LAND GRANT SIGNED BY "PENMAN OF THE REVOLUTION" JOHN DICKINSON

Partly printed document completed in manuscript. Signed by John Dickinson. Cumberland County, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 26 August 1785. 1 page, 13 1/16 x 8 1/8 in. Docketing to verso. 

A land grant issued in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to Thomas Jacob, who is seeking to join 150 acres of land around his property for "Improvement." For these 150 acres, Jacob would pay "Ten Pounds per Hundred Acres, in Gold, Silver, Paper Money of this State, or Certificates." This grant was signed by founding father John Dickinson as the fifth president of Pennsylvania. 

John Dickinson was born in November 1732 on family's tobacco plantation in Maryland. At some point, his family moved to Philadelphia, where at the age of 18 Dickinson began studying law. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1757. Dickinson came to be known as the "Penman of the Revolution" thanks to his writing during the Revolutionary Period.

Ten years later, in protest to the Townshend Acts, Dickinson published Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, where he argued that British Parliament had the right to regulate commerce but couldn't levy duties for revenue. These letters became some of the most influential American political documents prior to the Revolutionary War. He was then selected as one of the delegates to the First and Second Continental Congress in 1774 and 1775 respectively. He was a proponent of reconciliation with the British rather than independence, arguing that the Declaration of Independence would only escalate the Revolutionary War. He absented himself from voting for independence and the wording of the formal declaration, as well as refused to sign the finished declaration. Because he didn't sign the Declaration of Independence, he left the Continental Congress and joined the Pennsylvania patriot militia, where he was given the rank of brigadier general and briefly led soldiers to defend against the British. 

Dickinson resigned his commission in December 1776 and went to stay in his home in Delaware, where he freed his enslaved individuals in 1777. Two years later, he was appointed to the Second Continental Congress again, this time as a delegate from Delaware. At this time, he signed the Articles of Confederation, which he authored during his term in the First Continental Congress. 

While still living in Delaware, he was elected its president and served a year from 1781-1782. When his term as Delaware's president ended, his term as Pennsylvania's president began, a role he held for just shy of three years. His most significant decision was his management of the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, where he refused to allow Congress to bring full military action against violent Pennsylvania veterans. 

Dickinson returned to Delaware after his Pennsylvania presidency term ended, where he was quickly appointed to represent the former state at the Annapolis Convention. He then served as a Delaware delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, where he supported a strong central government only after the Great Compromise was ironed out. Dickinson's name does appear on the Constitution, but it was not signed by him — a friend signed his name since Dickinson left early due to chronic illness. His last significant political act before his death in 1808 was helping to revise Delaware's Constitution. 

[American Revolutionary War, American Revolution, Founding Fathers, Declaration of Independence, Colonial America, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Monroe] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] 

Minor toning along old creases