Dickinson, John (1732-1808), one of the American founders. He was born in Talbot County, Maryland. A leading opponent of taxation imposed on the colonies by the British Parliament, Dickinson formulated the declaration of rights and grievances at the Stamp Act Congress (1765). Two years later, he published Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, in which he argued against the duties imposed by the Townshend Acts. Nonetheless, as a representative from Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress (1774-1776), Dickinson opposed any violent uprising against Great Britain. He fought in the American Revolution, however, and afterward represented Delaware at the Constitutional Convention (1787). In a series of letters signed "Fabius," he effectively urged the adoption of the United States Constitution, which he was instrumental in framing.