appletons, 1888, Volume II, p. 173; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 3, Pt. 1, pp. 299-301; Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, pp. 40-41; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 6, p. 566). He was the author of “Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies” (Philadelphia, 1767; reprinted, with a preface by Dr. Franklin, London, 1768; French translation, Paris, 1769). In 1774 appeared his “Essay on the Constitutional Power of Great Britain over the Colonies in America.” In 1796 he received the degree of LL. D. from the College of New Jersey.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 3, Pt. 1, pp. 299-301:

DICKINSON, JOHN (November 8, 1732-February14, 1808), statesman, was the second son of Samuel Dickinson of Talbot County, Maryland, and his second wife, Mary Cadwalader of Philadelphia. In his boyhood, the family moved to a new estate near Dover, Delaware. There were a number of children and they were educated at home by a tutor. In 1750 John became a student in the law office of John Moland, one of the leading members of the Philadelphia bar. Three years later he went to London to continue his studies in the Middle Temple, remaining there until 1757 when he returnee! to Philadelphia and at once began the practise of law. Within five years he had risen to eminence and was arguing cases before the colonial supreme court. His interests, however, were historical and political rather than legal, and after the beginning of the Revolution he left the bar completely. In October 1760 he was elected to the Assembly of the Lower Counties (Delaware), and became speaker. Two years later he was elected representative from Philadelphia to the Pennsylvania legislature. The questions of the proprietary government, taxation, military service, representation, and the frontier were then being discussed with the greatest bitterness, and Dickinson and Franklin were opposing leaders. The former, who was always intensely conservative, adopted the unpopular side. In the great debate of 1764 he admitted all the evils of the proprietary system but feared that any change might bring worse, and that any royal government granted by a British ministry of that day would be still more dangerous. As a result, he lost his seat in the Assembly and was not reelected until 1770.

In 1765 he published a pamphlet, The Late Regulations Respecting the British Colonies .. . Considered. He believed that the only way to secure the repeal of the Sugar and Stamp acts was to enlist the English merchants on the American side by economic interest, and his argument was therefore devoted to showing the injury that would be done to the British mercantile interests by attempting to enforce the acts. His opposition to these acts and his knowledge of the subject resulted in his appointment by the legislature, October 1765, as one of the Pennsylvania delegates to the Stamp Act Congress at New York, and he was there called on to draft the resolution (Stille, post, pp. 339-40). Although one of the leaders of the opposition to the Stamp Act, he had also opposed all violent resistance, including even the non-use of stamps by lawyers.

Owing to the continued crisis between England and the colonies, the Non-Importation agreement was proposed in Boston in 1767. In December of that year, Dickinson began publishing anonymously in the Pennsylvania Chronicle the series later known in pamphlet form as Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies (1768). In these he pointed out the evils of the British policy, suggested force as an ultimate remedy, but stated a belief that conciliation was possible. The Letters, although very pacific in tone, showed wide knowledge both of the practical economics of the situation and of the broad legal principles underlying English liberty and created a deep impression here and abroad. He was thanked at a public meeting in Boston, given the degree of LL.D. by Princeton, and received other honors. In April 1768 he addressed a great meeting in Philadelphia and strongly urged the adoption of the Non-Importation and Non-Exportation agreement. In 1771, as a member of the legislature, he drafted the Petition to the King which was unanimously adopted. He was opposed, however, to the resort to force and because he condemned the more violent opinions and actions in New England he lost most of his popularity and influence there. In 1774, when Boston asked aid from the other colonies after her actions had precipitated a crisis, Dickinson refused to sanction anything other than friendly expressions of sympathy, as he felt she had destroyed the hope of conciliation. He became, however, chairman of the Philadelphia Committee of Correspondence. At the conference held in July to discuss the situation and consider appointing delegates to a Continental Congress, Dickinson drew up three papers which were unanimously adopted. They consisted of a series of resolutions stating the principles upon which the colonies based their claim to redress; instructions to the Congressional delegates to be chosen by the Assembly; and a treatise on the constitutional power of Great Britain to tax the colonies. These papers expressed the views of the more conservative patriots up to the time when all was thrown over on the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

In October 1774 Dickinson was a member of the Continental Congress, although for a week only, he believing he had been excluded up to that time by Galloway's influence. It was Dickinson, however, who drew up the Petition to the King, and the address to the people of Canada. On June 23, 1775, he was made chairman of a committee of safety and defense and held the post for a year, and he became colonel of the first battalion raised in Philadelphia. At the second Continental Congress, 1775, he still wished to adopt peaceful methods of settlement if possible and wrote the second Petition to the King, although he was engaged at the same time in strengthening the military resources of the colony. His action in drawing up the petition greatly angered the New England members. He also wrote the great part, if not all, of the " Declaration of the Causes of taking up Arms." In the Assembly, November 1775, he drafted the resolutions instructing the delegates to the Congress to meet in 1776, which asked them to use every possible means to gain redress of grievances but to countenance no measures looking toward separation. The general feeling in the country was changing and by the beginning of 1776 many began to believe separation the only solution of the problem. Dickinson and some of the other leaders still clung to conciliation.

In Congress, desirous of making one more peaceful effort and fearful of the results of a civil war without foreign allies and with no federal government binding the colonies together, he cast his vote against the Declaration of Independence. It should be noted that although he did what he believed to be his duty in this voting, yet when it came to fighting he and McKean were the only two members of Congress who took up arms in defense of the measures they had been advocating. He at once went with his regiment, as ordered, to Elizabethtown, but shortly afterward, when new members of Congress were elected and his name was rejected, he resigned his commission. Soon, for other causes, he resigned from the Assembly. In November he was elected to Congress from Delaware but declined to serve. In December, when the British neared Philadelphia, he retired to his estate in Delaware. Temporarily he appears to have served as a private in a special force raised in that colony which took part in the battle of Brandywine. In 1779 he was again elected to Congress from Delaware and took his seat. In the autumn he resigned but in 1781 was elected president of the Supreme Executive Council of Delaware. Returning to live in Philadelphia he was elected to the same office in Pennsylvania. At this time he was scurrilously attacked in a series of articles signed "Valerius," which he answered in his "Vindication," published in the Philadelphia Freeman's Journal, January-February 1783. In 1787 as a delegate from Delaware he became a member of the convention to frame the Federal Constitution, and took an active and useful part in its proceedings. In a series of letters signed "Fabius" he strongly urged the adoption of the new instrument. For the seventeen years which he lived afterward he held no public office, but continued an active interest in public affairs. In 1801 he published two volumes of his writings under the title, The Political Writings of John Dickinson, Esq., Late President of the State of Delaware and of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. These were republished in 1814. In 1895 P. L. Ford edited the first of what was to be a complete set, in three volumes, and it was published in that year as Volume XIV of the Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, with the title, The Writings of John Dickinson, Volume I, Political Writings 1764-74. The others have not appeared. Dickinson was married on July 19, 1770, to Mary Norris, daughter of Isaac Norris of Philadelphia. He died at Wilmington.

[The standard biography is that by C. J. Stille, The Life and Times of John Dickinson (1891), being Volume XIII of the Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. In 1882 G. H. Moore prepared a paper for the New York Historical Society Pubs., as John Dickinson, the Author of the Declaration on Taking up Arms in 1775 (1890), to prove that Dickinson wrote the whole of that Declaration, a part of which has been attributed to Jefferson.]

J. T. A.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, p. 173:

DICKINSON, John, publicist, born in Maryland, 13 November, 1732; died in Wilmington, Delaware, 14 February, 1808. He was the son of Samuel D. Dickinson, who removed to Delaware, became chief justice of the county of Kent, and died. 6 July, 1760, aged seventy-one. John studied law in Philadelphia, and subsequently passed three years in reading in the Temple in London. On his return he practised successfully in Philadelphia. His first appearances in public life were as a member of the Pennsylvania assembly in 1764, and of the Colonial congress convened in New York to oppose the stamp-act in 1765. In the latter year he began to write against the policy of the British government, and, being a member of the 1st Continental congress (1774), was the author of a series of state papers put forth by that body, which won for him a glowing tribute from Lord Chatham. Among them were the “Address to the Inhabitants of Quebec,” the first “Petition to the King,” the “Address to the Armies,” the second “Petition to the King,” and the “Address” to the several states. Of the first “Petition,” which has been credited to Lee, it has been said that “it will remain an imperishable monument to the glory of its author and of the assembly of which he was a member, so long as fervid and manly eloquence and chaste and elegant composition shall be appreciated.” In June, 1776, he opposed the adoption of the Declaration of Independence because he doubted the wisdom of the measure “without some prelusory trials of our strength,” and before the terms of the confederation were settled and foreign assistance made certain. When the question came to be voted upon, he absented himself intentionally, but proved that his patriotism was not inferior to that of those who differed with him, by enlisting as a private in the army and remaining until the end of his term of service. He served again as a private in the summer of 1777 in Delaware, and in October of the same year was commissioned as a brigadier-general. In April, 1779, he was elected to congress from Delaware, and in May wrote another “Address to the States.” In 1780 he was chosen a member of the Delaware assembly, and in the following year elected president of the state. From 1782 till 1785 he filled the same office in Pennsylvania, and served as a member of the convention that framed the Federal constitution. In 1788 he wrote nine letters over the signature of “Fabius,” urging the adoption of the constitution, and these were followed in 1797 by a series of fourteen, written to promote a friendly feeling toward France. In 1783 he was influentia1 in founding and largely endowed Dickinson college, Carlisle, Pennsylvania At this time he was living in Wilmington, Delaware, where he collected his political writings in 1801. The remaining seven years of his life were passed in retirement. Besides the writings mentioned, he was the author of “Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies” (Philadelphia, 1767; reprinted, with a preface by Dr. Franklin, London, 1768; French translation, Paris, 1769). In 1774 appeared his “Essay on the Constitutional Power of Great Britain over the Colonies in America.” In 1796 he received the degree of LL. D. from the College of New Jersey. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume II, pp. 173.

Biography from National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans:

To the successful prosecution of the war of independence, the power of the pen was almost as essential as that of the sword. To arouse and sustain a spirit of resistance; to give to the proclamations, addresses, and resolutions of congress a tone becoming the dignity of that body, and the destiny of the country, and to command the respect, and secure the support of the enlightened in Europe, required genius and cultivation of the highest order, and the most commanding influence. In this department of the patriotic contest, none surpassed the subject of this memoir.

JOHN DICKINSON was born in Maryland, on the 2d day of November, O. S., in the year 1732. Unlike many of his patriotic comrades, fortune smiled upon his early birth. The greatest advantages of youthful nurture and cultivation, formed a character admirably adapted to supply the deficiencies of many of his associates, whose loftiness of sentiment, and purity of patriotism, he was thus prepared efficiently to sustain. He was the eldest son by a second marriage of Samuel Dickinson, Esq., who, some years after his birth, removed to his estate near Dover, in Delaware, and filled the office of first judge of the court of common pleas. His mother, whose name was Mary Cadwalader, was a descendant from one of the earliest settlers of Pennsylvania. His father had sent his two eldest sons to England to be educated, but the deep affliction produced by their death in that kingdom, probably deterred him from continuing the practice, and accordingly JOHN imbibed the rudiments of knowledge in his native land. A domestic calamity may thus have been the cause of a course of education being abandoned, which might have implanted foreign doctrines in the mind, and dried up the fountain of patriotism from the breast, of the author of the Farmer’s Letters, and of the Petition of Congress to the King. Happily the American plant was not spoiled by being transplanted at too tender an age; and in its own native soil was permitted to acquire a matured growth and a firm structure. The late Chancellor Kilen, of Delaware, then a young man, was the tutor of JOHN, but how long he continued under his charge, and in what manner he completed his education, we have not been able to learn. The subsequent elevation of the preceptor, and the known proficiency of the pupil, in all the branches of knowledge essential to an accomplished scholar, are conclusive evidence of their qualifications and assiduity.

After having studied law under John Moland, Esq., of Philadelphia, he went to England, where he remained for three years at the Temple in London. On his return he established himself in the practice of the law in Philadelphia, where his abilities and acquirements procured for him eminent success.

His first appearance in public life was in the year 1764, as a member of the assembly of Pennsylvania. A controversy which existed between that assembly and the proprietors, founded on a claim by the latter to have their estates exempted from taxation, occasioned the first display of his abilities and eloquence as a statesman. A proposition having been made to petition the king for a change of the government of the province, Mr. DICKINSON, on the 24th of May, delivered an elaborate speech in opposition to it. Believing the measure to be fraught with rashness and danger, that the remedy bore no proportion to the existing evil, and that it was calculated to involve the province in a disastrous conflict with a superior power, he exerted himself to prevent its adoption. The aggressions of the British parliament, which finally involved the country in war, did not commence until the 24th of March of that year; but in this preliminary controversy, we can observe the cautious policy for which Mr. DICKINSON’S conduct was distinguished throughout his public career.

On the 11th of September, 1765, he was appointed a delegate to a general congress, which assembled at New York in October, and was the author of the resolutions of that body, promulgating their hostility to the measures of Great Britain, and the principles which they considered as inherent in their system of government, and to which they ever after strenuously adhered. During this year he commenced his compositions against the aggressions of England, which were continued with vigor and striking effect, until the close of the conflict.
 
The first production of his pen appears to have been a pamphlet published that year, entitled, “The Late Regulations respecting the British Colonies on the continent of America, considered in a Letter from a Gentleman in Philadelphia to his Friend in London,” in which, with great spirit and elegance of style, as well as force of argument, he exhibited the impolicy of the ministerial measures, both as they related to a profitable intercourse between the mother country and her colonies, and in reference to the discontents which would inevitably be produced by her illegal and oppressive exactions.

The committee of correspondence of the legislature of Barbadoes, in a letter to their agent in London, remonstrating against the English system of taxation, took occasion to compare their loyal submission “with the rebellious opposition given to authority by their fellow subjects in the northern colonies.” Mr. DICKINSON took fire at the ignominious epithet so contumeliously cast upon his countrymen, and, in an admirable letter addressed to the Barbadoes committee, printed with the signature of a North American, in 1766, repelled the accusation, and, with his usual force and animation, vindicated the conduct of his fellow citizens.

But the work which most extensively spread his reputation, was the celebrated Farmer’s Letters to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies, which were published in 1767, and consisted of twelve letters. Few productions have ever been attended with more signal effect, or procured for their author more extensive fame. His object in writing them was to arouse the attention of his country to the illegality of British taxation, and to the necessity of adopting rigorous measures to induce the mother country to retrace her steps of oppression. Distinguished for purity of diction and elegance of composition, they richly merit the applause which has been bestowed upon them. In a style of great vigor, animation, and simplicity, he portrayed the unconstitutionality of the conduct of Great Britain, the imminent peril to American liberty which existed, and the fatal consequences of a supine acquiescence in ministerial measures, more fatal as precedents than by the immediate calamities they were calculated to produce. The Farmer’s Letters were read with intense interest, and produced the effect not merely of enlightening the public mind, but of exciting the feelings of the people to a determination not to submit to the oppressive exactions of the mother country.

Avoiding all violence of expression and of doctrine, and repelling the idea of forcible opposition, they breathe a spirit of firm independence, an ardent love of liberty, and an unconquerable resolution to yield to any sacrifice rather than tamely submit to despotism. Mr. DICKINSON was reluctant to encourage acts of hostility to the mother country, and accordingly we find that peaceful opposition was all that he then contemplated. Although he subsequently united ardently in the military operations of the colonies, yet the principles which he inculcated in the Farmer’s Letters, of moderation in all the measures of opposition, seem to have followed him throughout the contest, and to have occasioned that opposition to the declaration of independence, which it will be proper hereafter more fully to describe. The idea of separation from the mother country was to him revolting, and he therefore urged his countrymen to a peaceful but firm resistance to the ambitious schemes of enlarging the power of Great Britain. He enlightened the public mind, aroused the feelings, and was finally carried forward by the current which he had so powerfully contributed to set in motion. An allusion to his principles seems necessary, fully to comprehend his character and the motives by which he was influenced. At all times active and energetic in his opposition to the measures of Great Britain, he did not unite in sentiment with the majority of his patriotic associates, in those daring measures which gave so decided a cast to the revolution. In enlightening the people, and in exciting their feelings, he was a prominent leader. It was only the boldest measures that he struggled to retard, but when once adopted, no man was more fearless or animated in urging them to a successful termination.

The author of the Farmer’s Letters received the most flattering commendations. At a meeting of the inhabitants of Boston, at Faneuil hall, it was resolved that the thanks of the town should be given to him, and Dr. Church, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Dr. Joseph Warren, the hero of Bunker Hill, and John Roe, were appointed a committee to prepare and publish a letter of thanks. A highly complimentary letter was accordingly published, in which, after paying a tribute of respect to the author, they say that, “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.” The answer of the Farmer was published in the Boston Gazette. An edition of the Letters was published in 1769, in Virginia, with a preface written by Richard Henry Lee, and in May, 1768, Dr. Franklin caused them to be republished in London, with a preface from his own elegant pen, urging them upon the attention of the public. In 1769, they were translated into French and published at Paris.

Mr. DICKINSON was, in 1774, a member of a committee from the several counties of Pennsylvania, convened for the purpose of giving to the assembly, by whom delegates to congress were to be chosen. He prepared a series of resolutions and a letter of instruction which, amidst the numerous acts of a similar description in the several colonies, attracted peculiar attention, by their precise and determinate manner, as well as by the merit of being the most formal and complete exposition of the rights of the colonies, and of their grievances, which had then been published. After having been reported by the committee without objection, they were so far modified as to separate the argumentative part from the rest, but the whole were ordered to be published,—the former as an “Essay on the Constitutional Power of Great Britain over the Colonies in America.” The committee unanimously agreed “that their thanks should be given from the chair to JOHN DICKINSON, for the great assistance they have received from the laudable application of his eminent abilities to the service of his country in the above performance.” In his reply to this tribute of respect, which was communicated to him formally from the chair, he very modestly observed,—“The mere accident of meeting with particular books, and conversing with particular men, led me into the train of sentiments, which the committee are pleased to think just; and others with the like opportunities of information would much better have deserved to receive the thanks they now generously give.”

Mr. DICKINSON took his seat in congress as a deputy from Pennsylvania, on the 17th of October, 1774, and immediately became engaged in the composition of the addresses of that body, which shed so much lustre on its proceedings, and now constitute no small portion of its fame. A dignified and elegant appeal to the inhabitants of Quebec, designed to enlist them in the common cause of the defence of their rights, emanated from his pen. But it was the petition to the king which won the highest admiration, on both sides of the Atlantic, and which will remain an imperishable monument to the glory of its author, and of the assembly of which he was a member, so long as fervid and manly eloquence, and chaste and elegant composition, shall be appreciated. Containing a clear exposition of the grounds of complaint, communicated in a respectful manner, it breathes a spirit of uncompromising freedom, and was calculated to strike deep into the heart, if any thing short of adulation could reach it, of him to whom it was addressed. However vain may have been the idea of awakening the king to a sense of the wrongs which, under his immaculate authority were committed, the eloquent composition of DICKINSON reached other hearts, and rallied to the support of the sacred cause in which he had so earnestly embarked, a host of advocates whose applause and benedictions cheered the votaries of freedom in the gloomiest hours of their tribulations. He was not originally a member of the committee appointed to perform the delicate and important duty of framing an address from an assembly, which professed to be composed of loyal subjects, to their distant monarch, but it consisted of Mr. Henry, Mr. Lee, J. Adams, Johnson, and Rutledge. It was appointed on the first of October, and Mr. DICKINSON’S enemies having succeeded in retarding his election to congress, he did not take his seat until the 17th. Mr. Henry actually prepared and reported an address which, not according with the views of congress, was recommitted, and Mr. DICKINSON was on the 21st added to the committee, and on the 24th reported the petition which was adopted. In patriotism Patrick Henry and JOHN DICKINSON resembled each other, but in many respects they bore the most decided contrast. Mr. Henry was an orator of incomparable powers; impetuous, undisciplined, and ready not only to support the boldest measures, but eager to rush onward in the revolutionary career, looking to nothing short of independence, and affecting no respect for a monarch whose authority he could not brook. Mr. DICKINSON, equally devoted to his country, looked with habitual respect upon the mother country and her king, and until the irrevocable step was taken by the declaration of independence, considered the restoration of harmony between the two countries, based upon the security of the rights of the colonies, as the consummation of sound policy and enlightened patriotism. With extensive stores of learning, and a highly polished intellect, were associated that caution, and perhaps hesitancy, which induced him to avoid rashness as one of the greatest errors that could be committed, and to deprecate the breaking of the ranks of peaceful opposition, by the chivalrous spirits, who, perhaps, stirred up by his own eloquent compositions, sounded in his ears the war-notes of revolution, as the only remedy for the grievances which he had so inimitably portrayed. Mr. Henry’s draught, besides being defective in point of composition, was filled with asperities which did not comport with th conciliatory disposition of congress.

As there was no deficiency of men prepared and anxious to press the revolutionary car on to its goal, it was fortunate for the country that congress possessed one man of the peculiar constitution of JOHN DICKINSON; for through his instrumentality, whilst they were rushing with a patriotic impetuousness into the midst of a sanguinary revolution, and their country was rapidly bursting its fetters and rising into national existence; their cause was invested with a dignity, moderation, and firmness; their motives were exhibited in a condition of purity; and the holy principles of civil liberty, which they were struggling to sustain, were promulgated to the world with a force and clearness, which commanded the respect of the civilized world, and have commended the conflict to the nations of the earth as an example which has been gazed at with admiration, and on several occasions followed with ardor.

With the view of making another effort to arrest the progress of oppression, Mr. DICKINSON urged the propriety of presenting a second petition to the king; but it was warmly opposed in congress as altogether futile; the determination to persist in error being as manifest as the discontent it had produced. The confidence he had inspired, and his deservedly great influence, enabled him, however, to accomplish his object; and the second petition to the king, written by him, ranks with its predecessor in usefulness to the cause, as well as in the peculiar merits of the composition. The highest encomiums were bestowed upon them, and it is believed that they powerfully contributed to draw upon congress the celebrated panegyric of Lord Chatham, in which, after alluding to the writings of antiquity, and the patriotism of Greece and Rome, he gave to that body a preference over the assemblies of the master states of the world. The literature of the revolution is a proud field for an American to contemplate. Filled with noble sentiments, lofty patriotism, untainted virtue, and a wisdom which seems to combine all that is essential for the protection of human freedom, there is a rich vein of eloquence irrigating the teeming soil, which the proudest and most cultivated nations of the earth might exult to call their own.

One of the most eloquent and soul-stirring productions of Mr. DICKINSON’S pen, was the declaration of congress of July 6th, 1775, setting forth the causes and necessity of their taking up arms, which was proclaimed at the head of the several divisions of the army. He appears, when writing this admirable composition, to have been excited to a pitch of enthusiasm, not surpassed by the most chivalrous of the revolutionary patriots; and to have uttered his eloquent invectives against despotism, with a spirit prophetic of the glorious result. “We are reduced,” said he, “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.”

Allusion has already been made to the conciliatory views of Mr. DICKINSON, and to his repugnance to a final separation from Great Britain. In producing a measure of the vast importance of the declaration of independence, it was to have been expected that a great difference of opinion respecting its propriety should exist. Accordingly we find that members of congress became converts to the measure at various periods, and that several whose patriotism was unquestionable, and whose opposition to the despotism of Great Britain had been distinguished by brilliant exertions and extensive sacrifices, refused to coöperate in its adoption. JOHN DICKINSON was the most conspicuous of them. Believing that it was at least premature; that the country was not prepared to sustain it; that it would interfere with foreign alliances, since nations hostile to Great Britain would not be likely to advocate the American cause, when their hostility to Great Britain was gratified by the severance of the British empire; and that dissensions might spring up among the colonies, unless some provision was made for the settlement of their controversies before “they lost sight of that tribunal, which had hitherto been the umpire of all their differences,” he exerted himself to retard its adoption. But it was in vain. His own eloquent compositions had sunk too deeply into the hearts of the people, and their feelings were aroused to too high a pitch of indignation at the conduct of Great Britain, to falter in their march to national independence. A majority of the Pennsylvania delegation were opposed to the declaration; but on the 4th of July, Mr. DICKINSON and another member, Mr. Morris, thought fit so far to withdraw their opposition, as, by their absence, to leave a majority of one in its favor. The vote of Pennsylvania was thus added to those of her sister states. The signatures of some of the members, who at the time had strenuously opposed it, were subsequently affixed to it, and are transmitted to posterity as contemporaneous participators in that act of daring intrepidity. But Mr. DICKINSON’S name has never been associated with it, nor does it appear that he ever recanted the opinion which he had expressed of its propriety, although he not merely acquiesced in it, but engaged with his accustomed zeal and assiduity in preparing and carrying into effect the measures necessary to sustain it. However much we may regret that his name is not enrolled on that instrument, which is now the pride and the boast of every American, it would not only be uncharitable, but it would be wantonly to dim the lustre of one of the brightest of the revolutionary luminaries, to suspect the purity of his motives, or to diminish the gratitude of the country to him. Party spirit at that period was powerful, and his enemies successfully assailed him. His reëlection to congress was defeated, and the public lost his services for about two years, on the theatre for which he was the best adapted. He soon, however, exhibited convincing evidence that his course with regard to the declaration of independence, did not proceed from a disposition to shield himself from danger, and that his patriotism was too ardent to be cooled by the frowns of his countrymen. He was actually at camp performing military duty, when the loss of his election to congress occurred. We have been able to glean but few particulars of his military services. It appears that he marched with his regiment to Elizabethtown to meet the enemy, and served as a private soldier in Captain Lewis’s company, when on a similar expedition to the Head of Elk. In October, 1777, he received from Mr. McKean, then president of Pennsylvania, a commission of brigadier-general; the duties of which he fulfilled in a satisfactory manner.

In, April, 1779, he was unanimously elected to congress, and resumed the performance of his legislative duties with his accustomed ardor and effect. In the month of May, he wrote the address of that body to the states, upon the situation of public affairs; a production distinguished by his usual felicity of composition and warmth of patriotic feeling. The condition of the country is vividly described, and the states are urged to exertion to rescue it from the abject situation to which a depreciated paper currency, a prodigality in the expenditure of the public money, and the exhaustion of war, had reduced it.

In 1780, he was elected to represent the county of Newcastle in the assembly of Delaware; and was in the same year, unanimously elected president of that state, by the two branches of the legislature. In 1782, he was elected president of the supreme executive council of Pennsylvania, which office he continued to fill until October, 1785.

It is natural to suppose that a man who was so deeply indebted to literature as Mr. DICKINSON, and whose life had been so sedulously devoted to the application of its inestimable riches to the service of his country, would not, amidst his numerous benefactions, overlook education, the main spring of republican greatness and stability. The act of assembly incorporating a college to be established in the borough of Carlisle, has happily perpetuated the remembrance of his munificent patronage of learning, as well as the public sense of his exalted merit. It declares that—“In memory of the great and important services rendered to his country by his excellency JOHN DICKINSON, Esq., president of the supreme executive council, and in commemoration of his very liberal donation to the institution, the said college shall be forever hereafter called and known by the name of Dickinson College.” The institution which was thus brought into existence under the auspices and by the liberality of this great man, is destined, it is hoped, to be a perpetual monument to his fame, and a perennial fountain of unadulterated knowledge and patriotism. Fortunately located near the centre of a powerful state, surrounded by ample resources for its sustenance, and accessible to all the means which give facility to education, its prosperous career is a fit subject for patriotic aspirations. Clouds, it is true, have occasionally darkened its prospects; but in the midst of its adversities, its fame, the advantages of its position, and the exertions of the friends of education, have twice raised it from a prostrate condition, and it bids fair to fulfil the benevolent and patriotic anticipations of its founder. In the selection of the locality of the institution, Mr. DICKINSON appears, as in all of his other public services, to have been actuated by disinterested motives, and to have looked beyond the present time to advance the permanent good of the community. Philadelphia had been, and Wilmington was destined to be, the place of his residence. Carlisle was out of the sphere of his movements and of his influence, but being the centre of a large and growing community, in bestowing his bounty and his services, he looked beyond the time and the space in which he lived.

The formation of a constitution for the United States, was a task to which Mr. DICKINSON’S extensive political knowledge, great abilities, and enlightened views, were peculiarly adapted. Having participated in the adoption of the articles of confederation, and had abundant experience of their numerous deficiencies, and of the total impracticability of preserving public honor, social order, or even national existence, with their contracted powers and feeble authority, Mr. DICKINSON met the convention of 1787, as a delegate from Delaware, with a clear conviction of the momentous duty assigned to him, and a firm determination to leave no effort untried to rescue the country from impending ruin. His exertions were not confined to the convention. The constitution, when submitted to the people for their ratification, met with violent, and in some quarters with unprincipled, opposition. Mr. DICKINSON published nine letters, with the signature of Fabius, in its defence. Although he did not enter into all the details of the plan reported by the convention, nor attempt that systematic vindication of it which was performed by the “Federalist,” yet the letters of Fabius are a valuable acquisition to our stock of constitutional literature, and present a conclusive chain of reasoning on many important topics which they discussed. He very properly disregarded the fear of consolidation from the operations of the federal government, and considered the guarantees of the states, furnished by the organization of the federal system, as entirely adequate to the protection of the rights of the states, and that the freedom of the people would be more likely to be placed in jeopardy by the weakness than by the strength of the federal authority.

In the year 1792, he was a member of the convention which formed the constitution of Delaware, and displayed his usual activity and abilities in the performance of all the duties which the occasion required.

In the year 1797, he published another series of letters bearing the signature of Fabius, which were occasioned by the special call of congress to meet on the 25th of March. His gratitude and predilection for France, are strongly depicted in them; and although they are more than usually discursive, they are replete with liberal and generous sentiments. He professed to write from the impulse of duty, but complains that “neither my time, nor my infirmities, will permit me to be attentive to style, arrangement, or the labors of consulting former publications.” Breathing an ardent desire for the extension of freedom, he seems to have viewed the exertions in France in its behalf, with admiration and high expectation; and to have looked upon the conduct of England with a jealous eye, as partaking of that description which he had devoted the prime of his life in combating.

Wilmington had been selected by him as the place of his residence, where, retired from the toil and anxieties of public life, enjoying an affluent fortune, surrounded by friends who loved him, and by books which, to him, were a constant source of consolation, he spent the concluding years of his life, dispensing among others the blessings which he enjoyed himself, and receiving in return the heartfelt tribute of popular veneration.

He was married on the 19th of July, 1770, to Mary Norris, only daughter of Isaac Norris, of Fair Hill, Philadelphia county, and had two daughters, who survive him.
 
He died on the 14th of February, 1808, at the age of seventy-five. Mr. DICKINSON deserves to be ranked among the most distinguished men of the age in which he lived. Whether we consider the extent of his participation in producing the revolutionary war, and in urging it to a prosperous termination, the steadiness of purpose which directed his path, the inflexible spirit with which he adhered to the cause amidst the numerous discouragements which beset his career, the lustre which his admirable compositions shed upon his country, his accomplishments as a scholar, the purity of his character, and elevation as an orator and statesman, an exalted station must be assigned to him in the highest rank of our most illustrious countrymen. It is, however, chiefly in his labors as an author, that his greatest merit consists. His writings are conspicuous for energy, perspicuity, and simplicity of style, and often rise to strains of impassioned eloquence. His principles were of the most liberal cast consistent with social order. His sentiments were as pure as they were exalted, and a rich vein of benevolent feeling pervades every production of his pen. His devotion to the cause of human freedom, teems in every page. Furnishing copious and exact information of many of the most prominent transactions of the revolution, and of the controversy in which it originated, in a style of unadulterated purity and elegance, his writings constitute a valuable portion of the literature of the country. We there hear the voice of the first congress, and see exhibited the fortitude and patriotism of the fathers of the republic.

Mr. DICKINSON was charged with advocating a timid policy, inconsistent with the spirit which became the great cause in which he had embarked, but nothing of the sort appears in his writings. Although he did orally advise congress to pursue a less daring course than that which was successfully adopted, when he wielded the pen, he invariably made congress speak in a manner that became its dignity, fearlessness, and exalted position, in the presence of the world and of after ages. Many of his views were peculiar. He had early acquired the opinion, that separation from England ought not to be sought after, but that the true object of pursuit was to coerce her to yield to the requisitions of freedom and of justice; and it clung to him throughout the contest. But he supported his associates in the execution of their most energetic measures, and devoted an undivided affection to the cause of his country, no matter by whom, nor in what manner directed. “Two rules I have laid down for myself throughout this contest,” said he on an important question in congress, in 1779, “to which I have constantly adhered, and still design to adhere. First, on all occasions where I am called upon, as a trustee for my countrymen, to deliberate on questions important to their happiness, disdaining all personal advantages to be derived from a suppression of my real sentiments, and defying all dangers to be risked by a declaration of them, openly to avow them; and secondly, after thus discharging 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.”
 
Having seen the patriot faithful to the end of his career, and undeviating in his course, the peculiarity of his opinions, at a critical conjuncture, should not affect the estimate which posterity should place upon his patriotism and public services. In private life he was conspicuous for the dignity and simplicity of his manners, the benevolence of his disposition, the purity of his morals, and his veneration for religion. His conversation was distinguished for its vivacity, and enriched by the extensive stores of knowledge which, in study and in active life, he had accumulated. His charities were as munificent as they were well directed, and displayed an exalted spirit of benevolence and patriotism. As an orator, his admirers assigned to him a high grade of excellence. If his tongue partook of the fluency and animation of his pen, he must have rivalled the eloquence of his contemporaries, whose oratory has been the theme of such exalted and well merited commendation.

He possessed the most delicate sense of honor, and cherished his character for integrity with the fondest regard; of which the following occurrence, with which we shall close this brief memoir, is a striking illustration, and also vindicates his title to one of his noblest productions. Chief Justice Marshall, in the first volume of his life of Washington, erroneously ascribed the address to the king to Mr. Lee. This produced a remonstrance from Mr. DICKINSON, who, in a letter to Dr. Logan, dated September 15, 1804, gives a detailed account of the proceedings of Congress, and fully vindicates his title to the authorship. The error was subsequently corrected by the chief justice. “I have said,” says Mr. DICKINSON, “that the chief justice has cast a reflection upon my character, and a very serious one it is, from whatever cause it has proceeded. The severity of the reflection arises from this circumstance. In the year 1800, two young printers applied to me for my consent to publish my political writings, from which they expected to derive some emolument. I gave my consent, and in the following year they published in this place, two octavo volumes as my political writings.

“This publication being made in the town where I reside, no person of understanding can doubt that I must be acquainted with the contents; of course I must be guilty of the greatest baseness if, for my credit, I knowingly permitted writings which I had not composed, to be publicly imputed to me, without a positive and public contradiction of the imputation. This contradiction I never made and never shall make, conscious, as I am, that every one of those writings was composed by me.

“The question whether I wrote the first petition to the king, is of little moment; but the question whether I have countenanced an opinion that I did write it, though in reality I did not, is to me of vast importance.”
T. A. B.

Source: National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, 1839, Volume 3.


DICKSON, John, abolitionist, W. Bloomfield, New York, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-37.


DICKSON, Reverend Moses, 1824-1901, free African American, anti-slavery leader, clergyman, activist, underground abolitionist.  Minister, African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church.  Founded Knights of Liberty in St. Louis, Missouri, 1846.

(Rodriguez, Junius P., Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2007, p. 50; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Volume 4, p. 2)



Sources:
Dictionary of American Biography, Volumes I-X, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volumes I-VI, Edited by James Grant Wilson & John Fiske, New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1888-1889.