John Dickenson's Books

The Complete Writings and Selected Correspondence of John Dickinson

Volume 2

By: John Dickinson

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The Complete Writings and Selected Correspondence of John Dickinson

Volume 2

By: John Dickinson

John Dickinson’s entry into public life in Delaware and Pennsylvania is a highlight of the ninety-eight documents written over four years printed in Volume Two of The Complete Writings and Selected Correspondence of John Dickinson. The volume opens with Dickinson’s legal notes as he established himself as one of the most prominent and learned lawyers in colonial British North America. His cases dealt with, among other issues, interpretation of wills, disputes over land, sailors suing for wages, a fine on a Quaker who refused military service, and a notorious murder in a prominent Philadelphia family. It concludes with Dickinson offering thoughtful advice to a young man who was considering the arduous work in becoming a lawyer. “I think,” he wrote, “those must be infinitely the most happy, whose fatigues are softend by a conscious Benevolence of mind wishing & endeavouring to [pro]mote the Happiness of others as well as their own.” Dickinson’s hard work on behalf of his clients brought him success in other areas of his public life. In October 1759, he was elected to his first public position as a representative for Kent County, Del., the following year he was elevated to the position of speaker, and in 1762, he became a representative for Philadelphia County, Pa. As a legislator in two colonies, learning his craft as a global war unfolded, he contributed to bills on military and defense, Indian relations, infrastructure improvements and city management, and served on various committees. The death of George II occasioned debates over laws and judges, in which Dickinson participated. This era concludes with Dickinson playing a central role in managing the unfolding Paxton Riots, in which frontiersmen massacred peaceful Indians and threatened the Quaker leadership of Pennsylvania. In private, Dickinson lost the two most prominent male figures in his life in 1760, his father, Samuel, and soon thereafter, his mentor, colleague, and friend, John Moland. In honor of Moland, Dickinson published a poem and became a proxy head to Moland’s large family. Though his extant correspondence during this period is small, he exchanged letters with Mary Cadwalader Dickinson, Israel Pemberton, William Allason, George Read, Thomas McKean, and others. Perhaps most significant, he wrote a lengthy, unpublished essay on the flag-of-truce trade and also maintained commonplace books as he considered his place within the British Empire, opening up the next phase in Dickinson’s life as a leader of the resistance against Britain. Published by the University of Delaware Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.

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491

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Rutgers University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

164453181X

ISBN 13

9781644531815

I Cannot Forget

Imprisoned in Korea, Accused at Home

By: Judith Fenner Gentry,John Wilson Moore

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I Cannot Forget

Imprisoned in Korea, Accused at Home

By: Judith Fenner Gentry,John Wilson Moore

Eighteen-year-old Johnny Moore was an energetic, self-confident private first class when he entered combat with a heavy-weapons platoon in Korea. Four and a half months later, after surviving heavy attacks on the Pusan Perimeter and in one of the forward units of the western column advancing on the Yalu River, he was captured by the Chinese infantry. Moore and other American POWs suffered from starvation rations, bitter cold, and mental torment. Although the intense Chinese efforts to change the prisoners’ ideologies were largely unsuccessful, they were very effective in engendering distrust among the prisoners and abandonment of duty by the officers. Encouraged by an American sergeant, Moore worked with his captors to obtain better sanitation, a fairer distribution of food, and, on two occasions, medicine for the sick. Twice he tried to escape from imprisonment. Just four days after his twenty-first birthday, in 1953, the Chinese released him. Moore cooperated fully with US military interrogators, giving as much information as he could on the prison camp and the methods his captors had used. But two years later, army officers arrested him at his home and charged him with treason. Although the charge was dropped and a Field Board of Inquiry returned him to regular duty, the army’s treatment of him left Moore further traumatized. He eventually went AWOL and turned to drinking, gambling, and other self-destructive behaviors. Military historian Judith Fenner Gentry has worked with Moore’s memoirs of his experiences during and after the war to corroborate, clarify, elaborate, and situate his story within the larger events in Korea and in the Cold War. She has consulted records from courts-martial, newspaper interviews with returning POWs, and Freedom of Information Act documents on the Army Criminal Investigation Division and the Army Counter-Intelligence Corps.

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475

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Texas A&M University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

162349009X

ISBN 13

9781623490096

Lives of the President of the United States of America, from Washington to the present time.

By: John S.C. Abbott

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Lives of the President of the United States of America, from Washington to the present time.

By: John S.C. Abbott

Reprint of the original, first published in 1867.

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498

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BoD – Books on Demand

Published Date

ISBN 10

3752568011

ISBN 13

9783752568011

Assault at West Point, The Court Martial of Johnson Whittaker

By: John Marszalek

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Assault at West Point, The Court Martial of Johnson Whittaker

By: John Marszalek

A dramatic account of one of the most momentous trials in American history. Set in the 1880s, this riveting story focuses on Whittaker, a former slave who became the third black man to enter West Point. Like his two predecessors, he was ostracized for the entire three years of his training. One morning Whittaker didn't show up for drill. He was found in his room, unconscious, tied tightly to the bed, with blood streaming from his head. In a trial that received major attention from the press, Whittaker was accused of faking the crime to get sympathy from the public and from his professors. Author Marszalek weaves his rich narrative from historical records to tell how Whittaker sought justice against all odds.

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