Jane Calvert argues that Dickinson (1732-1808), a decade before the more famous Founders of what became the United States — before Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and John Adams — ...

John Dickinson's contributions to the Constitution continue to reverberate today. ... the Articles of Confederation (1776). He also advocated women’s rights and was an abolitionist.

The Dickinson of “1776” smirks and dances, whereas the Dickinson of HBO’s 2008 “John Adams” miniseries scowls unhumorously. In both, he is the antihero, self-interested and short-sighted.