DICKIN3. 216 DICKINSON. tliis country. He ]>ro;ulied in Virj;iiiia and North Ciirolinn, nnd in 1783 took cliar^'i' of the John Street t^'liureh in New York City. In 1789 he was stationed in Phihulelphia, and there es- tahlislied the 'Methodist Uook Cunecrn,' after- wards removed to Xevv York. Consult .Vtkinson, Ceiilciiuial History of Amcrivan }JitliotIism (New York, 1SS4). DICKINSON, A.NNA Eliz.iietii (1842—). An -Vnierican lecturer, author, and actress, bom in Pliiladelpliia. Left an orphan at the age of two. she received an elementary education in a IJuaker school^ and wlien but fourteen wrote for the Liberator an article on "Slavery." At sev- enteen she taught school in Bucks County. The next year she made her first speech at a nieetinj; of Progressive Friends in Pliiladelpliia. and there- after became jiromineiit for her ticrv addresses on total abstinence, abolition, politics, anil woman sufTragc. After a time she devoted her whole attention to lecturing and to the drama, writing A Crotrn of Thorns (1S70) and True to Urrsclf, and acting in these plays with only moderate success. .She also wrote What Ansirerf (ISGS), a novel; Mary Tudor and Aurelian. dramas; and .-l Rafifjrrl Ilcginter of People, Plaees, and Opinions (1870). DICKINSON, Daniel Stevens (1800G6). An American slatesniaii. horn in Goslien, Conn. He was admitted to the bar in 1828, was elected to the Senate of Xew Y'ork State in 1830, became Licutciiaiit-tiovcrnor in 1842. and at the expiration of his term of otfice in 1844 was ap- pointed by the Governor to a vacancy in the United States Senate. In 1861 he was elected Attorney-Oeiieral of Xew Y'ork, and in 180.5 was appointed District Attorney for the Southern District of the State. During the Civil War, regardless of parly affiliations, be actively sup- ported the cause of the Government. Mr. Dickin- son became widely known as an able debater, and for a time was the leader of the Democratic party in Xew York. Consult Dickinson's Life and llorAs (2 vols., Xew Y'ork, 1807). DICKINSON, Donald McDox.vld (184G— ). An American lawyer. He was horn at Port On- tario. N. Y'.. graduated at the University of Michigan in 1800. and was admitted to the bar in 18C7. He was Postmaster-General in ISSS-SO. chairman of the Xational Democratic Campaign Committee in 18(12. and senior counsel for the United States before the Bering Sea Claims Com- niissirin in 1800. DICKINSON, Emily (1830-86). An Ameri- can poet, born at .iiihcrst, ^lass. She lived t ficeliKled life, allowing her individuality the full- est development, and publishing almost nothing during her lifetime. She corresponded for many years with T. W. Higginson. and at her death he, with Mrs. Mabel T.ooniis Todd, edited a vol- ume entitled Porwn hy Emily Dirkinxon (1800), ■which attracted considcralile attention and was followed by another volume of poems, as well as by a volume of selected letters. In thought her introspective lyrics are striking if not impres- sive, hut their author was almost oblivious of the demands of form. DICKINSON, .Tonv (1732-1808). An Ameri- can si.itfsniiin and pulilicist. known as the 'Pen- man of the Hevolution.' He was bom in Talbot County, Md., but in 1740 removed with his father to Delaware. 11c began the study of the law in Philadelphia in 1750: entered the Middle Tciu- ple, London. Kngland. in 17o;i, and in 1757 began practice in Philadelphia. In 1700 he beeanic a member of the Delaware As.sembly, and in 1762 w.%s elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly, where he served with great distinction until 1705, and again from 1770 to 1770. He was also a member of the Stamp Act Congress, and from 1774 to 1770 of the Continental Congress; served for H time in the American Army, first as a private and afterwards as a brigadier-general in the Del- aware militia; was Governor of Delaware from 1781 to 17S2, and of Pennsylvania from 17S2 to 1785: and afterwards took a |iromiiicnt part in the debates of the Constitutional Coiivcntion of 1787, and in the discussions in Pennsylvania and Delaware over the ratification of the Constitu- tion. He is best known, however, as a writer of State papers and ]iamphlets, in which capacity up to 1776 he ranked foremost among his con- temporaries. Among the important State pajwrs which he drafted or wrote were the "Resolutions in relation to the Stamp Act." adopted by the Pennsylvania .ssciiibly in 1705; the "Declara- tion of Kights" and the "Petition to the King," adopted by the Stamji Act Congress; the "Essay on the Constitutional Power of Great Britain over the Colonies in America," adopted by the Pennsylvania Convention: the ".ddress of Con- gress to the Inhabitants of the Province of tjue- bec": the "Petition of Congress to the King"; the "Declaration by the I'nited Cidonics of Xorth America . . . Setting Forth the Causes and X'ecessity of Their Taking up Arms"; the ".rti- clcs of Confederation" (first draft): and the "Address of Congress to the Several States on the Present Situation of Affairs" (1770). In addi- tion, he wrote numerous pamphlets and news- paper articles, the most famous of which were the celebrated Farmer's Letters, published at Philadelphia in 1767. These 'letters' had a wide circulation and jiroducrd such an effect on both sides of the Atlantic that tlicir appcarame has been regarded as 'the most brilliant event in the literary history of the Kevolution.' Dickinson's influence waned after 177l> on account of bis op- position to the Declaration of Independence, which he refused to sign, but a series of jiapers written by liini in 1787-88. under the pseudonym 'Fabius.' wera widely read and contributed mui'li towanl inducing Pennsylvania and Delaware to ratify the Constitution. In the liti'raturc of the Revolution, says Ford, the editor of Dickinson's writings, he was as luccminent as Washington in the war, Franklin in diploniaey, and Morris in finance." His Writinys, edited by Paul L. Ford, were published, in part, at Philadelphia in 1805. Consult: Slillc. The Life and Times of John Diehinfion (Philadelphia, 1801), and an excellent estimate of Dickinson's literary work in Tyler. Literary Uislori/ of the Ameriean Rero- liitinn t N'cw York, 1807)". DICKINSON. .ToNATH.^N (1688-1747). An American clergyman. He was bom in Hatfield. Mass., and graduated at Yale in 1706. He was for thirty years a Presbyterian minister in Eliza- bethtown, X. .T.. and was long the leading Pres- byterian minister in the eoitntry. In 1746 be was elected president of the College of Xew,.Ter sey (now Princeton University). He wrote a number of theological works.
