Degree Type
Honors Capstone Project
Date of Submission
Spring 5-1-2018
Capstone Advisor
Tessa Murphy
Capstone Major
History
Capstone College
Arts and Science
Audio/Visual Component
no
Capstone Prize Winner
no
Won Capstone Funding
no
Honors Categories
Social Sciences
Subject Categories
Arts and Humanities | History | United States History
Abstract
This research project intends to illuminate the impact of little-known United States founder John Dickinson through the research question lens of whether his military service during the American Revolutionary War affected his policies and philosophies as a government official. This was done through examining letters, speeches, and other primary sources prior to the war to establish a baseline framework of ideology for which to compare to after the war. Primary sources were then also used to describe Dickinson’s military experience and then also to check back upon the framework established prior to the war to see if anything had significantly changed post-war. The research uncovered that while some ideologies remained constant, Dickinson did appear to adjust his views on the role of the federal, state, and local governance leading to a shift in his mindset on local government right (also known as state rights). Due to the research on Dickinson’s war experiences, it was concluded that Dickinson’s military service certainly had a correlational impact on his ideological shift and could reasonably be argued that it was causal effect from his military involvement. This research exemplifies how military service can affect governing officials with influence in government affairs and in the process brought John Dickinson out of the shadows of United States history.
Recommended Citation
Franco, James, "John Dickinson: The Forgotten Patriot" (2018). Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All. 1231.
https://surface.syr.edu/honors_capstone/1231
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
