Libraries of the Founders
Everyone loves the American Revolution. Radicals on both the left and the right see themselves as the true inheritors of the Declaration of Independence. The Articles of Confederation are more popular on the right, but everyone thinks that they are proper interpreters of the Constitution – even those who claim not to “interpret” it at all.
"Had there been such unanimity of opinion the American public would scarcely have taken so long to work out an acceptable governmental system. … Rather, I suggest, most Americans shared a common matrix of ideas and assumptions about government and society, about liberty and property, about politics and law."
"Had there been such unanimity of opinion the American public would scarcely have taken so long to work out an acceptable governmental system. … Rather, I suggest, most Americans shared a common matrix of ideas and assumptions about government and society, about liberty and property, about politics and law."
"Liberty is for everyone and the writers take a little of it with the facts, though not egregiously. It is true that John Adams insulted John Dickinson. It is not true that Benjamin Franklin was standing right there when Adams’s attempt at apology was rebuffed."
According to that narrative, one of the motivations for an American colonial postal service was the fact that the British were intercepting letters and publishing them in newspapers. That was how Dickinson found out about Adams's low opinion of him.
(See: http://www.masshist.org/publications/...
(Americans also intercepted British letters, of course - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelli...
Remember that the delegates to the Continental Congress were locked in so that none of their debate could become public. Even notes were forbidden, though note-taking did happen. It was not all bowing and scraping "my good sir"… In fact, probably very little of it was.
John Dickinson refused to sign the Declaration. For that, he was hounded by the revolutionary government of Pennsylvania, which actually ran from him, rather than confront him. "Dickinson traveled to Philadelphia to face the charges, but the Council of Safety, which exercised executive authority, avoided meeting with him."
http://dickinsonproject.rch.uky.edu/b...
Dickinson enlisted as private in the Delaware Militia (here:
http://www.history.army.mil/books/Rev.... He had previously been in command of a Philadelphia regiment and later was commissioned a brigadier general.