Dickinson

“ From the beginning of the troubles until some months after the first shedding of blood, in 1775, public opinion in America had set strongly in favour of making demand—even armed demand—for our political rights, but without any rupture of the colonial tie. It was, therefore, a period calling for clear and resolute statements of our claims, but with loyalty, urbanity, and tact. To be the chief literary exponent of such a period, John Dickinson was in every way fitted by talent, by temperament, by training. ”

“ The next morning, when the school filed in to Memorial for chapel, they beheld with rapture the uncanny figure suspended directly over the rostrum. In an instant the name was whispered over the benches—"Tabby." It was then a feat of the Dickinson House. Every Dickinsonian was questioned excitedly and professed the blankest ignorance, but with such an insistent air, that twenty were instantly credited with the deed. Then, with a common impulse, the school turned to watch the entrance of the faculty. ”

“ A bit farther, and the innkeeper calls attention to that quartette of shots, which took effect within the little circumference of a dollar piece. The stern pair behold these marvels unmoved; hair-trigger Overton merely shrugs his shoulders, while the General's lip curls contemptuously. Dead-shot Dickinson has thrown away his lead and powder if he hoped to shake these men of granite. Upon coming to the battle ground, the General and hair-trigger Overton avoid the Harrison tavern, which shelters the jovial Dickinson coterie, and put up at the inn of David Miller. ”

“ Dickinson was up with him and said, "Excuse me for stopping you, Mr. Graham, but I have come to apologize to your little girl for my anger to-day, which I find was very unreasonable. I was told, sir, before she came to my house, that she had been taught to be careful in a garden. I find she has been well taught in more important things. She is a noble child, sir. I shall ask her to appoint my gardener, and if she offer the place to her father I hope he will not refuse it, for I shall be pleased to have in my employment a man so well principled as I am sure he must be." ”

“ Pardon, reader, this most unseemly wandering from the illustrious subject of our present biography, the erudite Zerubbabel Dickinson. Now it was in the contemplation of this unique monument of baronial greatness,—it was in the collection and collocation of manuscripts relative to the identity of the several shoes,—it was in the array of the pedigrees110 of those in whose names they were put up,—it was in brushing away the rust (not from the shoes, for the discerning Dickinson would have adjudged him a pagan, of a verity, and no Christian, who dared to disturb a grain of it!) ”

“ Dickinson.
“She’s staying with Canon Wilton. She’s a thorough musician such as one seldom comes across. There’s a chance—I hope it materializes—of her taking—”
“Your tea is nearly cold, Henry.”
“Her name is Mrs. Dion Leith. If she really does come here we must be sure to—”
“Scones, Henry?”
Thus urged, Mr. Dickinson’s body for the moment took precedence of his soul.
Rosamund knew she was going to like Mr. Robertson as she liked very few people. ”

“ In 1892 she delivered a number of lectures. She has been under treatment for some time for failing health. Miss Dickinson in her younger days was a woman of singular powers of sarcasm, of judgment, of dissection of theories and motives, and of eloquence that can be understood only by those who have heard her on the platform. She has a strong, fine, intelligent face, self-possession, courage that enabled her to stand her ground when fired at by striking miners in Pennsylvania, and all the endowments of presence, voice, wit, pathos and intense dramatic fervor that go to make the great orator. ”

“ Furthermore, Fleming himself was a leader among the Fair Play settlers, and may have been aroused to action by the eloquence of Dickinson's expression. Every idea is an incitement to action and the ideas of Letters from a Farmer, which made Dickinson the chief American propagandist prior to Thomas Paine, reached into the frontier of the West Branch Valley. ”

“ As I understand that the Government do not think the Commanders serving in the Asia and Albion entitled to either of these Russian distinctions, I cannot but regret that Captain Dickinson should have been placed in this respect above those two officers; since I have every reason to approve (as I do most highly) of the conduct of Captain Baynes Captain Campbell, and have no reason to approve of the conduct of the Genoa, from the time of the command of her having devolved on Captain Dickinson. ”

“ And Phil read this:—
“Dear old Dick: Just a word to tell you of some kind of a scheme on foot to protest Dickinson. I got it from a junior who rooms in my entry, who got it from an old Hillbury man. They say that Dickinson ran in a race in Indiana last Fourth of July for a money prize, and they have posters to show that he was advertised to take part in the race. Is it so? If it is, he has buried himself for school and college athletics as deep as China. If it isn’t, you’ll have to disprove the charge fair and square, beyond the point where a doubt can be imagined, or they’ll shut him out. ”

“ Who would not change his proudest wreathes for thine,
In fame's fair fields such well-earned honours share,
And Dickinson confess unrivalled there! [1788]
[A] The Farmer's Letters, and others of his truly valuable writings.—Freneau's note.
[372] John Dickinson (1732-1808) , a lawyer in Philadelphia, and a member of the Colonial Congress of 1765 and of the Continental Congress of 1774, first came into wide prominence in 1767 through the publication of his series of papers entitled "Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies." ”

“ There did not live a more implacable and unforgiving man, when his wife was slandered, than Andrew Jackson.
Dickinson, who was a political rival, spoke slurringly of Mrs. Jackson. He apologized for it on the plea that he had been in his cups at the time, but Jackson never forgave him. A political difference as an ostensible cause of quarrel soon developed. Dickinson sent a challenge which was gladly accepted. The resulting duel was probably the most dramatic that ever occurred in the United States. Dickinson was a dead shot. ”

“ Jackson called on Dickinson and quickly took him to task. Dickinson apologized, said if he had used the words he was drunk and was sorry, and they separated in a friendly manner.
But Dickinson soon got into his cups again, and in the Nashville Inn used most offensive words concerning Mrs. Jackson. Jackson was always most cool and thoughtful in the closest places. This time he went to Captain Ervin and advised him to use his influence with his son-in-law to control his tongue, and added: “I wish no quarrel with him; he is being used by my enemies to pick a quarrel with me. ”

“ Dickinson was never quite satisfied with children, who either talked so loud that they made his head ache, or so low that he could not hear them, and if they walked out with him were certain to tread either on his feet or his flowers, he was always very careful that they should not get hurt when near him, and would often spend his money and give himself some trouble to gratify their wishes, if they were not unreasonable. ”

“ Tom replied. "I can lead you straight to Cranberry, but of course I can't tell what men we shall meet on the way. All I know is that General Dickinson has men out, just as you have."
"Never mind your 'General' Dickinson. I only wish we might have the good fortune to meet the rebel himself. You show us the way and we'll look after any of his men we may fall in with. All we want of you is to [184] show us the way. They won't be likely to be out on the road in the night." ”

“ Not only did those letters evince a zeal for decisive measure which made the writer an object of suspicion to the more conservative of his fellow-members of Congress, but his reference in one of them to 'the whims, the caprice, the vanity, the superstition, and the irritability of some of his colleagues,' and particularly to John Dickinson as 'a certain great fortune but trifling genius,' made him personal enemies by whom he was never forgiven. ”

“ That ‘the letter presented by Captain Dickinson to Sir Edward Codrington, purporting to come from the crew of the Genoa, and desiring that Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Codrington would appoint him in preference to any other officer to succeed Captain Bathurst, as Captain of the Genoa,’ appears to be a petition which was presented without any improper motive being imputable to Captain Dickinson; but in presenting which he was guilty of an impropriety for which he has already received the reproof of his commander-in-chief. ”

“ On the death of his father in 1869 Dickinson, who inherited a large fortune, was much occupied in the management of his property, and being in weak health he gave a less close attention to the business of the society than he had done. ”

“ He sha’n’t lay a hand upon you while me and my mates can pervent it—shall he, mates?”
“No, that he sha’n’t, bo’,” was the eager answer.
“No, he sha’n’t,” coincided Dickinson. “We can’t do much to help you, you see, sir,” he added, “’cause, worse luck, we don’t all think alike upon some things; but we’ve only got to say the word to the rest of the hands, and I knows as they won’t hear of you bein’ flogged. ”

“ He has not mingled extensively in political affairs since, but was upon the stump in the presidential campaigns of 1852 and 1856, in his own and some of the other States.
Mr. Dickinson possesses a strong constitution, land firm and uniform health. His habits are those of exact regularity and active industry. He is capable of great concentration of effort, and of endurance, and performs every day of his life, either at the courts, in his office, upon his grounds, or keeping up his extensive correspondence, a vast amount of labor. ”

“ On the whole, it is the form rather than the substance of the Letters from a Farmer that is most original. Dickinson wrote as a cultivated, prosperous gentleman, addressing an audience of intelligent, but plain, people the soil of whose minds had been already somewhat prepared. ”

“ It is impossible to explain this on the theory that Mr. Dickinson visualised the impression left upon his mind by Mr. Thompson, for Mr. Dickinson had never seen Mr. Thompson in his life. Neither could he have given apparent objectivity to a photograph which he might possibly have seen, although Mr. Dickinson asserts that he had never seen the photograph until it was brought him on the Saturday morning. If he had done so by any chance he would not have fitted his man with a top-coat and hat. It cannot, therefore, be regarded as a subjective hallucination ”

“ Miss Dickinson was born in Amherst, Mass., Dec. 10, 1830, and died there May 15, 1886. Her father, Hon. Edward Dickinson, was the leading lawyer of Amherst, and was treasurer of the well-known college there situated. It was his custom once a year to hold a large reception at his house, attended by all the families connected with the institution and by the leading people of the town. ”

“ Dickinson. We were very much pleased to see her and she was much pleased too. The first time that she came in the Philippine Islands from America and she is soprice (surprised) . We sang three songs and the National Anthem and waving our flags on the road. When we finished singing they clapped their hands. I gave her a bouquet of pink flowers. This we did it for our honour of Mrs. Dickinson not because she is more kind or lovely lady but because she is the wife of Mr. Dickinson. This Secretary of War is the leader of those who have authorities. He is responsible of them. ”

“ While still a young man he published a book under the title of 'Delphi Phoenicizantes,' Oxford, 1665, in which he attempted to prove that the Greeks borrowed the story of the 'Pythian Apollo' from the Hebrew scriptures. Anthony à Wood says that Henry Jacob, and not Dickinson, was the author of this book. This was followed by 'Diatriba de Noae in Italiam Adventu,' Oxford, 1655. In maturer age Dickinson published his notions of alchemy, in which he seems to have believed, in 'Epistola ad T. Mundanum de Quintessentia Philosophorum,' Oxford. ”

“ Dickinson, Galloway, Nixon, Powell, and Cadwalader, the latter family being, like the Ingersolls, Montgomerys, Sergeants, Tilghmans, Wisters, and Markoes, among later arrivals in Philadelphia from other States or from abroad. Margaret Cadwalader married Samuel Meredith, first Treasurer of the United States, while her elder sister Polly became the wife of Philemon Dickinson, from Crosia-doré, Maryland, a brother of John Dickinson, himself distinguished as a soldier and statesman, while General John Cadwalader carried off one of the Meschianza belles, Miss Williamina Bond. ”

“ In our happiest moments, our moments of utmost exaltation, it is always thus:—when earth most nearly approaches the beatitudes of heaven, and the spirit stretches forward with a vain longing for the far off, which seems but a little way beyond; the unattained and dim, which for a space come near.
"Darling!" said Surrey softly, "does it not seem easy now to die?"
"Yes, Willie," she whispered, "I feel as though it would be stepping over a very little stream to some new and beautiful shore." ”