The Writings of John Dickinson (Revolutionary War)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1895. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... LETTERS OF A FARMER IN PENNSYLVANIA. BY JOHN DICKINSON. 1768. NOTE. No American political argument, at the date of the appearance of the "Farmer's Letters," had achieved such a marvelous popularity and success, and few writings of the same character have since then equalled it. It ran through the Colonies like wild fire, causing an enthusiasm which led Town Meetings, Societies, and Grand Juries to vote thanks to the author; which made him a toast at public dinners, and the subject of laudatory articles and poems in the press. In the earlier arguments against the taxation of the colonies, the plea of the injustice of "taxation without representation," if a popular cry, was only too easily answered by the frequent acquiescence of the colonies in such taxation, before the Stamp Act. All claims based on "natural rights" therefore were discredited by precedent, and the grounds taken by each writer varied according to the influences these opposing forces had with him personally. In this confusion of ideas, the Pennsylvania Farmer advanced his distinction, between taxation for the regulation of trade, and taxation for the purpose of revenue, and supplied common ground for all the Whigs to fight upon. At this day the distinction seems inadequate and fine spun, but to the men of the time, determined not to be taxed by any but themselves, yet loyal to England to a degree now almost incomprehensible, it was hailed with acclamation, as the one escape between taxation without representation, and independence. The American Whig view of the " Letters" is practically presented in the preface of the Virginia edition, and the English Whig view is well given in the notice in the Monthly Review, (ux, p. 18), which says: "We have, in the Letters now before us, a calm yet full inquir...