Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania is a series of essays written by Pennsylvania lawyer and legislator John Dickinson (1732–1808) and published under the pseudonym "A Farmer" from 1767 to 1768. The twelve letters were widely read and reprinted throughout the Thirteen Colonies, and were important in uniting the colonists against the Townshend Acts in the run-up to the American Revolution. According to many historians, the impact of the Letters on the colonies was unmatched until the publication of Thomas Paine's Common Sense in 1776. The success of the letters earned Dickinson considerable fame.
The twelve letters are written in the voice of a fictional farmer, who is described as modest but learned, an American Cincinnatus, and the text is laid out in a highly organized pattern "along the lines of ancient rhetoric". The letters laid out a clear constitutional argument, that the British Parliament had the authority to regulate colonial trade but not to raise revenue from the colonies. This view became the basis for subsequent colonial opposition to the Townshend Acts, and was influential in the development of colonial thinking about the relationship with Britain.
The letters are noted for their mild tone, and urged the colonists to seek redress within the British constitutional system. The character of "the farmer", a persona built on English pastoral writings whose style American writers before Dickinson also adopted, gained a reputation independent of Dickinson, and became a symbol of moral virtue, employed in many subsequent American political writings.
Contents
Background
In the 1760s, the constitutional framework binding Britain and its colonies was poorly defined. Many in Britain believed that all sovereignty in the British Empire was concentrated in the British Parliament. This view was captured by Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, which stated that "there is and must be in all [forms of government] a supreme, irresistible, absolute, uncontrolled authority, in which the jura summi imperii, or the rights of sovereignty, reside". In practice, however, the colonies and their individual legislatures had historically enjoyed significant autonomy, particularly in taxation. In the aftermath of the British victory over France in the Seven Years' War, in 1763, Britain decided to permanently station troops in North America and the West Indies. Having a specie-based currency, facing a large national debt and opposition to additional taxes in England, British officials looked to their North American colonies to enable financing the upkeep of these troops.
The passage of the Stamp Act of 1765, a tax on various printed materials in the colonies, ignited a dispute over the authority of the British Parliament to levy internal taxes on its colonies. The Stamp Act faced opposition from American colonists, who initiated a movement to boycott British goods, from British merchants affected by the boycott, and from some Whig politicians in Parliament—notably William Pitt. In 1766, under the leadership of a new ministry, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act. However, Parliament at the same time passed the Declaratory Act, which affirmed its authority to tax the colonies. In 1767, Parliament imposed import duties—remembered as the Townshend Acts—on a range of goods imported by the colonies. These duties reignited the debate over parliamentary authority.
John Dickinson, a wealthy Philadelphia lawyer and member of the Pennsylvania assembly, took part in the Stamp Act Congress in 1765, and drafted the Declaration of Rights and Grievances. In 1767, following the passage of the Townshend Acts, Dickinson set out in his pseudonymous Letters to clarify the constitutional question of Parliament's authority to tax the colonies, and to urge the colonists to take moderate action in order to oppose the Townshend Acts. The Letters were first published in the Pennsylvania Chronicle, and then reprinted in most newspapers throughout the colonies. The Letters were also reprinted in London, with a preface written by Benjamin Franklin, and in Paris and Dublin.
The Letters
Dickinson had little to do with farming by 1767. The first letter introduces the author as "a farmer settled after a variety of fortunes, near the banks of the river Delaware, in the province of Pennsylvania." In order to explain to the reader how he has acquired "a greater share of knowledge in history, and the laws and constitution of my country, than is generally attained by men of my class," the author informs the reader that he spends most of his time in the library of his small estate. The author then turns to a discussion of the brewing crisis between the British Parliament and the colonies.
While acknowledging the power of Parliament in matters concerning the whole British Empire, Dickinson argued that the colonies retained the sovereign right to tax themselves. British officials, partially on the advice of Benjamin Franklin, believed that while American colonists would not accept "internal" taxes levied by Parliament, such as those in the Stamp Act, they would accept "external" taxes, such as import duties. However, Dickinson argued that any taxes—whether "internal" or "external"—laid upon the colonies by Parliament for the purpose of raising revenue, rather than regulating trade, were unconstitutional. Dickinson argued that the Townshend Acts, though nominally import duties and therefore "external" taxes, were nevertheless intended to raise revenue, rather than to regulate trade.
This argument implied that sovereignty in the British Empire was divided, with Parliament's power limited in certain spheres (such as taxation of the colonies), and with lesser bodies, such as colonial assemblies, exercising sovereign powers in other spheres. Dickinson further differentiated between the powers of Parliament and the Crown, with the Crown—but not Parliament—having the power to repeal colonial legislation and to wield executive authority in the colonies. These views were a significant departure from prevailing British views on sovereignty as a central, indivisible power, and they implied that the British Empire did not function as a unitary nation. They were consistent with several English constitutions, especially the 1689 Bill of Rights. After the publication of Dickinson's Letters, American colonists' views on the constitutional order in the British Empire rapidly changed, and were marked by an increasing rejection of Parliamentary power over the colonies.
Though the tax burden imposed by the Townshend Acts on the colonies was small, Dickinson argued that the duties were meant to establish the principle that Parliament could tax the colonies. Dickinson argued that in the aftermath of the Stamp Act crisis, Parliament was again testing the colonists' disposition. Dickinson warned that once Parliament's right to levy taxes on the colonies was established and accepted by the colonists, much larger impositions would follow:
Literary style
In contrast to much of the rhetoric of the time, the letters were written in a mild tone. Dickinson urged his fellow colonists, "Let us behave like dutiful children who have received unmerited blows from a beloved parent." In the judgment of historian Robert Middlekauff, Dickinson "informed men's minds as to the constitutional issues but left their passions unmoved."
The style of Dickinson's Letters is often contrasted with that of Thomas Paine's Common Sense. In the view of historian Pierre Marambaud, the contrast between "Dickinson's restrained argumentation with Paine's impassioned polemics" reflects the deepening of the conflict between Britain and the colonies—as well as the divergence of political views within the colonies—in the years separating the writing of the two works. A. Owen Aldridge compares Dickinson's style to that of the English essayist Joseph Addison, and Paine's style to that of Jonathan Swift. Aldridge also notes the more pragmatic and less philosophical emphasis of Dickinson's Letters, which are less concerned with basic principles of government and society than Paine's Common Sense, and instead focus more on immediate political concerns. Aldridge compares the character of "the farmer," who contemplates politics, law and history in his countryside library, to the political philosopher Montesquieu.
The classical themes in the Letters—common in political writings of the time—are often commented on. Dickinson quotes liberally from classical writers, such as Plutarch, Tacitus and Sallust, and draws frequent parallels between the situation facing the colonies and classical history. The second letter, for example, compares Carthage's use of import duties on grains in order to extract revenues from Sardinia to Britain's use of duties to raise revenues in its colonies. Each of the twelve letters ends with a Latin epigram intended to capture the central message to the reader, much as in Addison's essays in The Spectator. The final letter concludes with an excerpt from Memmius' speech in Sallust's Jugurthine War:
Certe ego libertatem, quae mihi a parente meo tradita est, experiar; verum id frustra an ob rem faciam, in vestra manusitum est, quirites.
"For my part, I am resolved strenuously to contend for the liberty delivered down to me from my ancestors; but whether I shall do this effectually or not, depends on you, my countrymen."
Reception
Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania had a large impact on thinking in the colonies. Between 2 December 1767 and 27 January 1768, the letters began to be published in 19 of the 23 English-language newspapers in the colonies, with the last of the letters appearing in February through April 1768. The letters were subsequently published in seven American pamphlet editions. The letters were also republished in Europe – in London, Dublin and Paris. The letters likely reached a larger audience than any previous political writings in the colonies, and were unsurpassed in circulation until the publication of Paine's Common Sense in 1776.
Prior to the publication of the letters, there had been little discussion of the Townshend Acts in most of the colonies. Dickinson's central constitutional theory was that Parliament had the right to regulate trade, but not to raise revenue from the colonies. Dickinson was not the first to raise the regulation–revenue distinction; he drew on arguments that Daniel Dulany had made during the Stamp Act Crisis in his popular pamphlet, Considerations on the Propriety of Imposing Taxes in the British Colonies. However, Dickinson expressed the theory more clearly than his predecessors, and this constitutional interpretation quickly became widespread throughout the colonies, forming the basis for many protests against the Townshend Acts. Nevertheless, Dickinson's interpretation was not universally accepted. Benjamin Franklin, then living in London, wrote of the practical difficulty of distinguishing between regulation and revenue-raising, and criticized what he called the "middle doctrine" of sovereignty. Writing to his son William, then Royal Governor of New Jersey, Franklin expressed his belief that "Parliament has a power to make all laws for us, or [...] it has a power to make no laws for us; and I think the arguments for the latter more numerous and weighty than those for the former". Thomas Jefferson later described the doctrine of partial parliamentary sovereignty over the colonies as "the half-way house of Dickinson". Franklin nevertheless arranged for the letters to be published in London on 1 June 1768, and informed the English public that Dickinson's views were generally held by Americans.
The wide circulation of the Letters was, in part, due to the efforts of Whig printers and political figures in the colonies. Dickinson sent the letters to James Otis Jr., who had them published in the Boston Gazette, which was affiliated with the Sons of Liberty. Dickinson's connections with political leaders throughout the colonies, including Richard Henry Lee in Virginia and Christopher Gadsden of South Carolina, helped ensure the wide publication of his letters. Popular pressure was also brought to bear on printers in Boston, Philadelphia and elsewhere to print the letters, and to refrain from printing rebuttals.