This cut from Nathaniel Ames's Astronomical diary or Almanack, 1772, Boston, is inscribed "The Patriotic American Farmer, J-n D-k-ns-n, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, who with Attic Eloquence and Roman spirit hath asserted the liberties of the British Colonies in America." Cf. Scharf and Westcott's Philadelphia, i. 276.
C. W. Peale's portrait of Dickinson (1770) was engraved by I. B. Forrest. Cf. Catal. of Gallery of Penna. Hist. Soc. (1872), no. 161; Lossing's Field-Book, i. 476.
On Dickinson's influence, see "The great American essayist" in the Mag. of Amer. Hist., Feb., 1882, p. 117; Sept., 1883, p. 223; Read's Life of George Read, 49, 79; Wells's Adams, ii. 38; Quincy's Josiah Quincy, Jr., 104; Green's Hist. View, 370; Lossing's Field-Book, i. 476. Cf. letters of Dickinson in Mem. Hist. Boston, iii. 22; Lee's Life of A. Lee, ii. 293, 296, etc.
The most conspicuous presentation of the American side in 1768 were the famous Farmer's Letters, as they were usually called, of John Dickinson.[207]
Some of the most important of the documents of the Boston patriots were printed in London under the supervision of Thomas Hollis, long a devoted friend of the colonists.[208]
During 1768 and 1769 we find record of the workings of political sentiments in the colonies in abundant publications.[209]
The most important development in 1769 came from some letters which had been addressed by Governor Bernard and General Gage to the ministry, and to which, in the exercise of his rights as a member of Parliament, Alderman Beckford had obtained access and taken copies, subsequently delivered by him to Bollan, who transmitted them to Boston, where they were at once printed. From these letters the public learned of the urgency which the governor had used with the government to induce it to institute more stringent measures of repression.[210]
The publication of these letters led to the printing of An appeal to the world; or a vindication of the town of Boston, from many false and malicious aspersions contain'd in certain letters and memorials, written by Governor Bernard, General Gage [etc.]. Published by order of the town (Boston, 1769),[211] and induced also a letter to the Earl of Hillsborough.[212]
