John Dickinson, The Penman of the Revolution

John Dickinson lived near this spot in Narberth, and his complicated relationship with American independence made him one of the most important, and most misunderstood, figures of the founding era. In the seventeen sixties and early seventies, his Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania made him the most widely read political writer in the colonies, arguing brilliantly against British taxation without representation. But when the Continental Congress moved toward declaring independence in seventeen seventy-six, Dickinson refused to vote for it.

He believed the colonies were not yet ready and that reconciliation was still possible. He was nearly ruined politically for that stand. Then he picked up a musket and served in the militia anyway, first as a brigadier general and later as a private.

After the war, as president of Pennsylvania's Supreme Executive Council and as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in seventeen eighty-seven, he became one of the Constitution's most effective advocates. He had opposed the break, then helped build what followed.